shoe-banging incident

File:Khruschev shoe fake.jpg, 10 October 1960, AP archives (below){{cite magazine |author=Frances Romero |date=23 September 2008 |title=Khrushchev Loses His Cool |url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1843506_1843505_1843496,00.html |url-status=dead |magazine=Time |publisher=Time Inc. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080927012616/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1843506_1843505_1843496,00.html |archive-date=27 September 2008}} Using the fake photo.{{cite news |title=Khrushchev Addressing United Nations General Assembly |publisher=Associated Press |url=http://www.apimages.com/OneUp.aspx?st=k&kw=Khrushchev%20united%20nations&showact=results&sort=date&intv=None&sh=10&kwstyle=or&adte=1326241932&pagez=60&cfasstyle=AND&rids=fe049dbbcfd14693bdb83ac7f155a6d1&dbm=SContent&page=1&xslt=1&mediatype=Photo |url-status=}} The original photo from the AP.{{Dead link|date=June 2023}}{{cite news |author=Abbas |first=Faisal J. |date=16 December 2008 |title=Shoe Fetishism...The Arab Way! |work=The Huffington Post |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/faisal-abbas/shoe-fetishismthe-arab-wa_b_151376.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230302204916/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/shoe-fetishismthe-arab-wa_b_151376 |archive-date=2 March 2023}} Using the fake image.{{cite news |script-title=ru:Хрущев кричал в ООН про кузькину мать, чтобы поглумиться над переводчиками |language=Russian |date=29 March 2004 |publisher=КОМСОМОЛЬСКАЯ ПРАВДА (Komsomolskaya Pravda) |trans-title=Khrushchev was shouting at the UN about the gruel to mock translators |url=http://kp.ru/daily/23245/27710/ |newspaper=Kp.ru - }}{{cite news |author=Latynina |first=Yulia |date=3 October 2008 |title= |script-title=ru:Трагические последствия победы |language=Russian |trans-title=The Tragic Consequences of Victory |publisher=The Daily Journal |url=http://www.ej.ru/?a=note&id=8454}} Russian oppositional site using the original picture.]]

On 12 October 1960, head of the Filipino delegation Lorenzo Sumulong referred to "the peoples of Eastern Europe and elsewhere which have been deprived of the free exercise of their civil and political rights and which have been swallowed up, so to speak, by the Soviet Union".Official Records, 15th Session of the UN General Assembly Upon hearing this, Khrushchev quickly came to the rostrum, being recognized on a point of order. There he demonstratively, in a theatrical manner, brushed Sumulong aside, with an upward motion of his right arm—without physically touching him—and began a lengthy denunciation of Sumulong, branding him (among other things) as "a jerk, a stooge, and a lackey", and a "toady of American imperialism"Other translations exist, see Nina Khrushcheva's article and demanded Assembly President Frederick Boland (Ireland) call Sumulong to order. Boland did caution Sumulong to "avoid wandering out into an argument which is certain to provoke further interventions", but permitted him to continue speaking and sent Khrushchev back to his seat.{{cite book |title=A Global Affair: An Inside Look at the United Nations |year=1995 |editor1=Amy Janello |editor2=Brennon Jones |isbn=1-86064-139-3 |page=230 |publisher=Jones & Janello |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pPOnZgXAqecC&q=%22eduard+mezincescu%22+%22united+nations%22&pg=RA1-PA230}}

According to some sources, Khrushchev pounded his fists on his desk in protest as Sumulong continued to speak, and at one point picked up his shoe and banged the desk with it.{{cite book |title=A Global Affair: An Inside Look at the United Nations |year=1995 |editor1=Amy Janello |editor2=Brennon Jones |isbn=1-86064-139-3 |page=230 |publisher=Jones & Janello |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pPOnZgXAqecC&q=%22eduard+mezincescu%22+%22united+nations%22&pg=RA1-PA230}} Some other sources report a different order of events: Khrushchev first banged the shoe then went to the rostrum to protest.{{cite book |title=Nikita Khrushchev |url=https://archive.org/details/nikitakhrushchev00khru_0 |url-access=registration |author=William Taubman |authorlink=William Taubman |author2=Sergei Khrushchev |author2-link=Sergei Khrushchev |author3=Abbott Gleason |author4=David Gehrenbeck |publisher=Yale University Press |date=May 2000 |isbn=0-300-07635-5}} Sumulong's speech was again interrupted. Another point of order was raised by the highly agitated Romanian Foreign Vice-minister {{ill|Eduard Mezincescu|ro}}, a member of the Eastern Bloc. Mezincescu gave his own angry denunciation of Sumulong and then turned his anger on Boland, his provoking, insulting, and ignoring of the Assembly President leading to his microphone being eventually shut off. This prompted a chorus of shouts and jeers from the Eastern Bloc delegations. The chaotic scene finally ended when Boland abruptly declared the meeting adjourned and slammed his gavel, named Thor's gavel, down so hard he broke it, sending the head flying.{{Cite news |date=1960-11-25 |title=Boland has many gavels since October's Big 'Bang' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-baltimore-sun-boland-has-many-gavels/132328022/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |work=The Baltimore Sun |pages=2}}

