Edward Crankshaw

William Edward Crankshaw (1909-1984) was a British writer, journalist, and commentator best known for his works on Soviet affairs and the Gestapo, including notable books such as Gestapo: Instrument of Tyranny (1956), Khrushchev: A Career (1966), and Bismarck (1981), which won the Whitbread Biography Award in 1982. He authored around forty books primarily on Austrian and Russian subjects, served as a signals intelligence officer during World War II, and was a leading Soviet expert at The Observer from 1947 to 1968. His major achievements include obtaining the transcript of Khrushchev's secret anti-Stalin speech in 1956, a journalistic sensation.