A chronicle of the year that changed Soviet Russia-and molded the future path of one of America's pre-eminent diplomatic correspondents. 1956 was an extraordinary year in modern Russian history. It was called ""the year of the thaw""--a time when Stalin's dark legacy of dictatorship died in February only to be reborn later that December. This historic arc from rising hope to crushing despair opened with a speech by Nikita Khrushchev, then the unpredictable leader of the Soviet Union. He astounded everyone by denouncing the one figure who, up to that time, had been hailed as a ""genius,"" a...