Khrushchev's triumphant visit to America. Incidents, difficulties in translation, funny stories. Change of government leaders in the USA and USSR, the beginning of a thaw in relations between the superpowers. Khrushchev's visit to the USA (1959, Berlin crisis (1960)
After Khrushchev’s speech at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, there was hope for detente in relations between the United States and the United States. But, nevertheless, already in 1958 the Berlin crisis arose and the international situation became tense. Both countries understood the need to improve relations and reduce the arms race.
At the beginning of 1959, the USSR Foreign Ministry, Anastas, at a meeting with the US political elite, put on the agenda the issue of a summit meeting. The US leadership, for its part, invited Khrushchev to America to resolve important issues. Initially, the visit was scheduled for the first half of September of the same year, but due to Khrushchev’s sudden desire to personally speak at the UNGA session, the visit took place on September 15-27. The delegation arrived on a TU-114 plane, which had no analogue in the United States; it was a non-stop flight, and the pilot was the son of aircraft designer Tupolev. In addition to Khrushchev himself and the official delegation, the wife and children of the Secretary General, as well as the famous writer M. A. Sholokhov, arrived in the USA.
The world community has shown very great interest in the upcoming visit. This event was observed, according to various sources, by 2.5 to 5 thousand correspondents and photographers.
The Soviet delegation brought with them various gifts: caviar, nesting dolls, wine and vodka products, books by Sholokhov, carpets, guns and even a copy of the pennant that was sent to the moon. There were four personal meetings between Khrushchev and Eisenhower - September 15, 26, 26, 27. It should be noted that American citizens greeted the Soviet leader very cordially. People stood on the streets with posters with greetings written on them, sometimes in Russian.
During the visit, the parties discussed the following issues: the German problem, Soviet-American trade and economic relations, resolving the issue around Taiwan and some others. But it was not possible to reach an agreement on any issue. When discussing the German question, the United States argued that it was not against concluding a peace treaty between the USSR and the GDR, but only if allied troops remained in West Berlin. Western countries were very afraid of losing power over their occupation zone of Berlin.
On the issue of trade and economic cooperation, the main problems that did not make it possible to reach an agreement were questions about payment for supplies under Lend-Lease and the abolition of discriminatory sanctions against the USSR in trade with the USA,
A number of dialogues also took place regarding the exchange of achievements in the field of technology, culture and science.
However, both sides admitted that the main problem international relations of that period is an arms race, on which both countries spend a large part of the state budget. On this issue, at a meeting of the UN General Assembly, Khrushchev came up with the idea of general disarmament. But this initiative was met without much enthusiasm.
During the visit, Khrushchev had to answer many provocative questions, despite his peculiar manner of communication, he answered with dignity. Moreover, he became something of a positive hero in the eyes of American citizens, who liked his simplicity and straightforwardness.
During his stay in the United States, Khrushchev visited several different cities and saw how very different the American lifestyle was from the Soviet one.
Immediately upon arrival, Khrushchev visited The White house. Then the delegation visited Los Angeles. After visiting Hollywood, Khrushchev took a photo with the actors; one of the actresses lifted her skirt especially for the photo, which embarrassed him a little. Khrushchev next visited the city of San Francisco, where a meeting took place with representatives of trade unions. After this, the delegation visited Iowa, where the famous meeting between Khrushchev and Garst, a farmer who grew that same corn, took place. Khrushchev was amazed by the harvest and the system for caring for it. After this meeting, the Secretary General not only maintained relations with the farmer, but also tried to do something similar in the USSR. But everything didn’t turn out the way I wanted. In the Soviet Union they overdid it with corn. When, after the first year of the experiment, a high harvest was harvested, incredible areas began to be planted with corn. At the same time, it was not taken into account that this crop depletes the land and the yield falls every year. Thus, the corn experiment failed.
In addition to corn, Khrushchev appreciated the level of development of livestock farming on the farm and, upon his return, rushed to implement the idea of surpassing the United States in per capita meat production. As is known, this idea also led to disastrous results (for example, the “Ryazan disaster”, when most of the large cattle were slaughtered, which is why the following year the livestock decreased significantly).
After Iowa, Khrushchev arrived in Pittsburgh, where he met with students and workers. It was here that the workers gave Nikita Sergeevich a taste of the famous American drink Coca-Cola. Khrushchev said that he did not like it, calling the drink sweet crap. Coca-Cola appeared on the Soviet market only in the 80s.
The first official visit of the head of the Soviet Union to the United States did not produce real results in the form of any agreements or treaties, but it showed that the parties were ready for dialogue. This was another step towards mutual understanding between these countries, a step towards détente in international relations. In addition, from the side of the Soviet Union, this visit became a sign that the country is now more open, ready for dialogue and exchange of achievements.
They dubbed the first visit of N. S. Khrushchev to the USA. The date in world diplomacy is outstanding, since no one could even imagine then that something like this could happen. The USA and the USSR are enemies number one at that time, ready to destroy each other with nuclear strikes at any moment. Khrushchev's visit to the USA (1959) can be briefly described in one phrase: a one-man show in which Nikita Sergeevich played his main role in front of an American audience. We will tell you in more detail in our article how this happened.
Relations between the USA and the USSR on the eve of the visit
A modern reader may not even understand what N. Khrushchev’s first visit to the USA was. The year is 1959, shortly before, at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1953, it was announced that the next world war was inevitable.
In 1956, the USSR announced a new military doctrine - the massive use of nuclear missile potential during combat operations.
In 1957, our country was the first in the world to test a ballistic intercontinental missile. The event is simply terribly grandiose for the whole world in general and for the United States in particular: Americans live on another continent, they are geographically isolated from the rest of the world, their army and navy reliably protect them from any aggression, they have survived the shock of Pearl Harbor, conclusions have been drawn, ordinary people Americans, after their victory in World War II, are confident that no one in the world can anymore threaten their security. Yes, the USSR and the USA have nuclear weapons that can destroy the whole world, but they are in the form of huge bombs with a destructive effect. These bombs still need to be flown to the US borders and dropped there. The effective American air defense system, located at naval bases in the United States, consisted of missile systems, ships, aircraft carriers, fighters, etc. Reset nuclear bomb on the Americans seemed impossible. And then headlines appeared in all the newspapers that a huge missile had appeared in the USSR, capable of striking the center of New York from anywhere in the world, flying at an altitude inaccessible to air defense. It turns out that the American defensive shield, created over many years, will not save the United States from aggression. plunged into a state of panic fear of the threat of “crazy Russians” - these were the words the Western press of that time called us.
And at this terrible time for the Western world, a message was published that Khrushchev’s first friendly visit to the USA would soon take place. This date was celebrated as a holiday that gave hope to millions of Americans that perhaps the Russians were not as “crazy” as the press had previously portrayed them, and would not destroy the West with one nuclear strike from ballistic missiles.
Invitation
Khrushchev's first visit to the United States took place thanks to an invitation American President Eisenhower. The latter knew that the Soviet leader was interested in Western culture and the economy, since even then the economic lag of the USSR from the USA was observed.
The demonization of the Soviet Union by Western media happened a little ahead of time. In the first years of his reign, Khrushchev tried to get along with capitalist countries and wanted to “neighbor peacefully with them.” However, the Secretary General still did not rule out the possibility of a new world war, since he was far from stupid and well remembered the lessons of history, as well as the treachery of Western diplomacy.
