DIPLOMACY: Man from the Kremlin

The big four-engined plane, bearing the hammer and sickle on the fuselage, bore down through the haze toward a runway at New York International Airport, then pulled up again for a second approach and a safe, deft landing. Airport attendants and assembled dignitaries craned for a close look as it taxied up. The TU-114 turboprop was not only the first Russian jet to land in New York but had just made the 4,660 miles from Moscow in a nonstop 11 hr. 6 min.

Out of the plane stepped a stocky, round-faced Russian with a curly iron-grey pompadour who was just as remarkable as the TU-114. He was Soviet First

Deputy Premier Frol Romanovich Kozlov, 50, in the U.S. to open up a Soviet science, technology and culture exhibition in Manhattan (see BUSINESS), accompanied by a group of aides that included the big plane’s designer, Andrei Tupolev. After a greeting from Soviet Ambassador Mikhail (“Smiling Mike”) Menshikov, Kozlov said in Russian: “I am proud of this opportunity to visit your city and your wonderful country.”

Little is known about Kozlov except that he ranks coequal in the Kremlin hierarchy with First Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan. Once an ardent Stalinist (“The Soviet people cannot for one moment forget the bloody intrigues of American imperialists who try to plunge mankind into a new world war”), he helped swing Communism’s 130-man Central Committee behind Khrushchev in his key victory over the Stalinists in June 1957, has since risen rapidly in power.

After he opens the Soviet exhibition, Kozlov will fly to Washington for formal talks with President Eisenhower and Secretary Herter, fly on to San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, and Pittsburgh to see shipyards, steel mills, auto plants and universities.