Chapter 12 Summary

The Hungarian bloodbath deepens Khrushchev's self-doubts, and begins mentioning his age at times of crisis. Unrest had been building inside the Soviet Union since the Twentieth Congress, and events in Poland and Hungary are hailed as anticipatory to a fourth Russian revolution. Though active protestors are still rare, the Central Committee panics. Brezhnev is put in charge of a committee tasked with restoring the "dictatorship of the proletariat." Hundreds of protestors are sentenced to prison camps in 1957 for counterrevolutionary crimes - just before Khrushchev boasts to the world the USSR holds no political prisoners. The Virgin Lands produce a record harvest, and Khrushchev begins a non-stop tour of the agricultural lands, passing out medals and reminding leaders he is their man, rather than Malenkov or Molotov.

Khrushchev aims to restructure industrial management, overtake American agriculture, and win over the artistic intelligentsia. Khrushchev recommends...