Purpose of the invitation
President Eisenhower wanted to regulate the status of Berlin, since the Soviet leadership was no longer going to tolerate "occupation zones" in this city. From the Soviet zone of Germany, a new state was created - the GDR - with its capital in Berlin. Our leadership did not want to tolerate the “presence of capitalists” in this city. In the spring and summer of 1959, negotiations between foreign ministers took place in Geneva, but they ended without result.
A personal invitation to Khrushchev’s visit to the United States was brought from America by Deputy Prime Minister of the USSR Frol Kozlov, who went there for the opening of a Soviet exhibition.
“I admit, I didn’t even believe it at first. Our relations were so strained that an invitation for a friendly visit from the head of the Soviet government and the first secretary was simply incredible!” - Nikita Sergeevich recalled later.
The American press also could not believe it, but soon details appeared that put everything in its place: President Eisenhower instructed State Department (American Foreign Ministry) employee Robert Murphy to convey to Kozlov an invitation to N. Khrushchev’s visit to the United States. A prerequisite for the visit was that the leader of the USSR would agree to the Geneva agreements on the future status of Berlin on American conditions. However, Murphy forgot to mention this condition, and Khrushchev, unexpectedly even for Eisenhower himself, accepted the invitation.
If we translate these actions from diplomatic language into ordinary language, we get the following: the Americans needed to maintain their zone in Berlin, but in Geneva our diplomats rejected all their proposals. After this, the US leader himself tried to come to an agreement with Khrushchev, allegedly making a broad gesture to our Secretary General, inviting him on a friendly visit. In the context of the coming Cold War, such an invitation should be rejected, but nevertheless some kind of détente had to come. However, Khrushchev was distinguished by unpredictability and expressiveness both in domestic policy, and in the external. He accepted this invitation with the words: “Well, then I’ll stay there for a week or two.” Eisenhower had no choice but to agree to this.
How to ensure safety?
Khrushchev's upcoming visit to the United States turned out to be a real headache for the Soviet intelligence services. They knew how to ensure the security of top officials within friendly countries and in the Union itself. But what to do in a hostile country, where any alley can be a dangerous place? They didn't know this because they didn't have the relevant experience.
Some members of the Soviet delegation wanted to ask the Americans to put up trellises of armed American soldiers along Khrushchev’s route from the military airfield to the designated residence.
Others objected because this measure would not prevent an assassination attempt if Western politicians decided to kill the leader of the USSR. In the end, they decided that they should completely entrust the security to the American intelligence services and believe the assurances of their politicians about security.
How to get to the USA?
Today, flying from one country to another is considered commonplace, but half a century ago there were no such aircraft in our country that could fly from the USA to the USSR without refueling. But it was necessary at all costs to show the West that our country has Newest technologies. Therefore, we decided to travel by plane TU-114 - the only model at that time capable of making a non-stop flight from our country to Washington. The problem was that the model had not yet been fully tested, so no one could guarantee the safety of the top officials of the state, except for one person - the designer of the model, Andrei Tupolev. He guaranteed the reliability of the aircraft and, as evidence of his words, offered to include his own son Alexei as a member of the crew. The choice was made in favor of the Tu-114.
Why did Khrushchev agree to the trip?
For what reason did Khrushchev visit the USA? Why did the Soviet leader agree to the trip? In fact, Khrushchev was confident in the advantages of the socialist system and believed that a historic victory over capitalism was just around the corner. A state doctrine has already been developed, according to which “communism will come in this generation.” Inscriptions about the imminent approach of “paradise” were even carved into stones and monuments. But as always happens, this doctrine was not destined to come true, and all the inscriptions were hastily erased in the eighties of the last century. However, they did not know about this then, and the Soviet leader wanted to see the “decaying West” with his own eyes.
Secretary General as a spy?
Some are inclined to believe that Khrushchev’s visit to the United States was intended to “spy” on the competing system, since on an intuitive level it became clear that the West was beginning to be ahead of us technologically. Eastern Europe I already understood this one hundred percent, and in 1956 there was an uprising in Hungary against the communist regime. Supporters of the “idea of plagiarism” cite as arguments that Khrushchev did not pay attention to the inventions that Western politicians showed him, and tried to “peek” at something “secret”, since he believed that the things shown by the Americans were not of particular interest. So, our leader “found out the secret” of a hamburger, a hot dog, a self-service service, lockers for storing things at the airport and train station, and corn.
All this appeared later and for ideological reasons the Hamburger and hot dog were renamed “sausage in dough” and “cutlet in dough”, and the Soviet people were sure that we had invented it. And our leader finally “fell in love” with corn, thinking that he had finally found El Dorado, the secret of the success of the capitalist world on one of the farms in It was the “corn story” during the trip that created the myth that Khrushchev supposedly decided there to experiment with this crop . In fact, there had been talk about a massive agricultural campaign to grow corn before the trip. Khrushchev liked to call himself a “maize grower” even before his appointment to the highest leadership position in the country and often introduced various projects for the mass introduction of this crop. The reason for such “love” for this vegetable was that in 1949, corn saved the Ukrainian Soviet Republic from another “Holodomor”, when Khrushchev was the secretary general of the party in this republic. In other regions of the USSR, famine still occurred due to crop failure and lack of reserves. However, Khrushchev's visit to the United States in 1959 finally ingrained in him the belief that this culture urgently needed to be introduced into the USSR. Later, our agriculture paid dearly for experiments with this vegetable, and Soviet people cursed the Secretary General in the kitchen, chewing corn bread instead of wheat. To be fair, let’s say that today the Russian Ministry of Agriculture approved Nikita Khrushchev’s experiments on introducing corn into the national economy, as it increases the productivity of meat and dairy farming. But he also admits that “of course, there is no need to sow the entire country with corn.”
First surprise
Khrushchev's visit to the United States took place in 1959 and was accompanied by various oddities. Sometimes it turned out that the Soviet leader, trying to simultaneously discern the secrets of the West and at the same time show it his cultural superiority, put himself in an awkward position.
At the IBM plant, our leader remained indifferent to the products, showing with all his appearance that we also had it all. Let us recall that in 1959, the world's first transistor computers with a high level of reliability and performance appeared, which the US Air Force considered possible to use even in the air defense early warning system. Khrushchev was not particularly impressed by this, since work on improving computers was also carried out in our country, and the “maize worker” could not understand the revolutionary innovation due to the lack of basic knowledge in this area. It was this invention that allowed IBM to become the world leader in the production of computer technology.
But Khrushchev was impressed by another invention - self-service in the dining room. Of course, the Secretary General did not like to show his surprise and constantly asserted that “it’s better in the USSR.” However, many understood that Khrushchev was disingenuous.
In Hollywood
Khrushchev's visit to the United States in 1959 was also marked by his appearance in Hollywood. The 20th Century Fox film company hosted a lavish luncheon for 400 people in honor of our leader. The excitement was such that only celebrities were invited to it without their significant other, since there were not enough places for everyone.
Hollywood at that time was traumatized by the “witch hunt” - the fight against communist propaganda in the United States, so many of those invited were overcome with anxiety. However, almost everything famous actors, directors, politicians, playwrights and others took part in the lunch: Bob Hope, Francis Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, John Kennedy and many others.
Some, for example, Ronald Reagan, pointedly rejected the invitation as a sign of their protest against the socialist regime. Others were simply afraid for their fate and did not go to the meeting, since they were already under investigation by the Commission on Un-American Activities. Among these people was the famous playwright Arthur Miller, but his wife Marilyn Monroe was especially represented by the Soviet leader.
