Nikita Khrushchev Superb 3pp DS Dating from His Days Administering Ukraine, Untranslated

A government document typed in Russian Cyrillic signed by two of the most important Soviet leaders of the twentieth century: Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971), the future premier of the Soviet Union; and Lazar Kaganovich (1893-1991), one of Josef Stalin's closest advisers. The document is untranslated and should yield many interesting discoveries. Provenance: From the collection of Ron Hoskins, assassinologist.

The signatures of both officials, Khrushchev and Kaganovich, appear at the bottom of the third page of this 3pp document. 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 lower left. Kaganovich, serving as Secretary of the Central Committee of the KPU (Communist Party of Ukraine) has signed in purple ink as "L. Kaganovich" at lower 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. Minor chipped edges and isolated corner loss. Else near fine. 8.125" x 11.875."

The untranslated document appears to discuss companies and commodities in Voroshilovgrad, now Luhansk in modern day eastern Ukraine. The city of Voroshilovgrad was known as such between 1935-1958 and 1970-1990. The first of these time periods coincides with the date "8.10.47" (October 8, 1947) docketed on the bottom of the third page. The year "1947" also appears within the body of the text on the second 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, the cosigner of this document. 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.

Lazar Kaganovich was Khrushchev's old mentor from the earliest days of the Russian Revolution. The two had met as early as 1917, and Khrushchev had served as Kaganovich's second-in-command in Ukraine in the 1920s.

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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