Nikita Khrushchev DS Dating from His Days Administering Ukraine

A 2pp government document typed in Russian Cyrillic signed by two important twentieth-century Soviet leaders: Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971), the future premier of the Soviet Union; and Demyan Korotchenko (1894-1969), Prime Minister of Ukraine between 1947-1954. The document is untranslated and should yield many interesting discoveries.

The signatures of both officials, Khrushchev and Korotchenko, appear at the center of the second page. Khrushchev, then in his role as Chairman of the Board of Ministers of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, signed as "N. Khrushchev" in green ink at left. Korotchenko, serving as Secretary of the Central Committee of the KPU (Communist Party of Ukraine), has signed in purple ink as "D. Korotchenko" at right. The paginated typed sheets show scattered pencil and pen notations, and were also given a separate series of page numbers, probably clerical, at upper right. Double hole-punched at left. A few minor chipped edges, wrinkles, and supplemental holes possibly made by brass fasteners found near the left margin. Else near fine. 7.875" x 11.375."

The untranslated document appears to discuss Shitomir, now known as Zhytomyr, located in modern day western Ukraine. This city forms the center of a major transportation network between Kiev, Ukraine to the east and Brest, Belarus to the west. The date "23.11.47" or November 23, 1947 is docketed on the bottom of the second page. The year "1947" also appears within the body of the text on the first page.

If in fact from late 1947, this document dates from an extremely precarious period in Khrushchev's political career. Khrushchev was then serving as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, a position he had held since 1938. A series of bad harvests, drought conditions, and postwar instability had left Ukraine, the Soviet Union's bread basket, in desperate straits after 1945. Stalin's government still mandated that state and collective farms surrender them 52% of their crop yields, however.

In early 1947, Khrushchev lobbied Stalin in person for food aid for Ukraine and eventually received it, at a cost; Stalin was so irritated by Khrushchev's "mischief-making" that the premier temporarily removed Khrushchev from the secretaryship and replaced him with Lazar Kaganovich. Yet Khrushchev was sufficiently restored in Stalin's graces to be restored to his office by December 1947. This political rehabilitation was no small feat when one considers the toxic political environment. Khrushchev himself had participated in Stalin's purges (arrests, exile, and executions) while managing Ukraine.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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