Khrushchev on the set of the film
After lunch, they decided to show the guests the filming of the film “Cancan”. The organizers specially selected a particularly piquant fragment of the future film. The dancers ran out to loud music and began to dance spectacularly, lifting their skirts high. Later, journalists did not miss the opportunity to ask the Soviet leader what he thought about such scenes. Our leader called this genre “obscene”, and he allegedly did not fix his attention on them. However, photographs taken by journalists indicate the opposite.
At a meeting with trade union organizations, Khrushchev will nevertheless express his indignation that “honest artists” should “lift up their skirts” to please the “spoiled public.” And further our leader did not miss the opportunity to emphasize that “we do not need such “freedom”” and we “prefer to think freely” rather than “look at our asses.” However, the Soviet leader did not rest on this: he began to parody the dancers from the film, exposing his butt for everyone to see. At least, this is what one of the American journalists, Saul Bellow, who covered Khrushchev’s visit to the USA, wrote about it. The year was truly memorable for him, and he often recalled these events throughout his life.
N. Khrushchev’s visit to the USA: meeting with trade unions
A real disappointment for our leader was the meeting with trade union organizations in the USA. He assumed that there he would meet with his allies in the fight against the capitalist world. For one thing, ordinary “hard workers” should hate “oppressors and enslavers.” However, he was wrong: the leader of the largest trade union association, Walter Reiter, criticized the entire socialist system of the USSR. Khrushchev tried to retort and accused him of “betrayal of the working class,” but Reiter told Nikita Sergeevich right to his face that he was not at all fighting for socialism in the country, but only advocated for improving the lives of workers.
Later, after seeing Reiter's income, Khrushchev will hint that the capitalists bribed all the trade union leaders in the United States.
"Deader than a dead cat"
In general, Khrushchev’s visit to the USA (1959) was accompanied by numerous provocations, irony, and sarcasm from the American public. The most unpleasant questions for our leader were those that affected them. He described them as “more dead than a dead cat,” hinting that these events are long in the past, and journalists are still raising this topic.
Second trip
Khrushchev's first visit to the USA is, of course, a memorable date, but it was not the only trip of our leader to “ideological enemies.” It would seem that after what our leader suffered in the USA in 1959, he is unlikely to go there again. However, in 1960, he addressed the 15th UN General Assembly in New York, where he criticized Western capitalist expansion in Africa. On it, he promised to show the whole world “Kuzka’s mother.” Frightened Americans translated this phrase “we will bury you,” and the Soviet leader, in the eyes of the Western world, turned into an inadequate dictator, ready to destroy the entire world. After this, another planned friendly visit of Khrushchev to the United States (1961) did not take place, and the idiom “Kuzka’s mother” began to designate the thermonuclear “Tsar Bomb” that the USSR tested after the General Assembly.
Initially, Moscow reacted rather restrainedly to this proposal, but by the beginning of summer both sides confirmed their decision to hold a meeting of heads of state. Soviet Union, forced by the leader of the GDR Walter Ulbricht to quickly conclude a peace treaty on Germany, sought to enlist the support of the US President before a meeting of the four heads of government of the countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition on the German problem. In turn, Eisenhower sought, through negotiations with the Soviet side, to raise the prestige of the Republican administration in the eyes of voters in the light of the 1960 presidential elections, in which then-Vice President Richard Nixon had to fight the young, energetic and popular candidate from Democratic Party John Kennedy.
In June-July 1959, during the trips of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Frol Kozlov to the USA and Vice President Richard Nixon to the USSR, an agreement in principle was reached on the mutual exchange of visits by the leaders of the two superpowers.
In preparation for his trip to the United States, Khrushchev unexpectedly decided to personally speak at the opening of the next session of the United Nations General Assembly, convened in September 1959 in New York. In this regard, it was necessary to shift the timing of the meeting with Eisenhower (initially it was planned for the first half of September), as well as make adjustments to the upcoming visit of the Soviet delegation to China to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the revolution.
Khrushchev's visit to the United States did not bring the expected results - on most of the issues discussed, the positions of the parties practically did not converge. The planned summit meeting on the German problem and Eisenhower's return visit to the USSR did not take place due to the aggravation of Soviet-American relations caused by flights of American spy planes over the territory of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the first official visit of the Soviet leader to the USA helped to destroy many stereotypes imposed by the Cold War and to better understand each other between the peoples of the USSR and the USA, becoming a significant event both in the history of Soviet-American relations and in the context of the general weakening of international tensions in the post-war period.
As a result of Khrushchev’s American visit to the USSR, a number of books were published containing a description of his trip, speeches, conversations, remarks, remarks, as well as photo illustrations: “Living in Peace and Friendship” (author - Nikita Khrushchev, Moscow, State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1959 g.), "Face to Face with America" (authors - Alexey Adzhubey, Nikolai Gribachev, Georgy Zhukov, Moscow, State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1960).
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
N. Khrushchev, on the right V. Sukhodrev
Before your eyes are the memoirs of Viktor Mikhailovich Sukhodrev - a real legend in the world of translators - the personal translator of Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Alexei Kosygin, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Viktor Mikhailovich remained in his post for more than 30 years. In 2014, translator No. 1 passed away, but the memories that Viktor Mikhailovich managed to leave during his lifetime remained. In 1999, a memoir was published: “My tongue is my friend.” Judging by how easy and interesting the book is to read, I conclude that Viktor Mikhailovich was not only a first-class translator...
The book mentions many interesting episodes from professional biography, which for many years remained in the shadows for most of us. The author talks about the powerful of this time from his own perspective, about their strengths and weaknesses, habits, about the impression they made, how they behaved not only in an official setting, but also in an informal situation, about what distinguishes them from us mere mortals.
Of particular interest are the chapters telling about Nikita Khrushchev’s triumphant visit to America. The twelve-day visit of the Soviet leader caused a lot of distortions in both the American and Soviet press. Most of the distortions can still be found in modern media sources. For example, the history of the translation of the famous saying about “Kuzka’s mother”, or the notorious one - “We will bury you.” In general, Nikita Khrushchev's tour of America was eventful. An unprecedented number of curiosities and simply funny situations, as well as stories that were not customary to talk about out loud then. However, let's give the floor to the author...
Victor Sukhodrev. Photo: kommersant.ru Our eternal maybe
Recalling in his memoirs about his arrival in America, Nikita Sergeevich claimed that he flew there on the very first flight of the new Tu-114 aircraft. This is not entirely true. The first flight of the Tu-114 was made to New York several months earlier - for the opening of the Soviet national exhibition “Achievements of the USSR in the field of science, technology and culture.” I remember this first non-stop flight Moscow - New York, because I was a participant in it.
The delegation was headed by Frol Kozlov, the second person in our then party hierarchy. A more detailed story about him is coming. And now I’ll limit myself to just him brief description: he was a typical party functionary with all the worst manifestations of this category of people.
Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev against the background of his Tu-114 aircraft She flew with us large group technical specialists of the Tupolev Design Bureau. Throughout the flight, they walked along the sides, unscrewed the internal panels, examined something there with the help of instruments, in no way adding peace to us - the few first passengers. The general designer himself, Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev, the patriarch of Soviet aircraft construction, flew on the same flight. He entered the cabin at the moment when the flight attendant filled the glasses with cognac. He asked: “How’s the plane?” Isn’t the cognac bottled?” We cheerfully replied that no, everything was fine, although, I note, the surface of the liquid in our glasses was by no means smooth.
Later I was told that this aircraft had not even passed the full cycle of flight tests. And only the persistence of Tupolev, who volunteered to personally accompany the delegation, pushed the top management to give the go-ahead for the flight, apparently relying on the eternal Russian chance.
