>>/165074/
Pg 9
Significant Milestone

The message was received between 7 and 8 p.m. By this time, Gromyko was already at home, from where he immediately contacted Khrushchev.

That evening, the Soviet leader was at his residence in the Lenin Hills. According to his son Sergei’s recollections, Khrushchev had returned from Kyiv the day before, preparing for the next Central Committee plenum and “allowing himself a little rest.” When a call came through on the government line from the Foreign Minister, Khrushchev was “reading the evening mail and preparing to go to the second floor”¹³.

Sergei Khrushchev wrote that his father was initially informed only of the assassination attempt on Kennedy. It remained unclear whether the U.S. President was alive. The First Secretary instructed Gromyko to contact the ambassador, meaning the U.S. ambassador, to clarify details. During the conversation, a slight misunderstanding arose: the minister thought it necessary to contact the Soviet ambassador in Washington and sent a request there. Only an hour later was the misunderstanding resolved¹⁴.

Upon receiving the first information about the assassination attempt, Khrushchev’s face “froze in a bitter expression.” When Nikita Sergeevich shared the news with his family, “a heavy silence fell,” and Khrushchev himself, awaiting another call from Gromyko, paced the room near the desk and three armchairs. An hour later, Khrushchev himself called Gromyko and demanded an immediate connection with F. Kohler, the U.S. ambassador in Moscow. Finally, the Soviet leader learned of Kennedy’s death and that Lyndon Johnson had become the new president. Avoiding rudeness, Khrushchev discussed with Gromyko the text of a condolence message and the possible participation of a Soviet representative in the funeral ceremony. The minister replied that the Soviet Union could be represented at the funeral by the ambassador but suggested his own candidacy, citing a precedent—in May 1959, he had officially attended the funeral of U.S. Secretary of State J. Dulles. Khrushchev objected, stating that “a president should be buried by a president”¹⁵.

The Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, L.I. Brezhnev, who held this high state position at the time, lacked sufficient international experience and was not entirely suitable for such a mission. The Soviet leader proposed sending A.I. Mikoyan—First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and a member of the CPSU Central Committee Presidium, who had repeatedly carried out special Kremlin assignments, was Khrushchev’s closest ally, and had also visited the United States multiple times. In addition to official condolences to the new president, L. Johnson, Khrushchev proposed sending...

---

Footnotes:

¹³ Khrushchev, *Nikita Khrushchev*..., p. 538.  
¹⁴ Troyanovsky, *Through Years and Distances*..., p. 258.  
¹⁵ Khrushchev, *Nikita Khrushchev*..., p. 538.