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Young Khrushchev Considered Moving to U.S. for Higher Wages

Jan. 11, 1962 - Nikita S. Khrushchev, when a youth, considered emigrating to the United States to earn higher wages, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller said today. The Governor recalled a remark made by the Soviet Premier in a conversation at the Waldorf-Astoria in 1959 when Mr. Khrushchev was touring the U.S. “When Premier Khrushchev was here,” related the Governor, “I tried to give him a little feeling of the forces — human and spiritual — that motivate the people of the state.” “I mentioned to him that a half-million New Yorkers came from his country. He said, ‘I know very well about that. I almost came here myself.’ I asked him why. He answered, ‘Obviously, higher wages.’” Mr. Khrushchev was a pipe-fitter in coal mines before he joined the Communist party in 1918 at the age of 22.

© 2024 by Joe Rubenstein

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