📖 SIGNED Sergei Khrushchev: Nikita & Superpower Creation 🚀 Sputnik anniversary
$ 18.35
Description
📖 SIGNED Sergei Khrushchev: Nikita & Superpower Creation 🚀 Sputnik anniversary. Best of all, it is warmly inscribed and signed by the author himself on the title-page spread in bold black marker: “To Terry / Sergei Khrushchev / Oct 4, 2007.”. That date?. He likely signed this copy right there. Imagine holding a piece of Cold War history that literally carries the echo of Sputnik’s 50th anniversary. This is Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower by Sergei N. Khrushchev (Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA, ISBN 9780271021706, copyright 2000, stated Third Printing 2003). The 9.25" x 6" trade paperback spans a hefty 783 pages with two generous black-and-white photo sections that bring the era to life—missile tests, Kremlin meetings, and the birth of the Soviet space program. Best of all, it is warmly inscribed and signed by the author himself on the title-page spread in bold black marker: “To Terry / Sergei Khrushchev / Oct 4, 2007.” That date? Exactly fifty years to the day since Sputnik 1 roared into orbit—the very event that shocked the West and proved Nikita Khrushchev’s superpower vision. Sergei, who had been a key rocket engineer under his father, was in Chicago that evening delivering a panel discussion on the Sputnik legacy at Northwestern University’s Thorne Auditorium, hosted by the Adler Planetarium. He likely signed this copy right there. A Chicago suburban estate sale, held for a former high school astronomy teacher who also was a collector of space memorabilia, later delivered it into fresh hands—untouched by library stamps or stickers. Condition: Very Good or better. The book appears unread: pages bright white, corners and edges sharp, text block clean except for one minor 1/16" tear and a small scuff/scratch with a couple of faint dots at the top edge (no other stains, no foxing). Binding remains tight with zero spine creases—remarkable for such a thick volume. Covers are bright and unmarred, like new. Photos in the listing show every detail. Sergei N. Khrushchev—rocket scientist, eyewitness to history, and later Senior Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute—spent decades distilling his father’s private conversations, declassified documents, and personal archives into this definitive insider account. With a thoughtful foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer William Taubman (author of the landmark Khrushchev: The Man and His Era), the book traces how Nikita transformed a war-ravaged nation into a nuclear and space superpower. You’ll follow the de-Stalinization thaw, the Berlin crises, the Cuban Missile showdown, and the engineering breakthroughs that put satellites—and eventually cosmonauts—into orbit. It’s not dry scholarship; it’s a son’s clear-eyed, anecdote-rich narrative that answers the question every Cold War buff asks: How did they actually do it? Collectors of modern political history, Soviet space artifacts, or signed presidential/leader biographies prize this edition precisely because it’s more than a book—it’s a direct link to the man who helped launch the Space Age. Sergei passed in 2020, so personally inscribed copies with such a perfectly timed provenance are increasingly scarce treasures. Slip this onto your shelf beside Taubman’s biography, a model Sputnik replica, or your Khrushchev-era posters, and you’ll own the story from the inside out. Serious inquiries only—ready to ship to the next caretaker who appreciates a genuine piece of superpower history. 📘🚀
