This book, based on extensive original research including in recently declassified archives, considers politics, economics and the process of government in the Soviet Union under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. It examines the full complexity of government, including central government, individual ministries, regional leaders, separate institutions such as the military, and the lower levels of the Communist Party, outlining the interactions between them, and the contradictions arising from c..ompeting interests, and showing how the development and implementation of the important reforms which took place in this period were much more than Khrushchev’s own ideas. It discusses the various important reforms, and argues that de-Stalinisation was not the overarching determinant of policy, demonstrating continuities with as well as breaks from the past. Unlike many other studies which consider the subject from the perspective of the Cold War and superpower relations, this book provides an overview of the internal development of the Soviet Union in this period, locating it in the broader context of Soviet history.