Let's go for landing. The huge city was hidden by black clouds. For quite a long time we could not break through them. When the ground finally appeared, the pilot saw that we were flying not directly onto the runway, but to the side. We had to gain altitude again. The engines roared. Another circle of several tens of kilometers was made, after which we landed safely. And then it suddenly became clear that the Americans did not have a ladder of the required height. We sat on the plane for another forty minutes while the ramp was built up.
Khrushchev was apparently told about how that flight went. In his memoirs, he also talks about the ladder, which supposedly turned out to be short, although in fact, by the time he arrived, everything was in order with the ladder. Sometimes it happens that what you hear becomes your own memory, especially if we are talking about the same event.
The official invitation to visit the United States was conveyed to Khrushchev through Kozlov. We lived in the building of the permanent mission to the UN. On the last day of Kozlov’s stay in New York, he was informed that three State Department employees wanted to visit him, led by Foy Kohler, the future US ambassador to Moscow and then deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs. They came and gave Kozlov in a sealed envelope a personal letter to Khrushchev from Eisenhower, which contained an invitation to visit the United States on an official visit. Of course, they told Kozlov the contents of the letter.
Journalists crowded near the entrance, watching everyone entering and leaving the house. However, not a single television company or newspaper reported then that a senior State Department official visited the Soviet mission.
Frol Kozlov was proud that it was he, and no one else, who would bring Nikita Sergeevich a personal letter from Eisenhower. To all the entreaties of Ambassador Menshikov and other diplomats that the envelope should immediately, in accordance with established practice, be opened, the text translated and sent personally to Khrushchev via encrypted communication channels, Kozlov stupidly persisted: “I will personally hand this to Nikita Sergeevich in his office.” As a result, Khrushchev received the invitation a day late.
First steps in America
Arrival of N. Khrushchev in America So, “with bated breath, the Americans watch as a huge silver-winged bird lands... Soviet pilots with exceptional skill land a huge machine...” This is what TASS reported about Khrushchev’s arrival in America.
Nikita Sergeevich was met by President Dwight Eisenhower himself. Since this was an official visit, it was very solemn from the very beginning.
Khrushchev met with America for the first time. The only Soviet leader who had been there before him was Mikoyan in the 1930s. The only memory left from that trip in our country is an ice cream popsicle on a stick. It was from the USA that Mikoyan brought the technology for its production.
The trip was planned for twelve days. It included visits to various areas of the East and West coasts, as well as the center of the country.
Khrushchev, moving away from the ban of the Stalin era, almost always took his wife on foreign voyages. And sometimes other members of his extended family. This time, in addition to his wife Nina Petrovna, he had with him his daughters, Yulia and Rada, and his son Sergei, then a young rocketry engineer who had already received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and the Lenin Prize.
If you read reports from that time, you get the impression that from the first minutes of Khrushchev’s stay in Washington, he was greeted by jubilant crowds of Americans. Actually this is not true. Along the entire route - from the military airfield where the Tu-114 landed to the official residence in Blairhouse - there were many people, but they were more curious than jubilant. They were interested to look at this man - “the number one communist,” as he was then called in American newspapers. We saw wary faces in front of us.
By the way, all along the way, here and there I noticed skillfully placed employees of our embassy and members of their families. They really rejoiced, waving their flags. At first, the general atmosphere was, as I already said, wary and expectant.
This rare footage of American video footage shows that the crowds of people who had gathered behaved very restrainedly:
However, then I watched with interest how, after each of the twelve days of Khrushchev’s stay in the United States, the attitude towards him of literally the entire country (and he constantly appeared on television screens several times a day) changed before our eyes. So when he arrived back in Washington at the end of his visit, the same crowds greeted him in a completely different way. People smiled and shouted: “Nikita, come again!” During this time, Khrushchev managed to make the Americans fall in love with him. His talent for communication was outstanding.
Lunch at Eisenhower's
Nina Khrushcheva, Mamie Eisenhower, Nikita Khrushchev and Dwight Eisenhower, 1959 On the first evening, Eisenhower gave a formal dinner. The appropriate uniform was required - a tailcoat, complemented by a white bow tie. This is, of course, the highest class of protocol clothing. All Americans were dressed exactly like this. Well, ours, let alone white ones, did not recognize any bow ties at all, much less tailcoats. I remember that only the ambassador wore a tuxedo. This is how they were determined at dinner: if he wears a regular tie and a dark suit, then he is Russian, if he is wearing a tailcoat with a white bow tie, then he is an American, and if he wears a black bow tie, he is a waiter.
It started with everyone gathering in one of the halls of the White House, lined up in order, waiting for Khrushchev and Eisenhower and their spouses to come out. I found myself next to the oldest member of the American Congress, Speaker of the House of Representatives Sam Rayburn, a short, round, good-natured man. He introduced himself, stuck his hand out to me, and mumbled in a pure Texan accent:
Why, son, in Russia no one wears all this?
And he pointed to his rather shabby tailcoat and bow tie. I speak:
You know, this is somehow not accepted among us.
Well done guys. Right. This is all nonsense. All my life I’ve been forced to wear all this on special occasions, but I still couldn’t get used to it...
During lunch, Khrushchev learned, probably for the first time in his life, words in foreign language. He asked me how to say “my friend” in English. I replied: “My friend.” Khrushchev carefully repeated. Then, when I talked with Eisenhower, I constantly said, “My friend.” Moreover, he pronounced it very much in Russian, but Eisenhower understood him. He clearly sympathized with his guest.
A year later, when relations with America had completely deteriorated, Khrushchev liked to repeat: “Me too, my friend has been found! Where did you come from and why the hell did you give in to me?!” But this is a year later... And then, in ’59, it was “May Friend”, and it seemed that it would always be like that.
The program for Khrushchev’s stay in America was prepared in advance and discussed in detail by the protocol and security services. At the same time, our people insisted that Nikita Sergeevich be allowed to fly around the country on his plane. The Americans did not agree and said that since Khrushchev was their guest, he should make all flights on their planes. It was emphasized that these aircraft would be special ones, serving only the president and his team. The Americans most likely feared then that when our plane flew over the territory of the United States, we would certainly succumb to the temptation to engage in aerial espionage.
Over dinner, Eisenhower raised the issue of air travel. Khrushchev, without much pressure, said that it would be more convenient for him to fly on his own plane, he just got used to it. The American president insistently assured that he would provide him with his own, personal, equipped with everything necessary, and comfortable. We were talking about the newest American Boeing 707. In the end, Eisenhower gave in: if Khrushchev insisted, then let him fly his plane. He immediately called one of his assistants and said rather angrily: “I see no reason why Mr. Chairman could not use his plane for flights.”
I am not familiar with all the details, but it ended up being that the flights were carried out on American planes. I think Khrushchev, who liked Eisenhower at that time, agreed to the owners’ conditions. Most likely, this dispute was generally provoked by the security services.
Translation incidents
On the second day, a meeting took place with leading journalists from the United States and other countries at the National Press Club in Washington. This traditional event is held for almost all high-ranking guests coming to the United States. The translator there was Oleg Troyanovsky. And at this time, being in the hotel, I watched what was happening on TV. Khrushchev answered well-meaning questions from journalists calmly, balancedly and without the usual verbosity. But there were also unpleasant, pugnacious questions: about Stalin’s personality cult, about our invasion of Hungary in 1956, about the situation of Jews in the Soviet Union, and so on. Here Nikita Sergeevich was already aggressive, sometimes too harsh and, in any case, did not give anyone permission.
