--- title: Nikita Khrushchev url: https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/nikita-khrushchev/ description: 7 verified quotes from Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine; later Central Committee secretary, with sources. section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a Cold War intelligence collage of a non-aligned-movement conference and a map spanning Latin America, Africa and Asia.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-cold-war-global-south.jpg) [Quotes](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/) · Soviet Union # Nikita Khrushchev ![Nikita Khrushchev, 1954 to 1956](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/images/soviet-union/nikita-khrushchev.jpg) [Photo](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1956_Press_Photo_Communist_Party_Secretary_Nikita_S._Khrushchev_in_Moscow_(cropped).jpg): TASS, Public domain (PD-Russia; PD-US-not renewed) First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine; later Central Committee secretary · Soviet Union On the regime page: [Soviet Union under Stalin](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/soviet-union/#nikita-khrushchev) 7 quotes, oldest first. [Filter with other speakers](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/#speaker=nikita-khrushchev). 1. > “Stalin acted not through persuasion, explanation, and patient cooperation with people, but by imposing his concepts and demanding absolute submission to his opinion. Whoever opposed this concept or tried to prove his viewpoint, and the correctness of his position-was doomed to removal from the leading collective and to subsequent moral and physical annihilation. This was especially true during the period following the 17th party congress, when many prominent party leaders and rank-and-file party workers, honest and dedicated to the cause of communism, fell victim to Stalin's despotism.” — Original (Russian) — Он действовал не путем убеждения, разъяснения, кропотливой работы с людьми, а путем навязывания своих установок, путем требования безоговорочного подчинения его мнению. Тот, кто сопротивлялся этому или старался доказывать свою точку зрения, свою правоту, тот был обречен на исключение из руководящего коллектива с последующим моральным и физическим уничтожением. Это особенно проявилось в период после XVII съезда партии, когда жертвами деспотизма Сталина оказались многие честные, преданные делу коммунизма, выдающиеся деятели партии и рядовы работники партии. — English: U.S. Department of State text of the speech as printed in the Congressional Record, 84th Congress, 2nd Session, vol. 102, part 7 (4 June 1956), pp. 9389-9403, in the English translation then released; translator not credited — February 25, 1956 · Speech · Moscow, Twentieth Congress of the C.P.S.U., closed session — Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Central Committee, addressed delegates in a closed session after the end of the Congress's formal business. The speech was not published in the Soviet press at the time. — Report to a closed session of the Twentieth Congress of the C.P.S.U., 'On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences', 25 February 1956; English: Congressional Record, 4 June 1956, pp. 9389-9403 (State Department text); Russian: Izvestiya TsK KPSS, 1989, no. 3, as reproduced online [Source](https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1956khrushchev-secret1.asp) 2. **Content note:** Describes mass repression and confessions obtained by physical pressure. The words are shown as they were said or written. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) — > “Stalin originated the concept enemy of the people. This term automatically rendered it unnecessary that the ideological errors of a man or men engaged in a controversy be proven; this term made possible the usage of the most cruel repression, violating all norms of revolutionary legality, against anyone who in any way disagreed with Stalin, against those who were only suspected of hostile intent, against those who had bad reputations. This concept, enemy of the people, actually eliminated the possibility of any kind of ideological fight or the making of one's views known on this or that issue, even those of a practical character. In the main, and in actuality, the only proof of guilt used, against all norms of current legal science, was the confession of the accused himself, and, as subsequent probing proved, confessions were acquired through physical pressures against the accused.” — Original (Russian) — Сталин ввел понятие "враг народа". Этот термин сразу освобождал от необходимости всяких доказательств идейной неправоты человека или людей, с которыми ты ведешь полемику: он давал возможность всякого, кто в чем-то не согласен со Сталиным, кто был только заподозрен во враждебных намерениях, всякого, кто был просто оклеветан, подвергнуть самым жестоким репрессиям, с нарушением всяких норм революционной законности. Это понятие "враг народа" по существу уже снимало, исключало возможность какой-либо идейной борьбы или выражения своего мнения по тем или иным вопросам даже практического значения. Основным и, по сути