This incident was reported at the time by a number of newspapers, including The New York Times,{{cite news | url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00E1FFF3D5B1A738DDDAA0994D8415B808AF1D3 | title = Khrushchev Bangs His Shoe on Desk | author = Benjamin Welles | newspaper = The New York Times | date = 13 October 1960 | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20140331103528/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00E1FFF3D5B1A738DDDAA0994D8415B808AF1D3 | url-status = live | archivedate = 31 March 2014}} The Washington Post,{{cite news | title = Enraged K Cries "Jerk", Gavel Breaks in Uproar: Enraged K Waves Shoe, Calls Opponent "Jerk" | newspaper = The Washington Post | date = 13 October 1960}} The Guardian,{{cite news | title = UN adjourned in disorder: Mr K bangs desk with his shoe, President breaks his gavel | newspaper = The Guardian | date = 13 October 1960}} The Times,{{cite news | title = "If I Go to the Bottom I Shall Drag You Down Too": Mr K's Parting Shot at UN | newspaper = The Times | date = 14 October 1960|page=10}} and Le Monde.{{cite news | title =M. Khrouchtchev affirme que si ses propositions sont rejetées les peuples colonisés seront contraints de prendre les armes | newspaper = Le Monde | date = 14 October 1960}} The New York Times had a photograph that pictured Khrushchev and Andrei Gromyko, with a shoe on Khrushchev's desk.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nytstore.com/Soviet-Premier-Nikita-Khrushchev--1960_p_4993.html|title=Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev with his shoe before him, at the United Nations, 1960|first=Carl T., Jr|last=Gossett|newspaper=The New York Times|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331103614/http://www.nytstore.com/Soviet-Premier-Nikita-Khrushchev--1960_p_4993.html|archivedate=2014-03-31|access-date=2014-03-31|url-status=dead}}

This incident should not be confused with an earlier one at the General Assembly, on 29 September, when Khrushchev angrily interrupted Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, banging the desk and shouting in Russian, at which Macmillan drily said "I should like that to be translated, if I may".{{cite news|title=Premier Angers Khrushschev|newspaper=The Scotsman|location=Edinburgh|date=30 September 1960|page=1}}{{cite news|title=Nikita Beats On Desk, Screams As Macmillan Speaks In U.N.|newspaper=Oakland Tribune|date=29 September 1960|page=1}}

File:Statue Nikita Chruschtschow (Lehrpfad der unholdigen Personen).jpg, Germany]]

Khrushchev was reported to be delighted with his performance, but other members of Eastern Bloc delegations to the UN were embarrassed or displeased.{{citation | last = Taubman | first = William | year = 2003 | title = Khrushchev: The Man and His Era | publisher = W.W. Norton & Co. | isbn = 978-0-393-32484-6|page=476| title-link = Khrushchev: The Man and His Era }} Khrushchev was removed as leader in 1964, and he was criticized for the incident: "a shameful episode that he still presents as an act of valor".{{citation | last = Taubman | first = William | year = 2003 | title = Khrushchev: The Man and His Era | publisher = W.W. Norton & Co. | isbn = 978-0-393-32484-6|pages=476, 762| title-link = Khrushchev: The Man and His Era }}

In 1961, Marxist philosopher Frantz Fanon commented: "And when Mr. Khrushchev brandishes his shoe at the United Nations and hammers the table with it, no colonized individual, no representative of the underdeveloped countries laughs. For what Mr. Khrushchev is showing the colonized countries who are watching is that he, the missile-wielding muzhik, is treating these wretched capitalists the way they deserve."{{cite book |author=Frantz Fanon |title=The Wretched of the Earth | translator=Richard Philcox | publisher=Grove Press |isbn=0-8021-4132-3 |year=2004|page=37|title-link=The Wretched of the Earth }}

