YouSaid · the spoken record

GROMYKO

lines on the record: 1,518
first: 1957-09-24
most recent: 1984-09-24
sittings or episodes: 22
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Its main result is obvious to all: people no longer hear the blast of rockets or the explosion of nuclear bombs, and their hopes for a future without war are gaining strength. 123. It is not by accident that the more perspicacious minds of the capitalist world, including statesmen, public figures, representatives of business circles, scientists and military men, are all speaking out more and more often in favour of a policy of peaceful coexistence between the two social systems: capitalism and socialism. 124. The Soviet Government addresses this appeal to all Governments: let us develop the relations between States so that international disputes shall be settled at the conference table and not on the field of battle, and no State shall be able to use force against another whose internal structure it does not like.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“Their hands will not tremble should the need again arise to defend their socialist achievements and the freedom and independence of their friends and allies. 121. The Soviet Union is invariably on the side of those who defend themselves, arms in hand, against aggression perpetrated on them, and who react to the flouting of their rights and to colonial oppression by fighting for their liberation and national independence. Many peoples know from their own experience that in their hour of trial they can always rely on firm support from the Soviet Union. 122. We cannot but rejoice that the ranks of the followers of the policy of peaceful coexistence are swelling each year, and that this policy is bearing fruit.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“Our people have the kind but robust and powerful arms of workers, which can force any aggressor to his knees should he dare to encroach upon the frontiers of our homeland. The Soviet people succeeded in upholding their honour and freedom when they had to fight in the years of civil war and of armed foreign intervention launched by fourteen States. They broke the backbone of Hitler's Germany and crushed its military machine. And if the names of those who started that machine are forever accursed, and perhaps remembered only when someone wants to compare the criminal plans for the preparation of a new war with the situation some twenty years ago, this too is primarily to the credit of the Soviet people, who bore the brunt of the struggle against the fascist aggressors.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“The Seven-Year Plan for the development of the national economy, which our country is successfully implementing, and the long-range targets for the development of the economy of the Soviet Union in the next two decades, established in the programme of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, are a translation into the language of figures and production quotas of the policy and plans of peaceful construction. These are the plans of peace. 120. But let no one confuse the Soviet people's hatred for war with non-resistance to the scheming of the aggressors, or with sickly pacifism. The people of our country have more than once proved on the battlefield their steadfastness and their indomitable will to victory.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“It is far from superfluous to emphasize this at this time. The Soviet Government is doing so in the hope that no one will attempt to change by force the order in another country, even a small one, and that all States will strictly observe the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. 119. The Soviet people, who are engaged in the production of the most complicated machines and instruments, in the tilling of fields and gardens, in the contraction of power stations and dams, and in the laying of canals and oil pipelines, want to live in peace with all countries and peoples.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“In the West they often argue along lines something like this: of course, one must willy-nilly coexist with a State belonging to a different social system, if it is powerful and well-armed. Better coexist with it and save one's skin than bring matters to a military conflict, since in such a conflict there are no winners, only losers. However, as soon as the question arises of peaceful coexistence between a strong capitalist Power and a small country, particularly a neighbouring one, there is an immediate and marked decline in willingness to pursue a policy of peaceful coexistence, and the long-outmoded methods of dictatorship and blackmail are brought into play. 118. These methods are dangerous to the cause of peace, very dangerous. They have been dangerous wherever attempts have been made to use them.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“To those who continue to ascribe to us intentions which are alien to the policy of the socialist countries, we reply: no, it is the societies in which the slaveowner oppresses the slave, the landlord oppresses the serf, and the capitalist oppresses the worker that have created and handed down to each other as though by relay a baton of international relations whereby not conviction but force resolves ideological differences and dissenters are converted by fire and sword. 116. Do not try to hand us this baton! We have started off a new relay-race in which the runners —the socialist countries and the capitalist countries— can compete on the roads of history and yet maintain peaceful relations with each other. 117.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“And, although on each occasion events have merely revealed the spiritual poverty of those who sought to smear the ideals of socialism, the same thing is continuing decade after decade. 114. Even those initiatives in international affairs which are universally recognized to be useful, taken by the great Western Powers together with the Soviet Union, are not immune from such treatment. For example, we were probably not the only one to notice that discussion of the nuclear test-ban treaty was accompanied in some seemingly respectable institutions by a tattoo of belligerent statements and attacks on the Soviet Union and its foreign policy. 115.