# What was the Soviet reaction to news of the JFK assassination? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 12, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667 "2010-01-12T16:03:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/1 "2010-01-12T16:03:22Z")
There’s a lot of info on American reporting of the JFK assassination, but is there much info on what the reaction was in Moscow? Did they consider that it might have been some rogue agent of theirs? It would have nine hours later in Moscow, so a little after 10:00 pm when the announcement was made that JFK had died. Did they have to wake up or sober up Khrushchev to give him the news? It was only a couple of hours before Lee Harvey was identified as a person of interest, so had “the lights started burning in the Kremlin” waiting to see how things were playing out? Or did they just then call it a night, relieved that it wasn’t one of theirs? ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/2 "2010-01-13T00:04:59Z")
According to [an FBI report that was declassified in 1997](http://www.indiana.edu/~oah/nl/98feb/jfk.html): > [@](#): > > A source who has furnished reliable information in the past and who was in Russia on the date of the assassination of the late President John F. Kennedy advised on December 4, 1963, that the news of the assassination of President Kennedy was flashed to the Soviet people almost immediately after its occurrence. It was greeted by great shock and consternation and church bells were tolled in the memory of President Kennedy. > > According to our source, officials of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union believed there was some well-organized conspiracy on the part of the “ultraright” in the United States to effect a “coup.” They seemed convinced that the assassination was not the deed of one man, but that it rose out of a carefully planned campaign in which several people played a part. They felt those elements interested in utilizing the assassination and playing on anticommunist sentiments in the United States would then utilize this act to stop negotiations with the Soviet Union, attack Cuba and thereafter spread the war. As a result of these feelings, the Soviet Union immediately went into a state of national alert. > > Our source further stated that Soviet officials were fearful that without leadership, some irresponsible general in the United States might launch a missile at the Soviet Union. It was the further opinion of the Soviet officials that only maniacs would think that the “left” forces in the United States, as represented by the Communist Party, USA, would assassinate President Kennedy, especially in view of the abuse the Communist Party, USA, has taken from the “ultraleft” as a result of its support of peaceful coexistence and disarmament policies of the Kennedy administration. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/3 "2010-01-13T14:32:46Z")
Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/4 "2010-01-13T14:44:52Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Thank you! Likewise. I’m glad the Dope has put that shit to rest.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/5 "2010-01-13T17:20:06Z")
Khruschev met with the U.S. ambassador in the Kremlin pretty shortly after the news broke, IIRC, and seemed distraught. I still remember a photo in the _Time/Life_ book about the assassination that showed Khruschev signing the mourning book at the U.S. embassy next to a ramrod-straight Marine. ---
**Author:** ![code\_grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@code\_grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/code_grey)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/6 "2010-01-13T19:46:32Z")
tolling of church bells in 1963 Russia over anybody seems really incongruous. To me this suggests either a state-sponsored spectacle (i.e. the local Party officials would have gone to those churches and told them to do it while the diplomat was nearby) or just a plain lie. The angst over the anti-Communist fallout is certainly understandable. E.g. if it were the “bad ultra-left” who were guilty and not the “good Communist left” are the Americans supposed to tell the difference? ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/7 "2010-01-13T20:01:58Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Khruschev met with the U.S. ambassador in the Kremlin pretty shortly after the news broke, IIRC, and seemed distraught. I still remember a photo in the _Time/Life_ book about the assassination that showed Khruschev signing the mourning book at the U.S. embassy next to a ramrod-straight Marine. I highly doubt Kruschev had any love lost between him and JFk, but the _appearance_ of mourning may have been useful. Remember that this was int he aftermath (and not long after) the Blockade, Bay of Pigs, and Kennedy’s speach near the Berlin Wall. Kennedy was a balls-out Cold Warrior. He and Kruschev clashed multiple times. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/8 "2010-01-13T21:48:37Z")
