Stories from the UN Archive: Did Khrushchev really bang his shoe?

UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata
Nikita Khrushchev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, is seen rising to his feet during the address of UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan during the UN General Assembly's general debate in 1960. (file)
  • UN News

One of the legends of UN history is a tale that spread across the world and the decades. Did then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev remove his shoe and bang it on a desk in the UN General Assembly Hall in 1960?

One of the legends of UN history is a tale that spread across the world and the decades. Did then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev remove his shoe and bang it on a desk in the UN General Assembly Hall in 1960?

The rumour began when Mr. Khrushchev travelled to New York at the height of the cold war. During the Assembly’s general debate for Heads of State and Government on 12 October 1960, he indicated that he wanted to make a point of order about the way his counterpart from the Philippines referred to the Soviet Union.

“You will not be able to smother the voice of the peoples,” he said at the time.

Did Khrushchev bang his shoe at the UN?

UN Video took a dive into history to learn what really happened with Mr. Khrushchev’s shoe. Watch the full episode here.

Catch up on our #ThrowbackThursday series here, and watch episodes from UN Video’s Stories from the UN Archive playlist here, cultivated from the UN Audiovisual Library’s 49,400 hours of video and 18,000 hours of audio recordings. Join us next Thursday for another dive into history.

UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata
Nikita Khrushchev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, visited the United Nations where he addressed the 82-member General Assembly in 1959. (file)

© UN News (2024) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: UN News

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