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“However, this does not mean the imposition of one's own systems on other States, but peaceful competition, competition by example and by force of conviction, competition which completely excludes the use of force to affirm one's own views. It is on this foundation, according to the profound conviction of the Soviet Government, that relations between States should be built. 113. For forty-six years now —from the first days of the birth of the Soviet State and even before, since the very inception of Marxism as an ideology— torrents of slander have continually been poured on the advocates of a transformation of society along socialist lines. There is nothing of which they are not accused from various rostra, high and low!”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“To the question of what views and what ideals will ultimately triumph in a particular country and how this will come about, we Communists give a direct answer: the people of each country —and they alone— must themselves determine their fate and decide which system they prefer. The Soviet people are imbued with the unshakable belief that the example given by the Soviet Union and other countries building socialism and communism is convincing and will increasingly convince nations that this is the system which offers man the best opportunities to develop his abilities and be completely free from any kind of exploitation and oppression, want, or fear for his future. 112.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“We shall accept no ideological compromise, any more than we demand that our ideological opponents shall renounce their own ideologies under threat of force. We are appealing for something else: the weapons in the struggle between the two philosophies should be not divisions of soldiers but legions of books; not nuclear bombs but the ability to produce more benefits and distribute them more fairly among the people. In the age of thermo-nuclear weapons, progress and world war are, in the words of the great Russian poet A. S. Pushkin, just as incompatible as genius and villainy. 111.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“For the socialist countries, because of the very nature of their social system, it is as unnatural to direct their energies to conquest, to the diffusion of their views by force and to war as it would be for a worker to desire the destruction of all that was created by his labour, or for the ploughman to want his crops to die. 109. We believe many Western statesmen understand that it is one thing to uphold their ideals of the organization of society by demonstrating their advantages and fighting for the hearts and minds of men, but quite another thing to conduct relations between States standing at opposite ideological poles by inculcating these ideals with arms. 110. Yes, we who represent the countries of socialism have waged and will continue to wage a relentless struggle for the triumph of the ideals of socialism and communism.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“Today everyone knows that there are weapons of which one single blast vastly exceeds the force of all the explosives used, not only during the Second World War, but throughout the history of mankind. We also know that the numbers of hydrogen and atomic bombs are no longer counted in single units and are steadily increasing. Everyone understands that now the alternative to peaceful coexistence is destructive war. This alone obliges all those who cherish the future of nations to uphold firmly the banner of the struggle for peace, determinedly rejecting attempts to attach to the concept of peaceful coexistence a meaning contrary to this great humanist idea. 108.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“The importance of peaceful coexistence, particularly in an age of nuclear power and space exploration, has been demonstrated most fully and convincingly in the speeches of the head of the Soviet Government, N. S. Khrushchev, including the speech he delivered here at the United Nations, The importance of this policy, which is in the interest of each State individually and of mankind as a whole, is year by year becoming more obvious, with the unprecedented destructive capacity of modern means of warfare and the increasingly profound awareness of the fatal consequences which would befall nations if such a war were unleashed. 107. Two decades ago people thought, looking at the ruins of cities and the ashes of villages and mourning their dead relatives, that this was the limit of the calamity of war.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“But how can this threat be completely eliminated, and what are the avenues leading to the road in international relations along which we may progress with hastening steps towards a future without war? The Soviet Government gives a clear reply to this question: these avenues are marked by a signpost reading "To the peaceful coexistence of States with different social systems". 106. The need to affirm in international relations the principle of the peaceful coexistence of the two social systems —socialist and capitalist— has been consistently upheld by the Soviet Union since the time of the great founder of the Soviet State, V. I. Lenin.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“The second and no less important conclusion is that, in order to prevent recurrence of a situation in which tension in any area of the world again reaches boiling point, threatening to end in a head-on collision of the great Powers, it is necessary to remove the causes of that tension and, above all, to forbid interference in the internal affairs of other States, as each Member of the United Nations is bound to do by the Charter. 105. Today people see still more clearly the dangers of the "cold war" policy, and are voting for a start —even a small one— towards the strengthening of peace, rather than marking time and apathetically watching the threat of war grow darker.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“If the work of this session of the Assembly is to fulfil the hopes of the nations, the correct lessons must be drawn from both these events. The chief lesson is that only a course aimed at the relaxation of international tension and the strengthening of peace is in the interests of the nations, if the word "peace" is not just a resounding phrase but means specific actions and agreements directed towards the improvement of relations between States. 