No one clearly explained to me, if this was so, how Litvinov survived (he was an "Old Bolshevik"; they mentioned some links with Alexandra Kollentai and, I gather those were the only 2 "Old Bolsheviks" to have lived). I haven't been in a position to confirm any of the Litvinov stories but I suspect it might prove to be an profitable line of archival research.
Paul
At 05:48 PM 2/20/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 07:24:57 -0800 (PST), Chris Doss
><lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > I'm reading of bio of Beria, and the author makes a
> > lot of ado about "Beria's perestroika," as Lavrentii
> > Pavlovich's economic and political reforms after the
> > death of Stalin are known in Russia. Does anybody
> > (Justin?) know of any good sources on that period?
> >
> > BTW anybody read Beria Jr's book on his dad?
>
>"Sto sorok besed s Molotovym" goes over this period, from Molotov's
>perspective. I read a version of it edited and translated to English
>by a conservative publisher called "Molotov Remembers". I have a
>feeling there was a heavy hand in editing and chosen word
>translations, but Molotov's perspective still comes through somewhat
>(although some passages in this English translation I'm suspicious of
>- Chuev asks him what happened to Lenin's "All Power to the Soviets"
>promise and Molotov supposedly responds "it's best for power to rest
>in one pair of hands").
>
> >From what I recall, Molotov talks about the circumstances of Stalin's
>death, talks about how Beria started kissing up to members of the
>Politburo and tried to ingratiate himself with them. Then Molotov
>went to Khrushchev and said he thought Beria should be executed, and
>Khrushchev agreed, so Zhukov arrested him and that was that.
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