During the 1962 missile crisis, on the evening of October 23, a curious episode took place in Moscow. A few hours after President Kennedy announced the discovery of nuclear weapons in Cuba, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev determined to show the world that he was unafraid. He thus led a troop of Kremlin functionaries to the Bolshoi Theatre to attend a performance of Modest Mussorgsky’s operatic masterpiece Boris Godunov, based on Pushkin’s play.
This tale of an ill-fated 16th-century Russian leader was incongruous entertainment for an embattled 20th-century successor. Khrushchev never recorded whether he heeded Godunov’s howl of anguish: “Mine is the highest power!/ Year after year my reign was calm and peaceful and yet my heart has never known peace . . .