104.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“That was a steep, a very steep pass in international affairs. However, by restraint and the correct choice of the paths leading to the desired goal —the prevention of war— it was negotiated successfully. The well-known obligations assumed by the Soviet Union and the United States of America were the basis for an understanding between the parties, and made it possible to eliminate this international crisis, the most dangerous since the end of the Second World War. 101. Another pass in international affairs, but this time one with a gentler slope, was the conclusion of the nuclear test-ban treaty. 102. As a result, one can today see more distinctly the new frontiers still to be reached in order to achieve a further relaxation of international tension and lessen the danger of an outbreak of hostilities. 103.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“The work of this session of the United Nations General Assembly is starting in more auspicious conditions than that of many previous sessions. One might say that the eighteenth session of the Assembly is weighing anchor with a light but at any rate a favouring wind. 100. Two events in the interval between this session of the General Assembly and the last have generated this favouring wind: the weathering of the crisis in the Caribbean region, and the conclusion of the treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water. It is difficult to overestimate the influence of these events on the policies of States and the minds of men. The crisis in the Caribbean region showed all who face reality the dangers with which the present world situation is still fraught.”
1963-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 18 (1963)
“The sixteenth session of the United Nations is meeting in troubled times. But this makes it all the more incumbent upon us to act resolutely and do everything in our power to make the international horizon brighter, so that the warm sun of lasting peace may finally shine upon mankind.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The chief objective of the Soviet Union's foreign policy has been, and still is, to ensure peaceful conditions for such constructive work within the USSR and other friendly socialist countries, and, together with all peace-loving countries, to save mankind from a destructive world war. 184. We aim at the broadest possible extension and development of all economic and other useful ties with every single State, including of course the independent countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, but also the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France and other developed capitalist countries. 185. We are not pessimists, and do not see the horizon as hopelessly darkened by the leaden clouds of approaching war. The world situation is serious and does not inspire complacency.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Precisely because there is no such collaboration at present, the United Nations has been powerless to stop the tragic course of events in the Congo, Angola, Bizerta and Algeria. 182. The Soviet Government firmly supports the policy of the peaceful coexistence of States having different social and economic systems. All our vast economic plans constitute eloquent confirmation of the fundamentally peaceful policy of the socialist Soviet State. 183. The magnificent, practical and scientifically-grounded aim of the Soviet people is to increase industrial production approximately two and a half times within ten years. Our plan is one of peace and of peaceful economic competition with the capitalist countries.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“We favour a prompt solution of the question concerning the leadership of the United Nations Secretariat, on a basis reflecting the real situation that obtains in the world today. The Security Council should deal with this problem, since the Council must be the principal body to express an opinion on the matter. But we should like to warn those who consider that the Secretariat should continue to work at the beck and call of a particular group of States that they will meet with determined opposition from our side. We urge the States Members of the United Nations to decide this question by agreement; the decision may be a temporary one to start with, but it should be such as will not widen the existing gulf between States but will create a firmer basis for collaboration within the framework of the United Nations.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“But is that a matter for regret? 180. On the contrary, the activities of the United Nations will then rest on a more durable foundation. Certain people seek to depict the situation which has now arisen in the United Nations Secretariat as in some sort a "crisis" of the entire 'Organization. To this we reply: an organization that fell into a critical situation whenever the post of its administrative head became vacant would not be worth twopence. Crises in the United Nations, as well as greater effectiveness in its work, can be brought about only by States Members of the Organization acting through the principal organs on which they are represented — primarily, that is, the Security Council and ^he General Assembly. 181.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“At the fifteenth session [869th meeting, paras. 282-285], the Head of the Soviet Government put forward a proposal for reorganizing the structure of the United Nations. The events of the past year have shown how the completely abnormal, lop-sided structure of the United Nations and the one-sided composition of its main organs have seriously impaired international collaboration. 179. It is sometimes asserted that implementation of the Soviet Union's proposals would paralyse the Organization's activities. But such a contention is absurd. The United Nations will not be paralysed by the reorganization that we propose. What will be rendered ineffective or, if you will, paralysed is the mainspring for the policy of some Powers which is designed to subordinate the United Nations to the narrow, selfish interests of certain military blocs.