Books

Downfall (Oblom) by historian, writer and military analyst Viktor Suvorov, forms the second part of the trilogy “Chronicles of the Great Decade” recreating the events of 1956-1957, when Nikita Khrushchev with the support of Marshal Zhukov toppled Stalin’s former closest companions-in-arms, yet who, it is claimed, at the same time prepared a military coup to topple Khrushchev and seize power in the country. Combining famous and little-known facts into a single mosaic, Downfall (Oblom) tells the story of the struggle for power in the leadership of the Soviet Union, of the disclosure of Marshal Zhukov’s conspiracy through a chain of accidents and of the complicated undercover operation to isolate Zhukov and remove him from power. 

Relating how the system of governance of the country altered after the abolition of the Stalinist practice of systematic violent change of the ruling elite, Viktor Suvorov explains how a new generation of young Communist party leaders, who replaced Khrushchev at the helm in a few years, provided an alternative scenario of development of the USSR, to that which Zhukov was preparing to implement. Suvorov argues why Khrushchev, who made many mistakes, nevertheless deserves to be recognised for saving the country and the whole world from Marshal Georgy Zhukov. 

The book contains over 60 photographs, including rare images from foreign archives, which are being published in Russia for the first time.  The trilogy includes: Book 1 - Tatyana Was Her Name; Book 2 - Downfall (Oblom); Book 3 - We Will Bury You (‘Kuz’kina Mat)