The Two Faces of Khrushchev: 'Tribune of the People':

...It is essential here to inspire people but not force them...

...When shepherds in Central Asia complain that their tents of low quality wool let in wind and rain, he says, "So, comrade chemical workers, we are waiting...

...With the Moslem Kazakhs, who do not eat pork but enjoy horsemeat, Khrushchev agrees that they should not be forced to raise pigs...

...You have departed, and apparently no one in Poltava will remember you with a kind word...

...This is how it will be and this is how it should be...

...In a word, I well remember the hospitality and now I say: No, I cannot compete in this matter with the Abkhazians" ("merry animation" in the hall, according to the press report...

...This is unwise, this is not leadership...

...Let us, comrades give a chance to the young ones of doing a job too...

...He urges that those as yet unproven be given the opportunity to distinguish themselves...

...In this manner, Khrushchev not only tightens up the bureaucracy, but, more important, he presents himself as a "tribune of the people...

...By the time he steps up to the podium a day or two later, he is fully briefed...

...He gently leads up to the point, then hits his audience between the eyes...

...Khrushchev takes great pains to identify himself with the people...

...In the first place, it is worth criticizing on principle and secondly, this is a suitable target...

...For some time now, Khrushchev has pointed to agricultural shortcomings as the Soviet economy's major problem, and recently he has applied himself to the difficulties with his usual characteristic vigor...

...I think you all understand the importance of increasing meat...

...In the Transcaucasian republics, he pays elaborate tribute to the "wonderful revolutionaries" from Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, and to "such outstanding figures of our party as Josef Vissarionovich Stalin, Stepan Shumyan, Sergo Orzhonikidze" and others...

...The Soviet leader is shrewd enough to show annoyance when he hears that the local Party has polished up the town just before his arrival to make a good impression on him...

...Pitting his own energy against the traditional lethargy of the peasants, he traveled thousands of miles, delivered some nine major and innumerable impromptu speeches, talked with countless people, visited farms and institutes and still managed to keep up with the international situation...

...Don't make us press you...

...In the following articles, Colette Blackmoore, a former Moscow correspondent for United Press International, and Paul Wohl, Soviet affairs expert for the Christian Science Monitor, discuss two aspects of the tour...

...If there are shortcomings, they must not be covered up, they must be eliminated...

...Each one filled it to the brim and drank up...

...One should, comrades, promote, teach, criticize, help and guide people so that they can see the goal...

...They have energy and faith...

...His speeches are full of ideas about how best to win the cooperation of the peasants...

...Yes, you have...

...He makes a point of publicly praising young people who have distinguished themselves in all phases of agriculture, from the most unglamorous manual jobs all the way up to responsible Party positions...

...Give them the maximum of living comfort...

...On my return to Moscow I shall have pangs of conscience if I do not tell you the whole truth (laughter and applause...

...Comrade Rozhanchuk, you have been relieved of the duties of province Party committee secretary...

...What should I do—drink the wine or run for it...

...During the January Central Committee plenum in Moscow, for example, he constantly interrupted speakers with detailed questions and precise suggestions...

...My kindly hosts got a glass which was more the size of a firkin [small cask...

...What pleases audiences even more than his deference to local customs is Khrushchev's willingness to tell stories at his own expense...

...He knows, for example, that most Georgians think corn is a food fit only for animals and therefore not worth cultivating in quantity, and recalls that whenever he used to dine at Stalin's house, "there was always corn bread on the table, although, as you are well aware, he was not deprived of the possibility of eating wheat bread...

...He repeatedly stresses the urgency of making the lives of the Soviet people more comfortable...

...To another official he says, "What did you expect...

...The truth said to friends, no matter how bitter it is, must never poison relations...

...Put them in, comrade, put them in...

...Those who cheat the state in one form or another should be expelled from the party and punished...

...Do you think all of us are eternal...

...His coming is a momentous occasion for all of them, either because they have worked well and hope for a word of praise from the Chief or because they have fallen down on the job and expect the worst...

...I do not offer you advice to be taken as law," he tells the Georgians, Azerbaijanians and Armenians...

...You were born here...

...You know, a good master teaches his horse with kindness to walk in the harness, while you wish to drive a man by threatening him with expulsion or reprimand...

...Soviet press reports of Khrushchev's visits to Kiev, Rostov, Tbilisi, Voronezh, back to Moscow, then on to Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, Akmolinsk fnow called Tselinograd) and Alma-Ata suggest a pattern of operation by the Soviet Premier which is well worth studying...

...The Two Faces of Khrushchev 'TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE' By Colette Blackmoore Premier Nikita Khrushchev recently toured the USSR's farm belt in an effort to spur agricultural production and shake out Communist party deadwood...

...One can criticize Comrade Kulikov however, without fear that his knees will bend...

...The time is past when leadership was hereditary...

...Khrushchev continued: "This Izabella I shall never forget...

...In Tbilisi, he described his visit several years ago to a village in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhaz where the elders offered him some wine whose name, he said, he could not remember...

...Give our people who are engaged in the severe conditions of nomad life, in such useful work, good material...

...He comes himself...

...In Sverdlovsk the soft lead-in was in the same tone: "Perhaps some comrades are not altogether pleased with this part of my speech, but it is impossible not to talk about this...

...The strain on him must have been something like that of an American Presidential campaign...

...let us admit them to leadership...

...But, to encourage the Kazakhs to overcome their prejudice against pork, Khrushchev casually adds that many formerly Orthodox Russians, once prejudiced against horsemeat, have now started to eat it and like it...

