Khrushchev's words and his shoe banging

[John Dunn]

May I muddy the waters further by referring you to two articles which
appeared in Izvestiia last year.  These are an interview with (22
August 2002) and a subsequent article by Sergei Khrushchev (8
September 2002).  Both are available on-line at:

http://main.izvestia.ru/person/article22772

and

http://main.izvestia.ru/world/article23548

These give slightly contradictory accounts of what the item of
footwear was, how it came to be in Khrushchev's hand and what he
actually did with it.

Neither article quotes Khrushchev Senior's exact words (though see
below), but the context described by the son does not necessarily
support the phrase involving Kuz'kina mat', and I wonder if there is
any unimpeachable source for this story.  I assume the story about
the literal translation is apocryphal; Harold Macmillan, the British
Prime Minister at the time, is supposed to have said 'Would someone
please provide a translation', but this may also be apocryphal.

In the final paragraph of the second article S. Khrushchev links the
footwear incident with the burying phrase.  He gives the latter as:
'Vzjat' zastup i poglubzhe poxoronit' imperializm' and complains that
this was distorted by 'propagandists' to 'my vas poxoronim'.  I must
admit that I always thought that the burying phrase came from a
different visit to the United States.

John Dunn.


>Dear colleagues:
>
>I am trying to find precise information on Khrushchev's show banging in the UN
>Assembly. On Wednesday 12 October 1960, all national papers commented on
>Nikita Sergeyevich and his famous shoe banging. Apparently, Khrushchev
>protested the speech of the head of the Philippine delegation, Senator Lorenzo
>Sumulong. In anger, he called the senator "a jerk, a stooge and a lackey of
>imperialism." In the Russian version, though, the shoe banging, it seems, was
>accompanied by a wonderful idiomatic phrase "ia vam pokazhu kuzkinu mat." I
>would very much like to find out the English translation of this phrase. I
>mean, the version they used when they had to translate it in the UN. Since
>such a phrase is extremely difficult to translate, I wouldn't be surprised if
>they used literal translation - sth like "Kuzkin's mother." In this case, it
>would be also nice to learn how the phrase can be translated into idiomatic
>English. "I'll spit into your eye" is a possible translation but it does not
>really capture the comic aspect of the Russian phrase.
>
>Have you ever come across any useful information on this?
>
>Many thanks in advance.
>
>
>elenka at uvic.ca
>
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--
John Dunn
Department of Slavonic Studies
University of Glasgow
Hetherington Building
Bute Gardens
Glasgow
G12 8RS
Tel.: +44 (0)141-330-5591
Fax: +44 (0)141-330-2297
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk

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