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The Soviet Union has supported and will continue to support that view. 177. As is well known, three main groups of States have now taken shape in the international arena — the socialist countries, the countries belonging to the Western military blocs, and the neutral States. The problem is to work out agreed solutions which take into account the legitimate interests of these different groups of States; unless this is done, the United Nations cannot become an effective centre for harmonizing the States' activities. Nevertheless, some Powers want to control the situation by using the United Nations as their own apparatus. So far, all States have not had equality of representation in the organs of the United Nations; the Organization's structure has not yet been adjusted to reflect the real pattern of power in the international arena. 178.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“If only a part of the huge amounts spent by States on military items and the arms race were converted to peaceful economic construction, all the necessary engineering projects and undertakings, which are at present impracticable, for developing the vast natural wealth of Africa, Asia and Latin America could be carried out in a comparatively short space of time. 176. The United Nations is called upon to serve these lofty aims of peace and the peaceful coexistence of States. The principles of equality of rights and respect for the sovereignty of States, great and small, and the principles of economic collaboration and progress laid down in the United Nations Charter must cease to be merely fine phrases and high flown turns of speech. They must become a basic and unconditional rule in relations between States, binding upon all.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The Soviet Union, like the other socialist countries, is in favour of settling this problem promptly and of signing, even tomorrow, the necessary agreement. It is now for others to play their part. 175. Peaceful coexistence is closely linked with the problem of overcoming the backwardness of the industrially under-developed countries, a position which they inherited from colonialism and imperialism. As the Head of the Soviet Government, N. S. Khrushchev, has frequently stressed, the present level of science and technology makes it possible to solve the problem of the economic backwardness of the under-developed countries within a brief period of time — during the life of one generation.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The General Assembly cannot overlook the fact that those who organized the recent intervention are hatching fresh criminal plots against the Cuban people. The Soviet Union's attitude towards that imperialistic policy is well known. Its warnings remain in force. 174. It would be desirable for the situation in Laos to be restored to normal, at the earliest possible moment, and for an agreement to be reached enabling Laos to develop as an independent and neutral State. We hope that the three-Power negotiations in Laos for the formation of a Government of national unity headed by Prince Souvanna Phouma, and the Geneva conversations concerning non-interference in the domestic affairs of Laos and respect for its independence and neutrality, will end in success.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The people of this country has accomplished a great revolutionary feat by overthrowing the tyrant Batista and the foreign monopolies, and has boldly taken the new road of a free and independent life. 172. What do the Cubans want? They want to govern their country themselves, to use its wealth themselves, and to adopt the system and way of life that they prefer. Is not this in line with the principles and high purposes to which the States Members of the United Nations subscribed in signing the Organization's Charter? And is it not a crime to organize against Cuba — whose people wishes to build its own State in independence-subversive activities, an economic blockade,' and armed intervention? 173.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“We are convinced that any Government which really stands for peace and for general and complete disarmament cannot fail to support this equitable view. Any Government represented in the United Nations which casts its vote with the opponents of the restoration of the People's Republic of China's lawful rights in the United Nations and against those who favour respecting the inalienable rights of the Chinese people, strengthening the United Nations and consolidating peace and collaboration among all States, regardless of their social systems, will bear a heavy responsibility. 171. At the last session of the General Assembly, Cuba was warmly applauded.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Depriving the People's Republic of China — one of the greatest Powers on earth — of its lawful rights in the United Nations does irreparable damage to all activities of this Organization and seriously hampers the consideration in the United Nations of a number of important international questions, such as general and complete disarmament, the final liquidation of the colonial system, the economic development of underdeveloped countries, and other questions which cannot be solved without the collective effort of all States. 170. The Soviet Government appeals to the General Assembly, and to all the Governments represented in it, to put an end to the present intolerable situation in which the representatives of the Chiang Kai-shek clique are unlawfully usurping China's seat in the United Nations.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“But no State that bases its policy on realities and displays concern for the maintenance of peace, no honest person anywhere in the world, will ever agree to those political corpses, the representatives of the Chiang Kai-shek clique who have entrenched themselves on Taiwan under the protection of United States bayonets, continuing to occupy a seat in the United Nations. Needless to say, the Soviet Union and all the genuine friends of the People's Republic of China are prepared today, as always, to reject firmly all attempts to put additional obstacles in the way of the restoration of the People's Republic of China's lawful rights in the United Nations with the help of the imperialist theory of "two Chinas". 169.