дела, единственным доказательством вины делалось, вопреки всем нормам современной юридической науки, "признание" самого обвиняемого, причем это "признание", как показала затем проверка, получалось путем физических мер воздействия на обвиняемого. — English: U.S. Department of State text of the speech as printed in the Congressional Record, 84th Congress, 2nd Session, vol. 102, part 7 (4 June 1956), pp. 9389-9403, in the English translation then released; translator not credited — February 25, 1956 · Speech · Moscow, Twentieth Congress of the C.P.S.U., closed session — In the same report, Khrushchev described how the formula 'enemy of the people' had been used in the 1930s and how confessions had been obtained. — Report to a closed session of the Twentieth Congress of the C.P.S.U., 'On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences', 25 February 1956; English: Congressional Record, 4 June 1956, pp. 9389-9403 (State Department text); Russian: Izvestiya TsK KPSS, 1989, no. 3, as reproduced online [Source](https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1956khrushchev-secret1.asp) 3. **Content note:** Describes torture to obtain confessions. The words are shown as they were said or written. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) — > “When Stalin said that one or another should be arrested, it was necessary to accept on faith that he was an “enemy of the people.” Meanwhile, Beria’s gang, which ran the organs of state security, outdid itself in proving the guilt of the arrested and the truth of materials which it falsified. And what proofs were offered? The confessions of the arrested, and the investigative judges accepted these “confessions.” And how is it possible that a person confesses to crimes which he has not committed? Only in one way –because of the application of physical methods of pressuring him, tortures, bringing him to a state of unconsciousness, deprivation of his judgment, taking away of his human dignity. In this manner were “confessions” acquired.” — Original (Russian) — Когда Сталин говорил, что такого-то надо арестовать, то следовало принимать на веру, что это "враг народа". А банда Берия, хозяйничавшая в органах госбезопасности, из кожи лезла вон, чтобы доказать виновность арестованных лиц, правильность сфабрикованных ими материалов. А какие доказательства пускались в ход? Признания арестованных. И следователи добывали эти "признания". Но как можно получить от человека признание в преступлениях, которых он никогда не совершал? Только одним способом - применением физических методов воздействия, путем истязаний, лишения сознания, лишения рассудка, лишения человеческого достоинства. Так добывались мнимые "признания". — English: English text hosted by Marxists Internet Archive (marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/1956/02/24.htm); translator not credited — February 25, 1956 · Speech · Moscow, Twentieth Congress of the C.P.S.U., closed session — Khrushchev described how arrests were made on Stalin's word and how evidence was obtained by the security organs under Beria. — Report to a closed session of the Twentieth Congress of the C.P.S.U., 'On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences', 25 February 1956; English: Congressional Record, 4 June 1956, pp. 9389-9403 (State Department text); Russian: Izvestiya TsK KPSS, 1989, no. 3, as reproduced online [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/1956/02/24.htm) 4. > “He discarded the Leninist method of convincing and educating, he abandoned the method of ideological struggle for that of administrative violence, mass repressions and terror.” — Original (Russian) — Он отбрасывал ленинский метод убеждения и воспитания, переходил с позиций идейной борьбы на путь административного подавления, на путь массовых репрессий, на путь террора. — English: English text of the speech hosted by Marxists Internet Archive (a different English text from the State Department version printed in the Congressional Record); translator not named on the page — February 25, 1956 · Speech · Moscow, Twentieth Congress of the C.P.S.U., closed session Verified (secondary source) — Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Central Committee, addressed delegates in a closed session after the Congress's formal business. The speech was not published in the Soviet press at the time. The sentences that follow say arbitrary behaviour by one person permitted arbitrariness in others. — Report to a closed session of the Twentieth Congress of the C.P.S.U., 'On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences', 25 February 1956; Russian text as reproduced at hrono.ru (Khronos) [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/1956/02/24.htm) 5. > “it is impermissible and foreign to the spirit of Marxism-Leninism to elevate one person, to transform him into a superman possessing supernatural characteristics, akin to those of a god. Such a man supposedly knows everything, sees everything, thinks for everyone, can do anything, is infallible in his behavior.” — Original (Russian) — недопустимости чуждого духу марксизма-ленинизма возвеличивания одной личности, превращения ее в какого-то