"We'll Let You Live"

From first to last, Moscow's 21st Communist Party Congress was Nikita Khrushchev's show. It opened with his boast that Russia is first in the firmament, with its Lunik and its "mass-produced" intercontinental rockets, and his seven-year economic plan would make it first on earth. It closed with the cocky boss, an energetic 64, firing some of the roughest and rudest taunts that he has ever let fly at the West. In between, 86 Soviet delegates and 45 representatives of foreign Communist parties paid telling tribute to "the distinguished activity," "the tremendous organizing work," "the majestic firmness" of their leader, who beamed at the sycophant praise as broadly as ever Joseph Stalin did.

So complete was Nikita Khrushchev's ascendancy last week that he could proclaim that during those 1957 days of "collective leadership," when "the cult of the individual" was out of favor, he had actually been outvoted in the inner leadership, 7 to 4 as Western specialists had suspected at the time (TIME, Sept. 16, 1957). To the routine condemnation of the "loathsome" Malenkov and his allies, Kaganovich, Molotov and Bulganin, Leningrad's party secretary demanded that former Presidium Members Mikhail Pervukhin and Maxim Saburov admit that they, too, had sided with "the anti-party group" against Khrushchev.

Both of these former Soviet planning chiefs, the one now ambassador to East Germany and the other manager of a factory on the Volga, stepped to the rostrum to grovel. Pervukhin tried to hold back a bit: "Though I was unable to discern the anti-party group's plans, when the group openly raised the question of changing the leadership, I did not agree or support them." Such a qualified confession was not enough. Planning Chief Joseph Kuzmin got up to say that his predecessor had squandered such enormous sums on high-cost hydroelectric and chemical projects that Khrushchev himself had to interfere and set things right. Four days later, Pravda reported on a back page that appeals had been received against "decisions of expulsion from the party," suggesting that Khrushchev had earmarked his victims but had no current need of doing them in.

"Close to Discrimination." Khrushchev was in top form on the last day. Labeling Western leaders "dealers in blood, merchants of death," he demanded that "generals who think the U.S. would remain invulnerable in the event of another war should come out of their fool's paradise," and grasp that "coexistence is the paramount task of our time." "We shall win," he cried, "but we'll let you live."

He was unyielding on Germany and Berlin. As for the West's new Geneva proposals for international nuclear inspection teams, he said that this meant "organization of a full-scale intelligence network of the Western powers on our territory," but nothing of the kind in Western territories because "we do not have any war aims and do not need to make a reconnaissance of their territory."

In much the same tone, Khrushchev blamed the Eisenhower Administration for trying to nullify what he called "the certain thaw in relations between our countries that took place in connection with the favorable reception accorded [Deputy Premier] Mikoyan." Picking up President Eisenhower's press-conference comment on Mikoyan's visit, that "you couldn't do this" with Premier Khrushchev, he exclaimed in mock dismay: "This is something very close to discrimination." He invited Eisenhower to visit the Soviet Union--"and we don't make this invitation conditional on reciprocity; we don't impose our visits on anybody." To Secretary Dulles' observation that the Soviet Union still seeks cold-war victory, he retorted: "Well, Mr. Dulles, if that's what you want, then for the sake of ending the cold war we are ready to concede you the victory. Consider yourselves the victors in that pointless war, gentlemen, only hurry up and get it over with."

"Three Bags Full." Warming to his denunciations, Khrushchev turned on his recent guest, Minnesota's Democratic Senator Hubert Humphrey. "In the expectation of a noisy sensation, Humphrey, in his speeches and articles, told fairy tales, three bags full, such as the story that he had brought a special message from the Soviet government to President Eisenhower--of course no such message existed at all--and that I had imparted two important secrets to him.

"Senator Humphrey's wild imagination ran riot when he began to make up his inventions about the relations between the Soviet Union and the Chinese People's Republic. In this he even surpassed the well-known compiler of lies, Baron Munchausen." Without explicitly denying Humphrey's report that Khrushchev had described China's communes as "reactionary," Khrushchev said: "The idea that I could have been in any way confidential with a man who himself boasts of his 20-year struggle against Communism can only serve to raise a laugh."*

"Ovation 1." Khrushchev raised laughter or cheers on schedule. In fact, reported Pravda, his closing speech drew even bigger cheers than his stem-winding keynoter. Pravda's box score: applause 14 times, stormy applause 20, stormy and prolonged applause 15, animation in the hall 11, laughter 3, ovation 1, everyone stands 2.

* Replying that he had accurately quoted the Soviet Premier, Humphrey said: "Mr. Khrushchev appears particularly sensitive, and understandably so, to having some of his remarks about Red China's communes publicized."

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