We will bury you
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Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev famously used an expression generally translated into English as "We will bury you!" ("Мы вас похороним!", transliterated as My vas pokhoronim!) while addressing Western ambassadors at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow on November 18, 1956.[1][2][3] In fact, it was somewhat distorted. The actual quote reads: "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will dig you in" (Нравится вам или нет, но история на нашей стороне. Мы вас закопаем).
On August 24, 1963, Khrushchev himself remarked in his speech in Yugoslavia, "I once said, 'We will bury you,' and I got into trouble with it. Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you," [4] a reference to the Marxist saying, "The proletariat is the undertaker of capitalism", based on the concluding statement in Chapter 1 of the Communist Manifesto: "What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable".
The quotation was used as the title of Jan Šejna's book on communist Cold War strategies.
English musician Sting in his song "Russians" written in 1985 said:
- Mr. Krushchev said we will bury you
- I don't subscribe to this point of view
- It would be such an ignorant thing to do
- If the Russians love their children too.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "We Will Bury You!", Time Magazine, November 26, 1956
- ^ "Khrushchev Tirade Again Irks Envoys", The New York Times, Nov. 19, 1956, p. 1.
- ^ The quote, cited on Bartleby.com and QuotationsPage.com.
- ^ Nikita_Khrushchev on QuotationsPage.com
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Nikita Khrushchev |
- Comments by Stephen Pearl, Chief of the English Interpretation Section of the U.N. in New York from 1980 to 1994. (On Internet Archive.)