During the meeting, an incident occurred that made me, as a professional translator, wince. The fact is that Khrushchev’s visit to the United States was timed with a special launch of a Soviet rocket to the Moon, which delivered there a pennant with the image of our coat of arms and indicating the launch date. At his first meeting with the president, Khrushchev solemnly presented him with a copy of the pennant. And one of the journalists asked a question:
“Do you have plans to put a man on the moon?” And the translation read: “Do you have plans to throw a man on the moon?”
The word “abandon” appeared quite often in our press in this context, and I think that’s why Troyanovsky used it.
But Nikita Sergeevich, having heard the translation, was indignant:
What does “throw away” mean? Like throwing it away?
And he, raising his voice, began to spread the fact that we generally do not abandon our people anywhere, because we highly value people. And we are not going to throw anyone onto the Moon. If we send a person there, it will only be when the necessary technical conditions have been created for this.
This is what one not very accurately translated word means.
By the way, at the same meeting the notorious expression was heard "We will bury you in the ground" , also the result of an inaccurate translation. But I will tell you more about this below.
“You Americans like steak, but we Russians like borscht.”
V. M. Sukhodrev and N. S. Khrushchev at a press conference at UN headquarters, New York, 1959 Khrushchev met the next day in New York.
The city is huge, amazing, truly amazing with its contrasts - from the slums of Lower Manhattan and Harlem to huge skyscrapers. Khrushchev, in his own way, was ready to meet him, instructed in the spirit of Maxim Gorky’s “City of the Yellow Devil.”
We were surrounded by a completely unusual life, which never stopped day or night. The life of a diverse, multilingual, always rushing city, in which at any time of the day there was somewhere and something to eat or drink. The latter was something unimaginable for a Soviet person in those years.
And here a funny thing happened. Khrushchev had to spend two nights in New York. A full range of events was planned: breakfasts, lunches, a visit to the UN General Assembly, a speech there, and so on.
We checked into the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. This is a huge hotel, occupying an entire block in the center of Manhattan. Two towers rise above it. In one of the towers there were presidential apartments, I think on the thirty-fifth floor. They were provided to Khrushchev. On the occasion of the “big influx” of Russians, all eight elevators started working at once. We went into one of the cabins. The elevator operator pressed the button and the elevator began to quickly pick up speed. Khrushchev looked around with interest, examining the buttons, mirrors, and gilded curlicues on the ceiling. Suddenly, somewhere around the thirtieth floor, the elevator stopped. Horror was reflected on the faces of the elevator operator, the chief administrator of the hotel, the American and our security guards. And Khrushchev smiles.
Well, he asks, is the elevator broken? So much for the vaunted American technology! So, does this happen to you too?
The administrator mutters words of apology, frantically rings the phone... And the elevator is neither here nor there. The elevator operator tries to open the door, gets nervous, and Khrushchev continues to have fun. And at the same time reassures the chief administrator:
This is technology, it can always fail.
Ten minutes passed. Finally, the elevator was slowly pulled up to the next floor. We left him and went up the stairs.
Khrushchev was pleased, then throughout the trip he remembered this incident: it happens to them too...
New York set the tone for his further stay in America. The members of the delegation felt freer and more at ease than in official Washington. Khrushchev remained in his former image. He willingly spoke wherever he was invited and never missed an opportunity to talk about the successes of the USSR. He took the text of the speech out of his pocket, laid out the sheets of paper in front of him, but then did not look at them, he spoke “on his own.” The speech was free, sometimes rude - Americans liked this style of communication.
The fact is that the Americans could not help but like Khrushchev. I'm talking about ordinary people, in whose homes Khrushchev appeared every day on the television screen, people who do not understand the intricacies of the diplomatic game and complex reasoning about world problems. But on the other hand, they very well perceived a direct conversation addressed to them, a persuasion, if you will, some kind of direct, very simple, intelligible argumentation. By the way, this is what Khrushchev was strong about and what was in the character of our then leader.
The Americans listened with bated breath to his every word; for them it was something like an enticing television show, something like a football match, when every second you don’t know what to expect in the next. Hence the growing popularity. Moreover, while praising the Soviet system, he did not then make any direct condemnations of the American way of life. He said that everyone should choose for themselves: “you Americans like steak, but we Russians like borscht.” And this manner of conversation appealed to them.
At the table with the sharks
Nikita Khrushchev with his family at the Astoria Hotel in 1959. I remember the evening dinner at the Economic Club. It took place in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria, one of the largest halls of its kind in New York at that time. As is customary at such dinners, the main guests sat on a raised platform, the rest sat at tables below. In front of each invitee, next to the menu, was a list of guests. It read like a Who's Who in American Business reference book. These were the heads of the largest industrial corporations, banks, prominent financiers and economists. If we calculate the total capital belonging to them, then it would certainly exceed the entire American budget by several orders of magnitude.
The guests took their places. Khrushchev, before entering the hall, and he, being the guest of honor, had to be the last to do so, told me that perhaps it would be worth looking into the toilet. It's a common thing. We entered the shining white toilet, sparkling with mirrors. Then, already leaving this splendor, he washed his hands and looked with interest at the towels. They lay on the table in two high piles, mixed in white and red. Asked:
What do these colors mean?
I replied that, most likely, it was nothing, just for beauty. He chuckled:
Yep, we figured it out. Well, we communists will take the red one. - And, lifting the white towel lying on top, he pulled out a red one from under it and wiped his hands. Then he turned to me:
Victor, can you imagine what kind of society we are in today? After all, when we get home, Shvernik will chase us away from the party. These are solid capitalists! Sharks!
But what can you do - I had to sit at the same table with the “sharks”. By the way, Nikolai Shvernik was, perhaps, more dangerous for Soviet communists than any shark, since he held the post of Chairman of the Party Control Commission in the Central Committee.
After a speech by Eisenhower's special representative, Henry Cabbot Lodge, who accompanied Khrushchev during the trip, Nikita Sergeevich, true to himself, went on the attack against Lodge and the entire American system. He said, for example, that millions of Americans own shares, but our people do not need them, since they have all the benefits without any shares.
It is noteworthy that today the overwhelming majority of our population have not acquired shares, but most of the benefits have disappeared.
The questions began. Some of them concerned restrictions on democracy in the USSR. They asked why the Voice of America was being jammed. This question, it must be said, was repeated at other meetings. Nikita Sergeevich replied that it was not their business, the Americans’. The Soviet people themselves decide what to listen to. And when they told him: then let the people turn off the receivers, why jam them, Khrushchev still insisted: they say, there is no need to teach the people whether to turn them off or not, he knows everything himself.
At the "dream factory"
"It was very interesting to me. It was as if I saw signs of hope, friendship and peace in the future. This is a memorable day in the history of cinema" (Marilyn Monroe).
Spyros Skouras and Nikita Khrushchev at the Dream Factory, 1959 After New York - flight to the other coast of the USA. From the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. A few hours of flight on a wonderful Boeing 707 aircraft - and we are already in Los Angeles. This is a completely different America. It was as if we were in another country. A different climate, palm trees on the streets, a different pace of life. And most importantly, here is Hollywood, the famous “dream factory”. Immediately after arrival, the Americans, as planned, took Nikita Sergeevich there.
The XX Century Fox studio received a distinguished guest. It is spread over a vast territory. Numerous large pavilions, decorations left over from previous filming. At the studio headquarters - in the large reception hall - an official breakfast was held in honor of the Soviet leader.