...Another important aspect of Khrushchev's domestic politicking is the attention he lavishes on Soviet youth...

...Why do I wish to criticize...

...To buy a cow from a collective farmer and not sell him milk is to make a big mistake...

...A composite picture of his whistle-stop routine would look something like this: Flanked by a large entourage of assistants, speech writers, secretaries, high Central Committee apparatchiki and press people (including the editors of Pravda and Izvestia), Khrushchev arrives and is greeted by an assemblage of the VIPs in local agriculture and government—Party secretaries, collective and state farm chairmen, leading agronomists and prizewinning dairymaids, pig breeders and tractor operators...

...I thought a little and decided: Well, I have covered several hundreds of kilometers...

...During the past few months, Premier Nikita Khrushchev has been putting on a performance at home which not only illustrates what an astute domestic politician he is, but also shows how the Soviet Communist party's techniques of governing have evolved in recent years...

...Khrushchev also stresses his own human qualities by admitting that he too occasionally makes mistakes...

...What is he going to eat—interruptions...

...it is up to you to decide how to manage agriculture...

...Perhaps they have less experience, but the extent of their knowledge is not smaller...

...Speaking of a state farm in the Ukraine which was being forced to grow tomatoes although, as it turned out, tomatoes do poorly in that region, he said, "When the Irpen area was being developed, I too thought that tomatoes should be raised there, but life is the best teacher and it suggested a change...

...Throughout the initial formalities and presentations, Khrushchev skillfully sizes up the local situation...

...The people see all this embellishment and temporary polishing up and become indignant...

...During most of February and March, he traveled around the country exhorting peasants and provincial officials to get down to serious competition with the United States in agricultural output...

...This is a law, this is what democracy is...

...One uses pressure on a man who does not understand...

...Khrushchev's criticisms are made in such a way as to demonstrate that he is a political leader rather than an arbitrary dictator...

...you have grown up here...

...The whole thing is voluntary,' he says, and "for him who likes horsemeat, there ought to be horsemeat...

...Speech writers may prepare his texts, but his improvisations indicate that he does his homework in agriculture and has the details at his fingertips...

...I hesitated a little over whether I should tell you unpleasant things at this conference," he said in Tbilisi...

...Let us not keep them in the backyard...

...When he roasts the provincial officials for laziness and corruption, the peasants roar with delight...

...Picture a man who has come to dinner only to be told that he won't be served meat or milk that day, since the store's supply of those products has been interrupted...

...Khrushchev tempers his criticism with exhortation and persuasion...

...Now, work well and you'll be praised, work badly and you'll be replaced...

...It is necessary to know how to listen to people, to learn from them and acquire sense...

...Yours will be the struggle and yours will be the reward...

...I am speaking seriously"—and his criticism of local officials becomes pointed and biting, reflecting his intense disgust with Party officials who repeatedly fail to meet his high standards of performance...

...You can't put interruptions in soup...

...If one criticizes a weak man his legs bend like a bow and he might fall over...

...Is there enough meat here...

...and equip them with substantial means for achieving this goal...

...When my turn came, I sat and trembled...

...He is quick to display anger when he learns that farmers are forced against their will to sell their cows to the collective...

...I can't back out...

...So I also drank up...

...To state farm directors in Kazakhstan who have been reluctant to follow his advice to raise ducks, he says, "If you still remain deaf, well, I don't know, you will then have to go to a doctor treating ears and throat, so that he can clean out your ears and you can use them better and understand better...

...When Khrushchev feels that the jesting has gone on long enough, his mood changes abruptly-—"Comrades...

...Only enemies can do this, not Communists...

...Are you getting sufficient milk ? What's the butter situation...

...Khrushchev's speeches demonstrate his knowledge and competence in a wide range of fields...

...We should put the economic council chairmen to work as dairymaids for a week or two...

...Khrushchev says exactly what they have been dying to say, and he does it with wit and slashing irony...

...It is sweet and mild and it seems weak...

...This is as it should be because you worked poorly...

...To the leaders in the Siberian Virgin Lands he says, "Comrades, I address you—the directors...

...Whether or not he succeeds in increasing food production, one thingis very clear: Khrushchev is succeeding in establishing a new style of leadership within the Soviet Union...

...In speech after speech, he hammers away on the theme that incompetent leaders must give way: "Have you people suitable to replace such men...

...From press reports, Khrushchev's tour of the Soviet farmlands seemed to be a tremendous feat...

...Someone in the crowd then identified it as Izabella wine...

...In Alma-Ala: "That is the positive side, Comrade Kulikov, and now comes the negative (laughter...

...But I thought: They are older than I, and yet they drank it up...

...Displaying a familiarity with the local culture and customs, Khrushchev shrewdly exploits the fierce national pride of the different Soviet nationalities to warm up his audience...

...then there would be milking machines (appreciative stir).' When the Party secretary of a lagging area invites him to come down from Moscow to visit, Khrushchev retorts, "I shall come as something like a procurement officer, and, as you know, the procurement officer is not invited...

...Moral factors must be combined with material incentives...

...One cannot count solely on the force of moral factors, comrades...

...Wherever he travels, he asks about the lot of the ordinary man...

...The purpose of the tour and of the Premier's colossal effort is to raise Soviet agricultural production...

...Perhaps the most striking and important aspect of the Premier's style is the way he injects himself forcefully into the relationship between the local Party men and the people...