Wednesday, August 5, 2009

We are inviting all those who remember the Khrushchev's visit 50 years ago to send us their memories. What do you remember of US-Soviet relations at that time?. What do you remember of the visit and why do you think it significant?
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3 comments:

  1. David MaxwellAugust 8, 2009 at 10:14 AM

    When I was 17 years old (1962), I traveled through the Soviet Union for 7 weeks as the bandboy for the Benny Goodman Band's tour of the USSR (my father was the first trumpet player). That trip led to me desire to become a diplomat (later channeled into a career as a professor of Russian literature and ultimately a university administrator) and my major at Grinnell College in Russian Area Studies (where I enrolled 6 weeks after returning from the USSR).

    On July 4th, 1962, the band was invited to the U.S. Embassy's "party house" on the banks of the river in Moscow. At one point, there was a tremendous outpouring of excitement: Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev had shown up to wish us "congratulations on the anniversary of your revolution." He made the rounds of the party and shook hands with everyone - including me -- and was particularly struck by the fact that the first trumpet player (who, at 6'5" and 240 lbs, towered over him), was able to greet him in Russian!

    Given the political environment of 1962, most people I knew found it hard to believe that I'd actually been in the USSR - shaking hands with Krushchev was well beyond the limits of credibility for most of them!

    The Goodman Band was the first American jazz band "behind the Iron Curtain," and was seen as an important early step in the cultural and educational exchanges that ultimately -- I believe--had a powerful impact on relations between the two countries, and on political change in the USSR..

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  2. UnknownAugust 18, 2009 at 3:23 PM

    Why are we celebrating this murderous, thuggish Stalin protege? Would we celebrate a visit to Iowa by a Nazi official like Goebbels or Eichmann or Himmler, had there been one? Of course not. But because Krushchev was a communist, we act like this was a good man. Lest we forget, or turn a blind eye, let us remember that this man was not a Soviet premier for nothing. He was intimately involved with Stalin's purges, and was responsible for thousands of murders/executions in both the Ukraine and in Moscow. And that was before the second world war. After the war, he was even more harsh, executing around 200,000 Ukranians and deporting and imprisoning 400,000 more. So why do we celebrate him? His profile is somehow positive in the West, partly because he worked diligently once in power to mask his murderous record. This is a disgusting man, and I'm disgusted we are celebrating him.

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  3. Dan ClarkAugust 27, 2009 at 8:08 PM

    Paulo's comment reminds me of an occasion at Simpson College where an audience member challenged (Garst nephew) John Chrystal to explain why he never spoke about the gulags. The man went on to assert that John didn't tell the truth about the Evil Empire because he had "only been shown what they wanted you to see." I remember John's placid demeanor better than his exact words as he replied to the effect that he was doing his best to tell only things he knew something about (after 30 or so years of almost annual travels throughout the USSR). Not to mention being Gorbachev's first American friend. 'Nuff said.

    For a fun counterpoint, read Ed Flaherty's anecdote about the Garsts (in a comment on Bruce Campbell's note on this blog): "In 1959, when they were in the USSR and Elizabeth met Khruschev for the first time, she immediately grilled him as to what in he__ he had done in Budapest in 1956. It was not just Roswell who could be frank. Khruschev respected her, and it was she who extended the invitation to Nikita and Nina."

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