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“This very important item has now been included in the agenda for the session, and the Assembly will express its influential view on the issue. 167. To all appearances, however, those opposing the restoration of the People's Republic of China's lawful rights in the United Nations have not really surrendered but have merely changed their tactics. It is rumoured that they would like to force this question into some sort of special commission so as to postpone a decision once more, although the question is perfectly clear and requires no further study in any commission or committee. 168. These manoeuvres have a clear purpose: to spread the aggressive and completely fallacious theory of "two Chinas".”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The people of a country, and no one else, decides whether its Government shall be changed. The United Nations may only recognize the Government; it is riot entitled to discuss what Government should be in power in a particular country, still less to approve or disapprove its existence. For the United Nations to assume any other attitude on this question would constitute patent interference in China's domestic affairs, which is entirely inadmissible under the United Nations Charter. 166. The Soviet Government is gratified that the resistance of those who for an entire decade have prevented the General Assembly from considering the question of the restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations has finally, at the General Assembly's sixteenth session, been broken down.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“All who are concerned to strengthen peace and wish to make the United Nations into a genuine instrument for peace and collaboration among States should take steps for the immediate restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations, and for the expulsion of the representatives of the Chiang Kai-shek clique from all United Nations organs. 165. During the twelve years that have elapsed since the people's power was established in China, the Western Powers, and the United States of America in particular, have prevented the restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations. But Washington's dislike of China's domestic system is no reason for violating the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Not so very long ago the leaders of certain Western Powers were afraid — indeed, some are still afraid — to pronounce the words "peaceful coexistence", regarding them as a species of communist enticement or communist trap. Yet this concept is already in permanent international use. 164. The United Nations cannot fulfil its task of consolidating peace and promoting international collaboration so long as the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the Organization have not been restored.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“But we declare categorically that we shall not allow anybody to tell the socialist countries what their systems should be. We, too, dislike the domestic systems of some countries where everything — the labour, the feelings and the desires of millions and tens of millions of people — is subordinated to the interests of a trifling minority who hold allpower and wealth in their hands. We might find much to say about such systems, but we do not say it, because we came here for entirely different purposes. 163. The United Nations is precisely the world centre from which the struggle to implement the principles of peaceful coexistence can best be organized.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“But within the precincts of the United Nations one sometimes hears statements to the effect that the leaders of certain States dislike the domestic systems of the socialist States, whose representatives sit in this very United Nations hall. Such leader® have more than once execrated socialism, socialist doctrine and the systems in the .socialist countries. We reply, as we have replied before: the socialist States came into being by the will of their peoples. They did not request permission to appear from those who now condemn such systems. They exist and are growing, and we are proud that their strength is increasing daily and that the socialist social system is revealing the grandeur and brilliance of its expanding potential 162. We do not dictate to others what systems they shall have.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Of course, peaceful coexistence is not just a temporary absence of military conflict between States, reminiscent of an unstable truce. Peace on such a shaky basis would be neither solid nor lasting. Peaceful coexistence presupposes the development of trade and of economic, cultural, scientific and other ties between States. 160. An indispensable condition for peaceful coexistence is unconditional recognition of the fact that it is the inalienable right of each country to establish its own social and political order. Only the individual nations are entitled to decide how they wish to live, what way of life they wish to follow. 161.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Unequal agreements binding many young States of Africa and Asia, military establishments on the territory of former colonial countries, bases of colonialism in various parts of the world, military colonial blocs, constant interference in the internal affairs of States, various forms of economic subjugation and domination — such are the manifestations of colonialism against which many peoples are obliged to battle hourly in the fight for their independence and freedom. This is the true face of the military colonial blocs, the true face of colonialism. 159. In the modern world, there are various social systems and ideologies. In these circumstances there is no way to preserve peace other than the peaceful coexistence of States.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Those who oppress the colonial peoples will stop at nothing in order to be able to go on plundering those countries, even after they have gained political independence. To this end the colonial Powers use the methods of economic, political, military and diplomatic pressure, seeking to preserve the colonial character of these countries' economies and the system by which they are exploited. 158.