The owner of the studio at that time was the famous Spyros Skouras, a Greek by birth. By American definition, he was a self-made man, from a poor immigrant to one of the richest men in Hollywood. True, as often happens there, in a few years he will fall out of the picture. Things will go worse and worse, the studio will release fewer and fewer box-office films from year to year, and Spyros Skouros will be sent into retirement. But in that Khrushchev period he was on horseback.
I sat on the dais next to Khrushchev and looked into the hall. My eyes ran wild: in front of me was the whole color of Hollywood. This time the guest list could be entitled “Who's Who in American Cinema.” For some minutes, the faces of the actors transported me to my English childhood, when on Saturdays my mother took me to the cinema. I loved cinema so much that I spent almost all my little pocket money on postcards and magazines with photographs of screen stars. And now these faces from postcards and photographs came to life. I saw them with my own eyes. There were Gary Cooper and Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and Glenn Ford, Edward Robinson and Kirk Douglas...
Marilyn Monroe listens to Nikita Khrushchev speak in Hollywood, 1959. The keynote address was given by Spyros Skouras. She sounded quite respectful. But still, he continued the general propaganda line of the Americans - to demonstrate to Khrushchev in every possible way the advantages of the American way of life. Skouras emphasized his origins and his successes, how he achieved power in the film world. Khrushchev listened with interest, but I immediately felt that his prepared speech, one might say, would go to waste. This means that my work as a translator will be difficult. And so it happened.
Nikita Sergeevich had such a polemical technique - to cling to some detail and play with it, to the pleasure of the listeners. No matter what they say about his manners or lack thereof, everyone recognized his oratorical talent.
So... Before starting a polemic with Spyros Skouras, Khrushchev began to address him only as “my Greek brother.” He said that he wanted to structure his speech a little differently, but “brother Greek” made him change his mind.
And he immediately explained that Russia received Christianity from the hands of the Greeks. He further said that it’s wonderful that a Greek boy has become like this big man, but we still have many more such people.
Skouras gave his remarks, Khrushchev answered him wittily - it was a good-natured dive.
Skouras asked:
How many presidents do you have?
Khrushchev replied that we have hundreds of them. And he pointed into the hall where Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tikhonov, the future Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and then the Chairman of the Dnepropetrovsk Economic Council, was sitting.
Here is a former worker, and now the chairman of a farm, which in economics and finance is equal to another European country. But he personally has nothing.
The audience reacted very lively, often everyone applauded and laughed. Somewhere towards the end of his speech, Khrushchev said with resentment that he was deprived of the opportunity to go to Disneyland, although a visit to the park was on the program. (This trip was canceled at the last minute due to safety reasons.)
Khrushchev was seriously offended. He probably really wanted to go there. I think back in Moscow, when the program was being agreed upon, they told him what kind of park it was. And he was a gambling man. And suddenly - it’s impossible...
They said that the local police chief, having decided to once again check the route along which Khrushchev was supposed to be taken, went there and someone threw a tomato at his car. Then he recommended canceling the trip. Khrushchev, having learned about this, made fun of both the tomato and the chief of police to the friendly laughter of those present.
What have you got there, has a quarantine been announced? Cholera or plague?
I felt it was a genuine insult. He really wanted to go to Disneyland, but they didn’t let him.
Cancan
Kim Novak, 1959 Spyros Skouras's breakfast ended, and those sitting at the main table headed towards the exit. Khrushchev was seen off with applause.
Spyros Skouras invited us to a separate room to give the rest of the guests the opportunity to take their places in the filming pavilion. For some reason, the famous beauty Kim Novak was with us. I felt that Khrushchev really liked her. He looked at her with great sympathy. Skouras noticed this too and said to her quietly:
I whispered in Nikita Sergeevich’s ear that Skouras was asking Novak to kiss the distinguished guest. Khrushchev broke into a smile and replied:
Why ask? I will kiss her with pleasure!
And tenderly (yes, tenderly!) he took her by the shoulders and kissed her on both cheeks. I think Kim Novak was happy. In any case, later she told reporters a lot about this kiss: the Soviet prime minister, the communist Khrushchev, kissed me!
We then proceeded to a nearby pavilion. They decided to show Khrushchev how the filming took place. A small box was erected above the set, and we sat in it.
The film "Cancan" was filmed. The scenery depicted a 19th century Parisian cabaret. Stars such as Frank Sinatra, Louis Jourdain, and the legendary Maurice Chevalier took part. The main female role was played by a young Shirley MacLaine. It was only later that she became a star of the first magnitude, the author of several books and even a prominent public figure. It was this actress who first appeared on the set. She was holding a microphone in her hands. It was noisy on the set - the lighting crews were moving equipment. Shirley stamped her foot.
Louis Jourdain, Khrushchev, Shirley MacLaine, Khrushchev's wife, Maurice Chevalier and Frank Sinatra. I ask for complete silence! It is very important for me!
And she began to pronounce a rather long text in Russian:
I hope you like us as much as we like your artists...
An imitation of filming one of the episodes of the film “Cancan” began. Frank Sinatra and Maurice Chevalier came out and sang the song “Live and Let Others Live.” Hearing the translation of the song's title, Khrushchev whispered to me:
The name is very appropriate.
The spotlights were on, the cameras were chattering. Then the dance began, which gave the film its name - the cancan.
We later had a lot of things written about this episode, mostly sharply negative, as something obscene.
Gromyko, then Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, in his memoirs reports that the cancan performers were some kind of scantily clad creatures, grimacing and writhing on stage. The authors of the book “Face to Face with America” also saw something shameful in the dance: “... it was clear that the actresses were ashamed both before themselves and before those who saw them. They danced, not understanding who and why it occurred to them to force them to do this in front of Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev and in front of other Soviet guests.” But this was a dance that was well known to Soviet people - from many operettas.
However, even today our dictionaries interpret the word “cancan” differently: the Russian language dictionary - as a dance “with immodest body movements”, and the encyclopedic one - as “French ballroom dance, later included in the operetta.”
The Hollywood cancan left very happy memories in my memory.
Khrushchev did not express his attitude during the dance. At the end, he politely applauded. And then he talked cheerfully and naturally with the artists: he shook hands and thanked them. But on the way out, when correspondents broke through to him and began to ask how he liked it all, he suddenly frowned and said that, from his point of view and from the point of view of the Soviet people, this was simply immoral. True, he added that it was in vain nice girls forced to do bad things for the amusement of a jaded, corrupt public.
“In the Soviet Union, we were used to admiring the faces of actors, not their asses.”
Nikita Khrushchev watches from the podium at the depraved Cancan dance With these words he left Hollywood.
Khrushchev's attack caused not only me a feeling of bitterness. After all, he was well received in Hollywood. They rejoiced at him, appreciated him, reacted vividly, artistically to his kindly squabble with Spyros Skouras... And suddenly - an offensive attack against those who tried so hard for him. It is all the more distressing that these very words of his were immediately replicated by the newspapers.
That day I accidentally found myself next to Adzhubey. We exchanged impressions with him; he, like me, was delighted with Hollywood. And then he said:
You know, I don’t quite agree with Nikita Sergeevich regarding the cancan. I think that beautiful woman It’s not just the face that you can admire...
I completely agreed with him. By the way, when a year later I had a chance to watch the film “Cancan,” my enthusiasm was somewhat tempered. The film turned out to be mediocre, despite the constellation of wonderful actors. But then, in America, they weren’t talking about the film, but about something completely different...
By the way, in response to the review of the Soviet Prime Minister, Shirley MacLaine told the press that Khrushchev “was angry because we were in shorts” (the traditional French cancan is performed without underwear). Subsequently, she condemned the studio management for the stupid idea of showing the cancan - as if it were really a product of American culture: “If they wanted to show something of ours, they would take Khrushchev to American football.”