Khrushchev mentioned the shoe-banging in his memoirs, writing that he was speaking strongly against the Franco regime in Spain. A representative of Spain took the floor to reply and, after his speech, the delegates from Socialist countries made a lot of noise in protest. Khrushchev wrote: "Remembering reports I have read about the sessions of the State Duma in Russia, I decided to add a little more heat. I took off my shoe and pounded it on desk so that our protest would be louder."{{cite book |author=Sergei Khrushchev |title=Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev. Vol. III: Statesman |publisher=Penn State Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-271-02935-1 |page=269 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EkFZqlgdzCkC&q=%22kuzma%27s+mother%22&pg=PA268}} The footnote to this text says that Khrushchev's recollections are mistaken. The Times, on 3 October 1960, had reported that Khrushchev launched an "angry tirade" against Franco on 1 October, and the article made no mention of shoe-banging.{{cite news | title = Mr K Rebuked by UN Assembly President: Angry Tirade against General Franco | newspaper = The Times | date = 3 October 1960|page=7}}

Khrushchev's great-granddaughter Nina L. Khrushcheva writes that, after years of embarrassed silence, her family explained their recollection of the event. According to Nina, Khrushchev was wearing new and tight shoes, so he took them off while sitting. He started pounding the table with his fist during his angry response, and his watch fell off. When he was picking it up, his empty shoes caught his eye and he took the opportunity to pick one up and pound the desk with it. She also mentions that many versions of the incident have been in circulation, with various dates and occasions.{{cite news |author=Khrushcheva |first=Nina |date=2 October 2000 |title=The case of Khrushchev's shoe |work=New Statesman |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200010020025 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061123043518/http://www.newstatesman.com/nssubsfilter.php3?newTemplate=NSArticle_NS&newDisplayURN=200010020025 |archivedate=23 November 2006 |authorlink=Nina L. Khrushcheva}}

Nina's account is very similar to that of Khrushchev's long-time interpreter Viktor Sukhodrev, who sat with him during the event and reported that his boss pounded on his delegate-desk so hard that his watch stopped, which only infuriated him further and prompted the switch to the shoe.

Sergei Khrushchev (Nikita's son) stated that he could not find any photo or video evidence of the incident. Both NBC and CBC ran a search in their archives but were unable to find a tape of the event.

In Sergei's opinion, it would be very unlikely that Nikita Khrushchev intentionally removed his shoe. There was little space under the desk, and the Soviet leader, being somewhat overweight, could not reach his feet.{{cite news |url=http://www.izvestia.ru/world/article23548/ |script-title=ru:А был ли ботинок? |trans-title=Was there a shoe? |newspaper=Izvestia |date=9 August 2002 |accessdate=28 September 2010|language=Russian }} This specific issue was addressed in 2002 by a former UN staffer, who said that Khrushchev could not have spontaneously removed his shoe at his desk but had previously lost it after a journalist stepped on it. The UN staffer then retrieved the shoe, wrapped it in a napkin, and passed it back to Khrushchev, who was unable to put it back on and had to leave it on the floor next to his desk; the same staffer also confirmed that she saw him later bang the shoe on the desk, thus lending credence to the reports by Nina Khrushcheva and Viktor Sukhodrev.

According to German journalist {{ill|Walter Henkels|de}}, a shoe producer in Pirmasens said he had seen a picture of the shoe in a newspaper and recognized it as being from his company. The Federal Ministry of Economics explained that West Germany had sent 30,000 pairs of shoes to the Soviet Union. Among them were 2,000 pairs of good low shoes, and one of them might have found its way to Khrushchev.{{Cite book |last=Henkels |first=Walter |url= |title=Adenauers gesammelte Bosheiten: eine anekdotische Nachlese |publisher=Econ Verlag GmbH |year=1983 |pages=55–56 |language=de}}

• "We will bury you"
• Kuzma's mother
• Bush shoeing incident

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For a detailed scholarly analysis of this incident giving the full context, see Thomas M. Prymak, "Cold War Clash, New York City, September-October 1960: Comrade Khrushchev vs 'Dief the Chief'," International History Review vol. 45, no. 1 (2023), 134-51.

Category:1960 in American politics

Category:1960 in international relations

Category:1960 in military history

Category:1960 in New York City

Category:1960 in the United Nations

Category:Foreign relations of the Soviet Union

Category:Diplomatic incidents

Category:Nikita Khrushchev

Banging incident

Category:Cold War speeches

Category:October 1960

Banging incident

Category:United Nations General Assembly