(See Cover)
It was the first press conference ever held by a Premier of the Soviet Union. Some press conference. Flanked by the other Soviet delegates to the Parley at the Summit-Khrushchev, Molotov, Zhukov and Gromyko—Marshal Nikolai Bulganin marched into a wood-paneled conference room within the Kremlin's walls and, stationing himself beneath a portrait of Lenin, read a three-page statement to 65 waiting reporters. Questions were not allowed, and the other Russian leaders said not one word. Their presence simply confirmed the obvious fact that Nikolai Bulganin spoke for all of them—for the Communist Party, the Soviet government and the Red army.
The Soviet delegation, said Bulganin, would make a "great effort" at Geneva to secure a period of peace. "We have never intended, and do not intend, to attack anybody in the future."
Russia is anxious for a temporary letup in the arms race, he implied. "Inflated military budgets are an enormous burden upon the shoulders of the masses . . ." But no one should think Russia would be leading from weakness: "We have an army and, in our opinion, a very good army—with all the necessary equipment."
The soft words flowed on: "Some people think that capitalism is better than [Communism]. We are convinced that the opposite is the case. But this argument cannot be settled by force, through war. Let everyone prove in peaceful economic competition that he is right. There are many unsettled questions in the world. And this will be the case in the future. Such is life."
"It would be naive to think," he concluded, that at Geneva, "we shall solve all the complex international problems. But if all participants show good will ... we undoubtedly will be able to find common ground, and chart ways for an effective settlement."
Premier Bulganin is something less than the boss of all Russia, but he is considerably more than a figurehead. Under the rules of the game as it is played in the Soviet Union, he has proved himself in many fields a first class administrator. In the rough and tumble of Communist politics, he has shown himself clever, adaptable, tough. He is a dedicated Communist, versed in its dialectic and a prisoner of its rigidities, but his whole career has shown him also to be a flexible operator with a talent for survival.
Little Kremlin. The day after his speech to the press. Marshal Bulganin emplaned for Geneva along with his two portly comrades, Khrushchev and Zhukov. Ahead of them by one day had gone stony-faced Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and Stony-Face the Younger, Andrei Gromyko, First Deputy Foreign Minister. With such a constellation at his side, Bulganin established a Little Kremlin, within five miles of President Eisenhower's Little White House, on the shores of Lake Geneva.