Lot 202

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Description:

Nikita Khrushchev TLS Dating from His Days Administering Ukraine: "you shall demonstrate a really Bolshevik correct line of behavior"

A 1p typed letter signed in Russian Cyrillic, signed by two of the most important Soviet leaders of the twentieth century: Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971), the future premier of the Soviet Union; and Lazar Kaganovich (1893-1991), one of Josef Stalin's closest advisers. Dated October 7, 1947. A typographical error has been corrected by hand in the last paragraph. Docketed at lower left. Kaganovich's signature is slightly smeared. Unevenly trimmed along the top and left edges, else near fine. 7.25" x 10.5." Accompanied by a complete English translation. Provenance: From the collection of Ron Hoskins, assassinologist.

The signatures of both Khrushchev and Kaganovich appear at lower right. Khrushchev, then in his role as Chairman of the Board of Ministers of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, signed as "N. Khrushchev" in green ink. Kaganovich, serving as Secretary of the Central Committee of the KPU (Communist Party of Ukraine) has signed in purple ink as "L. Kaganovich."

Khrushchev and Kaganovich sent this sternly worded memorandum to Communist officials in Chernigov (alternately Chernihiv) in modern day Ukraine regarding their subpar performance in the collection of State-mandated grain stores.

Translated in part:

"We have received your reply telegram concerning the State grain procurements. The measures you have outlined for the fulfillment of the target are insufficient.

To increase the State grain procurements you must take more specific measures, both for each and all districts and each and all kolkhozs* in each district…

During this last period of the State grain procurements you shall not allow the demagnetization of both yourselves and your cadres, and shall demonstrate a really Bolshevik correct line of behavior during the struggle for the complete and successful completion by Ukraine of the State grain procurements plan…"

*"Kolkhozs" refer to collective farm units.

Communist Party leadership thus viewed any failure to collect grain quotas as indicative of greater existential problems, that is, a deterioration of Communist spirit, work ethic, and mission. Comrades Kuznetsov, Kostyuchenko, and Koval are urged to reorient their "demagnetized" groups and subscribe to more "Bolshevik correct line[s] of behavior." Failure was not an option, and grain must be collected!

1947 was an extremely precarious period in Khrushchev's political career. Khrushchev was then serving as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, a position he had held since 1938. A series of bad harvests, drought conditions, and postwar instability had left Ukraine, the Soviet Union's bread basket, in desperate straits after 1945. Stalin's government still mandated that state and collective farms surrender them 52% of their crop yields, however. Khrushchev's official hardline stance as shown in this letter was much different from his personal views on the matter.

In early 1947, Khrushchev had lobbied Stalin in person for food aid for Ukraine and eventually received it, at a cost; Stalin was so irritated by Khrushchev's "mischief-making" that the premier temporarily removed Khrushchev from the secretaryship and replaced him with Lazar Kaganovich, the cosigner of this document. Yet Khrushchev was sufficiently restored in Stalin's graces to be restored to his office by December 1947. This political rehabilitation was no small feat when one considers the toxic political environment. Khrushchev himself had participated in Stalin's purges (arrests, exile, and executions) while managing Ukraine.

Lazar Kaganovich was Khrushchev's old mentor from the earliest days of the Russian Revolution. The two had met as early as 1917, and Khrushchev had served as Kaganovich's second-in-command in Ukraine in the 1920s.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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