Yes and no. I’d say they also essentially understood each other by late 1963 and had a healthy mutual respect (which couldn’t be said early in JFK’s term). The President had given a thoughtful, conciliatory speech at American University early that summer that helped lay the groundwork for later _detente_; it got a lot of attention in Moscow: [American Rhetoric: John F. Kennedy - American University Address](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkamericanuniversityaddress.html). After the Test Ban Treaty and U.S. sales of grain to the Soviet Union, the Soviet leadership saw Kennedy as someone they could do business with - unlike, for instance, Goldwater. IIRC, the U.S. ambassador thought Khruschev sincere in his grief. Ol’ Nikita wasn’t _that_ good an actor. ---
**Author:** ![633squadron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/ee59a6/32.png) [@633squadron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/633squadron)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/9 "2010-01-14T03:13:08Z")
> [@code\_grey](#): > > tolling of church bells in 1963 Russia over anybody seems really incongruous. To me this suggests either a state-sponsored spectacle (i.e. the local Party officials would have gone to those churches and told them to do it while the diplomat was nearby) or just a plain lie. > > The angst over the anti-Communist fallout is certainly understandable. E.g. if it were the “bad ultra-left” who were guilty and not the “good Communist left” are the Americans supposed to tell the difference? Cynic. In truth, the Soviets officially tried to get rid of religion but were unable to get rid of the artifacts. My guess is that most people had icons and religious stuff, but simply didn’t parade around with it. The churches and bells were left. They’re still there. The Soviets thankfully considered them to be cultural heritage, just like the Czar’s Summer and Winter palaces in St. Petersburg. I am thoroughly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist, and I have lots of problems with the modern Russian government. I still think that the Russian people _were_ shocked by the Kennedy assassination, as any humane person would be shocked by the blatant murder of a popular public official. It’s a mistake to think that all Russians were cold and unfeeling; in fact, quite the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/10 "2010-01-14T04:27:11Z")
> [@633squadron](#): > > …I am thoroughly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist, and I have lots of problems with the modern Russian government. I still think that the Russian people _were_ shocked by the Kennedy assassination, as any humane person would be shocked by the blatant murder of a popular public official. It’s a mistake to think that all Russians were cold and unfeeling; in fact, quite the opposite. Well said, and I agree. Read Hedrick Smith’s _The Russians_ for IMHO a good look at Soviet society in the early-to-mid-Seventies, not all that different in many ways (due to Brezhnevian stagnancy) from at the time of JFK’s death. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/11 "2010-01-14T04:49:35Z")
I’ve read the Soviet officials were very concerned about their ties to Oswald. He had lived in Russia for a few years until the Soviets realized he was a paranoid nut job and was useless to them. Any history buffs recall if the Soviets sent a representative to JFK’s funeral? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/12 "2010-01-16T23:03:16Z")
I can’t find it online or in any of my books, but IIRC Aleksey Kosygin, at that time premier of the Soviet Union, led the Soviet delegation. It would be the rough equivalent of us sending the Vice President to a high-level funeral overseas. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Baldy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Gary\_Baldy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/13 "2010-01-16T23:22:57Z")
Anastas Mikoyan attended the funeral. He was the First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union and the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet at the time. He met with Johnson to reassure the USA that the USSR had nothing to do with the assassination. It should be noted that according to Vasili Mitrokhin’s KGB files that the USSR helped foster conspiracy theories about the assassination both inside the USA and throughout the world. Besides spreading rumors, the KGB also forged fake letters and other “evidence.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/14 "2010-01-17T02:08:12Z")
On an earlier White House visit, JFK’s aide and resident joker Paul “Red” Fay had greeted the Soviet poobah and asked him, “Are you the real Mikoyan?” ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-soviet-reaction-to-news-of-the-jfk-assassination/524667/15 "2010-01-17T21:25:59Z")
Mikoyan had been one of Stalin’s cronies, a great survivor who dodged all the bullets that Stalin periodically aimed at his entourage. After Stalin’s death and the power struggles that followed he lost all meaningful power and was kicked upstairs to a series of sinecure posts.