Protocol of a Conversation between N.S. Khrushchev and U Kyaw Nyein, Deputy Prime Minister of Burma

PROTOCOL OF A CONVERSATION

between N. S. Khrushchev and U KYAW NYEIN, Deputy Prime Minister of Burma

At 1240 on 30 November 1957 N. S. Khrushchev received U Kyaw Nyein, Deputy Prime Minister of Burma, who was making a protocol visit. U Kyaw Nyein was accompanied by: U Kyin, Burmese Ambassador in the USSR; U Hla Maung, Burmese Ambassador in China; U Maung Maung, Deputy Minister of Information of Burma,; and U So Tin, Second Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Burma. 

After an exchange of greetings N. S. Khrushchev asked U Kyaw Nyein to say what he saw of interest during [his] trip throughout the Soviet Union.

U Kyaw Nyein replied that he saw so much of interest during far too short a time, and as a result right now everything is spinning in his head. It is hard even to remember which hosts received them in Tashkent, Alma-Ata, Baku, Tbilisi, and in other cities. Everywhere the delegation was given the most warm and hospitable reception. The Soviet Union is such a large country that [they] managed to only travel a small part of it in three weeks, although the delegation travelled 12,000 kilometers. The Soviet Union is an entire continent, even two continents.

N. S. Khrushchev replied to U Kyaw Nyein that he himself, Khrushchev, has still not been in many places of the Soviet Union.

U Kyaw Nyein said that Prime Minister Zhou Enlai had never previously been to the province of Yunnan until he had been to Burma. When he went to Burma he was surprised that in several places there was no timber at all on the hills and no other vegetation but then, after crossing the Burmese border and finding himself in the province of Yunnan for the first time he said the hills there were even worse. China is also a very big country.

N. S. Khrushchev asked Kyaw Nyein what he liked the most and what he liked the least in the Soviet Union. 

U Kyaw Nyein replied that his impressions can be compared with a multitude of photographs placed one after another. Possibly, said U Kyaw Nyein, Ambassador U Kyin will help him in this regard, and tell about his impressions.

U Kyin said that the scale of construction being done in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and in the other republics which the delegation visited made the greatest impression on him.

U Hla Maung, the Ambassador of Burma in China, said that he was struck most of all by the hospitality of the people.

U Kyaw Nyein noted further that one of the reasons for which the Burmese delegation decided to visit the republics of Central Asia is that these republics were previously more backward compared to the western republics of the Soviet Union and therefore their conditions more approach the conditions of Burma.

N. S. Khrushchev asked the Deputy Prime Minister what impression Uzbekistan made on him.

U Kyaw Nyein replied that this republic has achieved very great success in the area of education and culture, and also economic and industrial development. Then he said that during the trip around the Soviet Union his delegation was mainly interested in the following problems: first, questions of industrial development; second, agriculture, and especially agricultural cooperatives; education and culture and, finally, how the national question has been solved in the USSR and how a multinational state was created from the peoples who inhabited the former Tsarist empire. He, U Kyaw Nyein, was interested in the national question inasmuch as it also exists in Burma. He has studied the works of V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin on the national question and it made a great impression on him how this problem was being solved in the Soviet Union. During the trip throughout the Soviet Union he was also convinced that economic planning has been greatly development here. The leaders of all the republics which he visited told him of their plans for the economic development of the republics. Burma needs 60 or 70 years to reach the level of the Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union.

N. S. Khrushchev told U Kyaw Nyein that he obviously agrees that remarkable national cadre have been created in all the national republics who are in no way inferior to the cadre in the other republics of the Soviet Union. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan are especially highly-developed. There is no longer a national question in the Soviet Union, it has already been solved and it can be definitely stated that an ideal solution of this question was found. 

U Kyaw Nyein noted that the fact that the Soviet Union had managed to overtake the United States of America in the field of training technical personnel evoked special interest. Every republic even has its own academy of science.

N. S. Khrushchev replied to U Kyaw Nyein that in this regard the United States will never be able to catch up to us inasmuch as higher education there only serves the goals of profit, and is a commercial enterprise. Among us the goal of higher education is to raise the material and cultural level of the people. After the introduction in the Soviet Union of mandatory 10-year education obligatory higher education will be gradually introduced. With the development of science and technology there will come a time when a person will need to work only one or two hours a day, and he can use the remaining time for rest and study.

In conclusion U Kyaw Nyein presented a gift, a silver cup.

N. S. Khrushchev thanked U Kyaw Nyein for the gift and said that his trip throughout the Soviet Union is a very useful matter. It is true that he long planned to come to the Soviet Union, but then he came very quickly.

The conversation lasted 30 minutes. Present from the Soviet side were: N. P. Firyubin, Deputy USSR Minister of Foreign Affairs; B. M. Volkov, Chief of the Southeastern Asia Department of the USSR MFA; and Yu. Pavlov, attaché of the USSR MFA Translations Bureau.