сверхчеловека, обладающего сверхъестественными качествами, наподобие бога. Этот человек будто бы все знает, все видит, за всех думает, все может сделать; он непогрешим в своих поступках. — English: English text of the speech hosted by Marxists Internet Archive (a different English text from the State Department version printed in the Congressional Record); translator not named on the page — February 25, 1956 · Speech · Moscow, Twentieth Congress of the C.P.S.U., closed session Verified (secondary source) — Opening passage of the closed-session report on the cult of the individual around Stalin. Khrushchev says the Central Committee began, after Stalin's death, to explain why such elevation of a person is impermissible. — Report to a closed session of the Twentieth Congress of the C.P.S.U., 'On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences', 25 February 1956; Russian text as reproduced at hrono.ru (Khronos) [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/1956/02/24.htm) 6. > “You may recall that in the United States I was all but accused of wanting to bury every capitalist physically. (Laughter.) The Communists know that capitalism will inevitably go under and are glad that its end will come. But they are not guided in what they do by any naive sentiments or notions, and have no intention of burying the capitalists piecemeal. They know that capitalism is digging its own grave. (Animation, applause.) More precisely, speaking of who will bury whom, it is the working class which, as Karl Marx put it, is the grave-digger of capitalism. (Stormy applause.) And I, being a member of the Communist Party, of the great and mighty working class, do not exclude myself from among the grave-diggers of capitalism.” — English: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1961 (N. S. Khrushchov on Peaceful Co-existence: A Collection); translator not credited. Original-language text not found. — June 21, 1960 · Speech · Bucharest, Third Congress of the Rumanian Workers' Party — Khrushchev, then Chairman of the Council of Ministers and First Secretary, referred to a remark of his that had been reported in the United States as a threat to bury capitalists, and gave his own explanation of it. — From the speech at the Third Congress of the Rumanian Workers' Party, 21 June 1960, in N. S. Khrushchov on Peaceful Co-existence: A Collection (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961), pp. 232-233 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/khrushchevonpeacefulcoexistence.pdf) 7. **Content note:** Warns of war between nuclear-armed states. The words are shown as they were said or written. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) — > “If you did this as the first step towards the unleashing of war, well then, it is evident that nothing else is left to us but to accept this challenge of yours. If, however, you have not lost your self-control and sensibly conceive what this might lead to, then, Mr. President, we and you ought not now to pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the more the two of us pull, the tighter that knot will be tied. And a moment may come when that knot will be tied so tight that even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it, and then it will be necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you, because you yourself understand perfectly of what terrible forces our countries dispose.” — English: U.S. Embassy, Moscow, unofficial translation (telegram 1101, 26 October 1962), as printed in the State Department's Khrushchev-Kennedy Exchanges. Original-language text not found. — October 26, 1962 · Letter · Moscow — Written during the Cuban Missile Crisis, after the United States had announced a naval quarantine of Cuba. The text was passed to the White House on 26 October 1962. — Letter from Khrushchev to President Kennedy, 26 October 1962, Embassy translation, in Department of State, Khrushchev-Kennedy Exchanges (volume 6, as reproduced by the Marxists Internet Archive) [Source](https://www.marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/1962/10/26.htm) ## Often attributed, not verified These words circulate under Nikita Khrushchev’s name but could not be traced to a source. They are listed so readers can check them, not as Nikita Khrushchev’s words. - > “We will take America without firing a shot.” — Apocryphal Usually said to come from: Attributed to Khrushchev in the early 1960s in popular articles, often in the longer form that Americans would be handed communism 'in small doses'. — No Khrushchev speech, interview or letter containing the wording was located in this pass, including in the 1961 Foreign Languages Publishing House collection that was searched for 'bury'. Not published as Khrushchev's words. - > “We will bury you.” — Unverifiable Usually said to come from: Khrushchev to Western ambassadors at a reception in Moscow, 18 November 1956. — The remark is widely reported, and Khrushchev's own later explanation (1960) is published in this file, but the original reception remark was not seen in a primary text in this pass. Not published as a quotation; see khrushchev-1960-06-21-who-will-bury-whom.