What the general secretaries gave their friends: The most famous diplomatic gifts to friends of the USSR

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The foreign policy of the USSR was very generous with gifts to its allies and satellites. Whole regions could pass to a friendly ruler simply by the good will of the Soviet secretary general. Moreover, such gestures were often one-sided, and the country received practically nothing in return. Not a single leader of the USSR could learn to count the benefits from diplomatic actions.

"Retreat" Donbass and New Russia from Lenin

Outwardly modest, Vladimir Ilyich was able to make rather generous geopolitical decisions and present large gifts. The post-revolutionary Ukrainian People's Republic was plagued by civil strife and clashes with the interventionists. The new leadership of the republic did not plan to cooperate with the Bolsheviks. In such a situation, Lenin decided to give a “payoff” in the form of Novorossiya and Donbass for Ukraine's entry into the Soviet Union.

This is how a new tradition was actually born in the USSR - diplomacy through “gift territories”. Under Ilyich, in the Land of Soviets, there was not yet an official body dealing with gifts of this level. Under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, such a department appeared already in Stalin's times. Of course, similar tactics were implemented by the Russian tsars, but it was in the USSR that Lenin laid the foundation for it.

Stalin's presents and a Russian servant for the British ambassador

Despite his usual authoritarianism, Stalin loved to give gifts. At the end of 1941, the first portion of the best Soviet cognac was sent to Winston Churchill on behalf of Joseph Vissarionovich. Overjoyed by the present, the British Prime Minister expressed his satisfaction, expressing his readiness to continue to accept such offerings. Churchill's cognac was sent in large quantities and regularly. For these purposes, there was a drink from the Shustov and Kizlyar wine-cognac factories. But the most original gift from Stalin was made to the British ambassador.

During the years of World War II, Soviet-British relations experienced different moments. But Archibald Clark Kerr always tried to smooth things over, for which Stalin treated him with respect and goodwill. At the beginning of 1946, the ambassador received another appointment outside the Union, and on this occasion his farewell meeting with the Soviet leaders was organized. The father of the Soviet peoples personally handed over to the ambassador the same legendary cognac, black caviar and his photograph with the caption "To a friend of the USSR, Lord Kerr." But, as the diplomat himself admitted, "the most beautiful of Stalin's gifts was a Soviet young citizen." Before leaving, Kerr asked four Russian wives for his British confidants, who would be allowed to leave their homeland. And personally for himself - a young massage therapist, whose services he used during his stay in Moscow. Despite the lack of such experience in dealing with his own citizens, Kerr's request was not refused, for which he expressed gratitude for the rest of his life.

Territorial concessions on a Khrushchev scale

Nikita Sergeevich is known as a person of a broad nature. It was under his leadership that the USSR distributed bad loans, gave away high-tech equipment, and provided gratuitous aid to those in need. The best Soviet specialists built modern factories, treated and trained the inhabitants of developing countries, arming their armies and protecting their peace with their own military might. At the same time, it happened that yesterday's "friends" shot in the back of Soviet benefactors.

Khrushchev managed to surprise even the inhabitants of a poor neighborhood in New York with his "gift antics". During his stay in the United States, he wished to make an ardent propaganda speech from the balcony of a decrepit high-rise building, handing the keys to several Cadillac cars to random passers-by "high". But this generosity did not have serious consequences, which cannot be said about his territorial concessions to the East with the West and free financial support "for friendship."

Khrushchev provided the allies with soft loans without guarantees of repayment of debts. While not yet in full power, during a visit to China in 1954, he initiated the cession of all Manchu rights in favor of the Chinese. Moreover, all previously established joint ventures were destroyed, and their assets were transferred to the ownership of China. In addition, Beijing was granted millions of new loans, continuing to build China's science, technology and industrial bases without the slightest benefit. Such a "gift" to China and the West significantly worsened the military-strategic importance of the Soviet Union in the Asia-Pacific region.

During the same period, Khrushchev weakened the Baltic positions of the USSR, returning the Finnish Porkkalla-Udd peninsula. Despite the fact that the island was legally leased by Moscow for a period of 50 years in 1944, Khrushchev voluntarily surrendered this strategic territory free of charge and without corresponding reciprocal concessions from the Finns.

Similarly, Moscow unilaterally withdrew its troops from Austria. Later, billions of dollars in aid to India, Burma, Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq and others were initiated. Nikita Sergeevich and the Ukrainians were pleased with a broad Crimean gesture. But here historians explain his generosity by covering up his own potential sins. Having taken the place of Stalin and actively debunking cults and repressions, the new leader of the state could not help but remember how he himself, in his previous status as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party, had inherited a multitude of punitive cases. Therefore, Crimea, to a certain extent, could be an attempt to atone for guilt before the Ukrainians and a guarantee of support for the Ukrainian elite.

Brezhnev's support for foreign regimes and awards for loyalty to the Russians

Like Nikita Sergeevich, Brezhnev traveled around the world on friendly visits, giving preference to the countries of the social bloc and the Third World. On these trips, the secretary general was accompanied by a "gift" group of advisers. When making decisions, they weighed the significance and influence of a particular state on the world political arena. Pictures with Lenin and his sculptures were presented at the exit meetings of the parties. In capitalist countries, with generally accepted price restrictions on gifts, they were limited to handicrafts, thematic gifts in the context of every leader's hobby. In case of force majeure, there were "zagashniki" with souvenirs of artists from Khokhloma, Gzhel, Palekh.

Leonid Ilyich loved to hand out all kinds of awards of high state significance, which found their heroes not only within the Union, but also in fraternal countries. But the most precious gifts on behalf of the USSR were received, as in Khrushchev's time, by devoted foreign leaders. The union continued to support the regimes of the Middle East, Africa, Latin America. The finances that flowed to them automatically turned into gift ones. Firing the fire of friendship, Brezhnev gave his "friends" submarines, high-tech airliners, modern cars, while continuing to arm foreigners and defend their safety at the cost of huge funds that were not received by his own people.

And to your bodyguards many general secretaries treated with undisguised irritation.