Kuzma's mother
Due to the cancellation of the trip to Disneyland, we organized a driving tour of Los Angeles. The sun sparkled dazzlingly in the cloudless blue sky. We drove around the city streets for quite a long time.
Khrushchev looked left and right with interest. And of course, I noticed American women sporting shorts. This is a completely common occurrence in Los Angeles.
In the car in which Khrushchev was traveling, as always, was Henry Lodge. Nikita Sergeevich turned to him and remarked:
It’s interesting here... Women in short pants. We wouldn't allow this.
He did not explain who those who “would not allow” were. In Soviet society, top leaders, and behind them various kinds of bosses, clearly knew what was possible and what was not for the “ordinary” citizen of the country, especially young people. Moreover, the bosses were not embarrassed that they were representatives of a different generation, a different education and upbringing. What to wear, what to listen to, what to read - they dictated to the people without a shadow of a doubt.
Having looked out of the car window at the private houses of Los Angeles with manicured lawns in front of the facades, with the inevitable cars, Khrushchev again turned to Lodge:
Yes, of course, everything is arranged neatly, clean, people are well dressed... But nothing. We will also show you Kuzka’s mother...
Here it is necessary to make a small digression. “Kuzka’s mother” is one of Khrushchev’s favorite expressions. I think he used it publicly for the first time a few months earlier in the famous “kitchen argument” with then US Vice President Richard Nixon. This happened while viewing the first American National Exhibition, which was located in Moscow's Sokolniki Park. The exhibition created a sensation. Khrushchev was present at its opening.
It was there, amid this splendor, that the famous controversy broke out. I must say that I was not present with him, since at that time I was in Geneva with Gromyko for some negotiations. But I know the essence and details of the dispute.
1959 N. Khrushchev and R. Nixon at the opening of the American National Exhibition in Sokolniki It started with a fairly peaceful conversation about housing. At that time, famous five-story buildings were being built in our country, and Khrushchev, naturally, tried to convince the guest that it was necessary to build not individual private houses, but apartment buildings. And everything was fine until Nikita Sergeevich became angry and promised Nixon to show Kuzka’s mother to the Americans. My colleague from the Translation Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yuri Lepanov, who accompanied Khrushchev that day, adhered to his own method of translating idiomatic expressions: first he translated everything word for word, and then explained it.
And then, at the exhibition, he first translated - “we will show you Kuzma’s mother,” and then tried to explain what this means, but, it seems, not very successfully. Yes, it was successfully and impossible to translate, because the notorious “Kuzka’s mother” is interpreted in dictionaries as an expression of a crude threat (in V.I. Dal, for example: “to show someone Kuzka’s mother - to punish, to do some evil”).
Having learned about this story, and also turning to my own experience of communicating with Khrushchev, I concluded that Nikita Sergeevich put a completely different meaning into this popular expression. Showing Kuzkin's mother - in his understanding - meant showing one's strength, daring, and giving heat.
It was in this sense that I translated the expression he loved during a trip to Los Angeles, when Nikita Sergeevich once again mentioned this very mother.
But Khrushchev suddenly told me:
- Well, Victor, I suppose something went wrong with “Kuzka’s mother” again? And it's very simple. You explain - this means showing something they have never seen.
It turned out that I was right: Khrushchev really put a completely different meaning into the famous expression. Thus, the secret that tormented the translators was finally revealed. Yes, probably, and not only them.
In short, Khrushchev did not threaten the West, he, using this expression, stubbornly blew his own trumpet - he argued that we would catch up and overtake America, they say, we would show them something that they had never even seen in their “vaunted kitchen”. It’s a pity that Nikita Sergeevich explained only to me alone, and not to the general public, that special, personal, and not the dictionary meaning of his favorite phrase...
We will bury you!
(Editor’s note: a little later, at the next banquet, Nikita Sergeevich was again forced to give an explanation for what he once said: “we will bury you.” The mayor of Los Angeles, from the podium, decided to remind Khrushchev of this expression, and that they, the Americans, will fight to the end , and he, Khrushchev, will not be able to bury them... This dialogue cost him failure in the elections next year - the Americans gave him fewer votes...)
The first time I heard this expression was at one of the receptions at the foreign embassy in Moscow. In our country, in contrast to world protocol, it was then customary to make toasts during cocktails. And it must be said that the ambassadors of foreign states uttered them with great pleasure. They knew that the toast would definitely provoke a response from Khrushchev. And this is already a lot: such a response can then be formalized in the form of a report to your government. In short, it was at that reception, after a long conversation about the competition between the two systems, that Khrushchev said: “The time will come when we will bury you.” I remember that the next day this phrase created a sensation. They talked about it on the radio and wrote about it in newspapers in many countries around the world. It was interpreted as a kind of call for violence: for a battle as a result of which the Soviet Union would win.
In fact, this situation was similar to the case of “Kuzka’s mother.” Khrushchev later repeatedly explained that when speaking about the “funeral,” he did not mean violence or war, but spoke only about the historical inevitability of the victory of socialism over capitalism.
It seemed to him that this was already obvious to everyone. Capitalism, in the course of the inexorable development of socialism, will undoubtedly die out, and socialism, accordingly, will survive. And someone should “bury the corpse” of capitalism that died a natural death? Socialism will fulfill this function. This is what Khrushchev really meant and was sincerely surprised why the West did not understand him.
Surprisingly, Khrushchev’s phrase about “funeral” is apparently still destined to remain misunderstood. And today, when Khrushchev is remembered, this phrase comes up in a distorted sense, primarily by the Western media. Even in our country it is often translated back - from English “we will bury you”. And the word bury means both “to bury” and “to bury.” It turns out - “we will bury you”! And he didn't say that at all. The phrase “we will bury you” is probably unfortunate in itself. But the reverse translation spoiled it even more. Instead of a decorous gravedigger in a top hat, a rude man with a shovel appeared...
In preparing this book for publication, I once again turned to the texts of Khrushchev’s speeches and his answers to numerous questions. It was striking that every time he advocated expanding trade, but, however, only with those goods that might be of interest to the Soviet Union, they say, if we are talking about sausages or boots, then this is not an item of trade for us. The Soviet Union does not need this (remembering the shelves of our stores in those and subsequent years, one can understand why they were so empty). In a word, that multi-day trip to America could have taught him a lot, but, unfortunately, he limited himself to trifles. For example, at the IBM plant, as I already said, he liked the self-service cafeteria - and something similar began to appear in our cities.
The leitmotif of Khrushchev’s speeches on that trip was that the Soviet Union was catching up and would soon overtake America. He voiced this idea at the final press conference. At the same time, he strongly emphasized our country’s desire for lasting peace with the United States of America. He emphasized the need to reach agreement on controversial issues. In this vein, he negotiated with Eisenhower, his then “friend.” When they parted, they were sure that within a year, Dwight Eisenhower would pay a return visit to the USSR.
However, the return visit of the American president to the USSR was not destined to take place. Eisenhower's trip was canceled overnight due to the flight of the American U-2 spy plane over our territory on May 1, 1960. Relations with the United States have once again deteriorated.
Remembering the trips to foreign countries in which I happened to be close to Khrushchev, I am now convinced that it was that visit to America that was Nikita Sergeevich’s finest hour. Then his best qualities: leader, speaker, master polemicist, a person who knows how to stand up for himself and his ideology.
Americans' sympathies for him grew every day; newspapers wrote that if he had nominated his own candidacy for elections at any level in the United States, he would most likely have won. As for the elections, it may be too much, but still such an assessment speaks volumes.
