Khrushchev - A Self-Admitted Russian (09/17/60)

Khrushchev - A Self-Admitted Russian

Editor's Note: It has been the vogue for some time on this side of the Iron Curtain to label Nikita S. Khrushchev a Ukrainian.

On March 7, 1959, the ninth All-German Workers Conference was held in Leipzig. Attended by 1,400 delegates, N. Khrushchev, himself one of the sponsors of the affair, delivered the address. His own remarks on his origin are most enlightening - and welcome. (The full text appeared in Soviet News, published by the Press-Department of the Soviet Embassy in London).

"I Myself Am Russian"

... After the First World War, then the young Russian republic was compelled to sign the Brest peace treaty, the counter-revolutionary Center Council in Ukraine also signed a peace treaty with Germany. The Ukrainian state was dominated by the German imperialists. During the demarcation of the frontier the people of some frontier villages were asked which state they wanted to belong to: the Russian Federation of Ukraine. The village where I was born lies on the frontier between Ukraine and Russia. It is a Russian village, but most of its people, my father and myself included, worked in the Donbas mines, and in towns in the south of Ukraine. As a result, there were many arguments among the peasants as to which of the two states to join.

Many of the villages wanted to join Ukraine, and if there had been no Gaidamaks, there, if it had not been ruled by capitalists and landowners, the people of our village would probably have voted for joining Ukraine. But when some peasants spoke for joining Ukraine, the others said: "We, too, are for joining Ukraine. Ukraine is rich, and we have become used to it. We have lived and worked there. But there are Gaidamaks in Ukraine today ...

And the peasants finally voted for joining the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

To return to the question of German reunification, I myself am Russian. (Emphasis ours - Ed.). I come from among the workers and I naturally respect my nation, and I respect other nations too. But when it comes to class solidarity, to class struggle. I uphold the interests of the class of workers, the interests of the working people.

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