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The Soviet Government considers it essential that a United Nations commission should be set up to exercise strict and unceasing control over the implementation of the Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples, and over the measures which I have described. It submits for your consideration a memorandum on the situation with regard to the implementation of the Declaration [A/4889] and expresses the hope that the proposals made therein will obtain the support of the States represented in the United Nations. 157. We. all fully realize that the achievement of independence by former colonial countries is a result of the struggle engaged in by the peoples of the colonies and their many friends throughout the world.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“All colonial laws and regulations based on racial discrimination or banning or limiting the activities of political parties, trade unions and other public organizations must be immediately revoked. In all colonial countries, elections to the legislative organs must be held on the basis of universal suffrage, and genuinely national democratic institutions must be set up. All power must be transferred to these bodies, and all organs of the colonial administration, whether working openly or under cover, must cease to operate. 155. All agreements of a colonial nature, whether secret or not, which are designed to limit the sovereignty of the newly emerging independent States, must be completely annulled. 156.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The Government of the Soviet Union has proposed that the item "The situation with regard to the implementation of the Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples" should be discussed at the present session. We hope that appropriate measures will be taken as a result of such discussion. 153. The Soviet Government believes that first of all the United Nations should firmly demand the immediate and unconditional cessation of terrorism and colonial wars. It is essential to effect the withdrawal of all' the Administering Powers' forces and the complete liquidation of all foreign military bases in colonies, Trust Territories and other Non-Self-Governing Territories. The peoples of all colonial countries, without exception, must be given the opportunity to enjoy democratic rights and freedoms in practice. 154.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The Soviet Government supports the decision of the Conference of Non-Aligned Countries, recently held at Belgrade, which formally declared the need for the immediate, unconditional, complete and final abolition of colonialism. The Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples was colonialism's death sentence, and this sentence must be carried out. We support the demand made at the Conference of Non-Aligned Countries that 1962 should see the final liquidation of colonial regimes everywhere. We consider that this appeal must be supported here and that the United Nations should give it the status of an international decision. 152.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“No, it cannot do so, unless it wants to lose the confidence of those peoples. I should like to recall the warning given by the Head of the Soviet Government, N. St, Khrushchev, who said in this hall on 12 October 1960, during the fifteenth session of the General Assembly: "The General Assembly must realize in all earnestness that unless steps are taken with the utmost dispatch, colonialism will remain capable of inflicting much further suffering and hardship, of ruining millions upon millions of further lives and of provoking armed conflicts and wars, thereby threatening peace and security not only in individual areas but throughout the world." [902nd meeting, paragraph 7]. 151.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“To listen to these gentlemen one would think that the real purpose of exterminating the people of Angola and its intelligentsia is to create conditions in which Angola ban become independent. And presumably the colonizers have for the last eight years been destroying the flower of the Algerian people in order to prepare Algeria for independent self-government. What hypocrisy! 149. But not long ago they were saying and doing the same things in regard to those countries which have now achieved independence, which are developing successfully as independent States and whose representatives are with us in this hall. 150. Can the General Assembly ignore the existing situation and avoid taking measures to implement the Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples?”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“Could the bloody events in Bizerta have taken place if the NATO countries had not supported the colonizers against Tunisia? No, they could not. 147. Among the States members of NATO there is a kind of division of labour in colonial policy, although from time to time an internecine battle for the riches of the colonies takes place. However, the general trend of this military bloc's policy is one of mutual responsibility and mutual support as between the colonizers. 148. The representatives of the colonial Powers sometimes try, in this hall, to preach democratic freedoms and human rights. They talk about the so-called "free world", although in actual fact they play the executioner in the colonies to this day. They constantly assert that the peoples of the colonial countries are not yet mature enough to govern themselves.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)
“The peoples of the Soviet Union are deeply indignant at the persecution of the non-white population in the Republic of South Africa, which, with its apartheid policy is like a modern version of ancient slave-owning home, where for every freeman there were several slaves who were deprived of elementary human rights. 145. You know that, this policy of suppressing national movements of liberation is, not the independent policy of individual colonial Powers, but the collective policy of the Powers which formed themselves into the North Atlantic military block, NATO. Could Portugal wage colonial war of destruction in Angola and keep 13 million people under domination in its colonies? Of course not. Portugal is a small backward State, which is really a protectorate of certain imperialist powers. 146.”
1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)