Thus ended this visit. The triumphant visit of the “number one communist” to the “den” of imperialism.
V. M. Sukhodrev and N. S. Khrushchev 
V. Suzhodrev and L. Brezhnev 
Sukhodrev, Gorbachev, Thatcher 
Victor Sukhodrev - (1932-2014) The article was prepared based on the memoirs of Viktor Mikhailovich Sukhodrev: “My language is my friend”
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September 15 marked the 50th anniversary of the first official visit in the history of Soviet-American relations by the leader of the CPSU and the head of the Soviet government to the United States.
On September 15-27, 1959, the first official visit in the history of Soviet-American relations by the leader of the CPSU and head of the Soviet government Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev to the United States took place.
The issue of the summit appeared on the agenda in early 1959 during an unofficial visit to the United States by Anastas Mikoyan, a member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, and his meetings with the American political elite, including President Dwight Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Dulles. The trip was caused by the need for detente in relations between the two countries after the sharp speeches of the Soviet leader at the end of 1958 on the German and Berlin issues. Mikoyan managed to relieve the tension and return to Moscow with new proposals from the US leadership, one of which was the desire to invite Khrushchev to America to discuss pressing problems at the highest level.
Initially, Moscow reacted rather restrainedly to this proposal, but by the beginning of summer both sides confirmed their decision to hold a meeting of heads of state. The Soviet Union, forced by the leader of the GDR Walter Ulbricht to quickly conclude a peace treaty on Germany, sought to enlist the support of the US President before a meeting of the four heads of government of the countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition on the German problem. In turn, Eisenhower sought, through negotiations with the Soviet side, to raise the prestige of the Republican administration in the eyes of voters in the light of the 1960 presidential elections, in which then-Vice President Richard Nixon had to fight the young, energetic and popular candidate from the Democratic Party, John Kennedy.
In June-July 1959, during the trips of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Frol Kozlov to the USA and Vice President Richard Nixon to the USSR, an agreement in principle was reached on the mutual exchange of visits by the leaders of the two superpowers.
In preparation for his trip to the United States, Khrushchev unexpectedly decided to personally speak at the opening of the next session of the United Nations General Assembly, convened in September 1959 in New York. In this regard, it was necessary to shift the timing of the meeting with Eisenhower (initially it was planned for the first half of September), as well as make adjustments to the upcoming visit of the Soviet delegation to China to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the revolution.
The world media showed enormous interest in the upcoming visit. The US State Department issued identity cards to at least 2.5 thousand journalists and photojournalists of the American and foreign press, representatives of radio, newsreels and magazines (of which 41 were Soviet journalists). About 750 certificates came from the radio and television system. According to the American magazine Life, the number of journalists was at least 5 thousand people. Not a single Republican or Democratic election campaign has been covered in print or on television on such a scale.
The list of gifts taken by the USSR delegation to America was very diverse. Along with traditional items - granular caviar, a set of wine and vodka products, boxes and nesting dolls - it also included carpets, guns, sets of long-playing records, books by Mikhail Sholokhov on English language and much more.
The official visit of the leader of the CPSU and the head of the Soviet government to the United States began on September 15, 1959 and lasted 13 days. During the visit, Khrushchev met with Eisenhower several times - on September 15, 25, 26 and 27, two of these conversations took place face to face.
One of the main issues discussed during the visit was the German problem. The Soviet Union was ready to delay the conclusion of a peace treaty with both German states, but threatened, if the negotiations failed, to unilaterally conclude a peace treaty with the GDR, which would automatically lead to the loss of the occupation rights of the Western powers throughout Berlin. For its part, the United States stated that it would not object if a peace treaty between the USSR and the GDR was concluded, but that allied troops must remain in West Berlin. A compromise on the German issue was never found.
The discussion of trade and economic relations between the two countries also ended without results. The Soviet delegation was unable to make progress on the issue of the US Congress lifting discriminatory sanctions on trade with the USSR. In turn, Khrushchev refused to link the issue of normalizing Soviet-American trade with the settlement of Lend-Lease payments (the amounts that Moscow was ready to pay did not suit Washington at all).
Negotiations on the problems of American-Chinese relations, the representation of the PRC in the UN and the situation around Taiwan also went unsuccessfully. The Soviet leader's attempts to defend Beijing's position encountered an extremely harsh reaction from his American negotiating partners.
On September 18, Khrushchev’s scheduled speech took place at a meeting of the UN General Assembly, during which they were invited to begin discussing the USSR’s proposals for general and complete disarmament. This initiative was received very coolly by the American side. Proposals from the head of the Soviet government to stop testing nuclear weapons were left by the Americans without comment.
The discussion of a number of other issues also ended without any significant results. In response to Khrushchev’s proposal to conclude a political agreement between the USSR and the USA, Secretary of State Christian Herter said that the American side is ready to consider only a consular agreement for now, and it will be possible to return to a political agreement only with the further development of bilateral relations.
A number of conversations took place on exchanges in the fields of culture, science and technology, the outcome of which was also not very optimistic.
During his visit, Khrushchev managed to visit the 20th Century Fox film studio in Los Angeles, the National Press Club in Washington and the Economic Club of New York, speak on American television, and at meetings with representatives of business and public circles in San Francisco and Pittsburgh , in the Chamber of Commerce of Des Moines (Iowa), etc. When American intelligence agencies stated that they could not guarantee the safety of the head of the USSR when he visited Disneyland, Khrushchev threatened to interrupt the trip if the situation did not change.
The Soviet leader paid special attention to the American farmer Roswell Garst, with whom he had been in contact since 1955 and whose experience in the field of corn cultivation he repeatedly referred to both during his trips to the agricultural regions of the USSR and at meetings of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee devoted to agricultural issues. farms.
In Khrushchev’s speeches on American soil, two theses were constantly present: the need to improve Soviet-American relations and the increased economic and military power of the USSR. During meetings with representatives of American society, the head of the USSR often had to answer “provocative” questions (about intervention in the Hungarian events, the process of de-Stalinization, etc.), and also comment on his phrase “We will bury you” (in the American press - “We will bury"), said to American diplomats at a reception in the Kremlin in November 1956. The full phrase sounded as follows: “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you.” In his later speeches, Khrushchev clarified that he did not mean literally digging a grave with a shovel, but only that capitalism would destroy his own working class.
According to eyewitnesses, Khrushchev generally managed to get out of difficult situations with honor, for which he even received praise during a meeting with congressional leaders and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The senators said that the head of the Soviet government is a “good polemicist.”
Khrushchev's visit to the United States did not bring the expected results - on most of the issues discussed, the positions of the parties practically did not converge. The planned summit meeting on the German problem and Eisenhower's return visit to the USSR did not take place due to the aggravation of Soviet-American relations caused by flights of American spy planes over the territory of the Soviet Union.
Nevertheless, the first official visit of the Soviet leader to the USA helped to destroy many stereotypes imposed by the Cold War and to better understand each other between the peoples of the USSR and the USA, becoming a significant event both in the history of Soviet-American relations and in the context of the general weakening of international tensions in the post-war period.
As a result of Khrushchev’s American visit to the USSR, a number of books were published containing a description of his trip, speeches, conversations, remarks, remarks, as well as photo illustrations: “Living in Peace and Friendship” (author - Nikita Khrushchev, Moscow, State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1959 g.), "Face to Face with America" (authors - Alexey Adzhubey, Nikolai Gribachev, Georgy Zhukov, Moscow, State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1960).
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
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