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Stalin died in 1953, though. Maybe it didn't have to continue to be that way after.
by bojan 9y ago
Stalin died in 1953, though. Maybe it didn't have to continue to be that way after.
- Fins 9y agoKhrushchev promised to "bury you" well after Stalin's death. It took a new generation coming to power and ham-handedly taking USSR apart.
- izacus 9y agoYou do understand that phrase is a mistranslation which doesn't carry the same meaning in original right?
- chimprich 9y agoI feel it would have been less condescending to say "that is a mistranslation", without posing it as a question. What do you think the translation should be? Wikipedia suggests it could be "We shall be present at your funeral" or "We shall outlive you", neither of which seem to be hugely different in meaning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_will_bury_you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_will_bury_you
- oxymoron 9y agoIt’s quite different. The bolsheviks believed that the collapse of capitalism was imminent, and that revolution would eventually sweep across the west even without their involvement. I always interpreted “We will outlive you” as the ideological belief in the long time superiority of their state. I’m not a historian, but the USSR was very much inferior to the US in strength in the 1950’s, and both Krustchev and Eisenhower knew as much, even if the american public. He didn’t have the strength to carry out the threat even if he’d wanted to, had that been his intention.
- Fins 9y agoThey really meant both -- the eventual victory of communism, and that they would help, with nukes if necessary, to achieve it.
- Teever 9y agoYou have to understand the phrase in the context of the Russian language and culture. Take for instance the english expression "I will beat you." Am I talking about physically beating you or winning in a competition? It's the same with 'we will bury you'
- Fins 9y agoBeing a native Russian speaker, I think I do have a pretty good idea of what Khrushchev said and what he meant.