Khrushchev's words and his shoe banging

[Donna Seifer]

On Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev and His Shoe(s)
1. I recently saved a photo of Khrushchev at the UN on the occasion of the
shoe-banging incident  It is captioned:
    "Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, with his shoe before him, at the
     United Nations, 1960 Photo by Carl T. Gossett Jr. / The New York Times
     Photo Archives"

I tried to attach it, but SEELANGS rejected my dispatch. The shoe is
question is clearly seen to be a light colored men's shoe tuflia, not a
sandal or a botinok.  This should resolve shoe vs. sandal discussion!
I will be happy to send it to anyone who cares to verify.

2. A Soviet scholar once told me that he had seen a photograph of this event
in which it could be clearly seen that Khrushchev has both of his own shoes
on his own feet.  He said this indicated that Premier Khrushchev was not
banging his own shoe, but that of an underling, i.e. it would be unseemly
for the premier to bang his own shoe.

3. Sergei Nikitich and others have explained the shoe incident as follows:
When the Russian delegation arrived in New York, they were wearing winter
coats and boots appropriate to the Russian climate for the season. It was
mild in New York, so they bought new shoes to replace their winter boots.
Thus, the new shoes were on hand for banging when the Russian delegation
sought to drown out a speaker they opposed.

4. As for the specific language and context of "We will bury you" - can we
not ask Lynn Visson, Sergei Nikitich Khrushchev, and Khrushchev biographers,
Taubman et al for input here?

--
Donna Turkish Seifer, M.A.
Russian Instructor
Lewis & Clark College
Tel:    503-246-0329
Fax:    503-246-7500
Email:  dseifer at attbi.com

> From: "VANCHU, ANTHONY J. (JSC-AH) (TTI)"
> <anthony.j.vanchu1 at JSC.NASA.GOV>
> Reply-To: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
> Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 11:00:24 -0500
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Khrushchev's words and his shoe banging
>
> Interesting to hear that.  It verifies something I once read on line--a
> quote from Khrushchev's son stating that, given the time of year and what he
> usually wore, it would have had to have been a sandal.
>
> Given that a banging a sandal is probably less noisy than banging a shoe, I
> guess he didn't raise quite as much a ruckus as originally thought...
>
> Tony Vanchu
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ruth Kreuzer [mailto:rkreuzer at STLAWU.EDU]
> Sent: Friday, May 02, 2003 10:54 AM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Khrushchev's words and his shoe banging
>
>
> Side light on the "shoe-banging incident"...Many years ago my
> dissertation advisor (Dr. Nicholas Pervushin, now deceased) was working
> as interpretor at the UN that day. He told me the "shoe" was really a
> sandal.  (I've always wanted to share that bit of information!).
> R. Kreuzer
>
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