Hungary: TRAVELING WITH MIKOYAN QUOTE BY QUOTE

WHEREVER he went—and, as it turned out, whatever he said—Anastas Mikoyan got rave notices from his cold-war-weary U.S. audiences. “Forthright,” was the word used by Detroit industrialists after lunch with Mikoyan. “Refreshingly frank,” glowed a U.S. State Department official. But cold print throws another light on Mikoyan’s forthrightness and frankness. Traveling quote by quote with Anastas Mikoyan:

“The hubbub around the Hungarian question was created here for the specific purpose of encouraging the cold war. There is order in Hungary; there is culture, production and happiness. Recently, elections took place. I recently spoke with leaders in Hungary and with the Hungarian people. They are happy.”

Anti-Semitism in Russia

“All peoples enjoy freedom, and freedom for the development of their culture . . . There is no Jewish problem in the Soviet Union … I have many friends who are Jews.”

Press Freedom

“We think we have got freedom of the press. When one millionaire has ten newspapers and ten million people have no newspapers—that is not freedom of the press.”

Economic Competition

“We are accused of all sorts of terrible things, of us wanting to undermine your market, of dumping and so forth. There was no such talk before, but when you had your recession, there were people who wanted to put the whole blame on the Russians. All these fables of us being such terrible devils are not well founded. We want to trade in earnest and well.”

Kremlin Purges

“One former member of [the antiparty] group [Molotov] became an ambassador. True, the country [Outer Mongolia] may not be large, but it is an ambassadorship. I do not want to mention names, but you have some former Secretaries of State. I do not know where they are today, but they are not ambassadors. A second member of the group [Kaganovich] is now head of the state asbestos trust. Is that punishment, to head up a big monopoly? … It is better to confess to one’s errors than to persist in them.”

The Cold War

“We cannot, after all, ignore the fact that the cold war is being fostered from the U.S. No one will deny that American bases around our country are not being reduced; in fact they are being strengthened. All of this is bound to cause suspicion, and it is bound to cause the Soviet leaders to be cautious and vigilant.”

Missing Flyers

“There are no U.S. flyers in our country. The bodies were handed over to the Americans. We have no other bodies of flyers or living flyers in the Soviet Union. If we had, why should we try to hide them?” .