The Jones Project

As a journalistic coup, it would be hard to beat the publication of Nikita Khrushchev's reminiscences. Last week LIFE announced that it had accomplished just that coup. Beginning with its issue of Nov. 23, the magazine will serialize Khrushchev Remembers in four successive installments. The articles will be accompanied by previously unpublished pictures; the entire undertaking was carried out in deep secrecy, and was given the code name "The Jones Project." On Dec. 21, Little, Brown (owned by Time Inc.) will publish the 275,000-word book. LIFE and Little, Brown announced that they "are convinced beyond any doubt, and have taken pains to confirm, that this is an authentic record of Nikita Khrushchev's words."

In his introduction, Edward Crankshaw, noted British Kremlinologist and a Khrushchev biographer, characterized the volume: "Here was Khrushchev, quite unmistakably speaking, a voice from limbo, and a very lively voice at that. . . An extraordinary, a unique personal history." As for the former Soviet Premier himself, he was reported last week to be at his villa, 25 miles from Moscow, bedridden with "cardiac insufficiency."

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