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House Speech Soviet Security and Khokhlov, June 16, 1954
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House Speech Soviet Security and Khokhlov, June 16, 1954
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The original documents are located in Box D14, folder "House Speech Soviet Security and
Khokhlov, June 16, 1954" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech
File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Digitized from Box D14 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
Statement. by Representative Gerall R. 7mdr
tofor of Representatives - Wed Jane 16,1/54
For adease
Mr. Speaker,
wed PM.
Before me I have an Associated Press news story which has
shocked all Americans and others in the free world. It reads as follows:
"Mrs. Nikolai Khokhlev Vanishes in Moscow
The wife left behind by Soviet Secret Intelligenes Police Capt. Nikolai Khokhlev
defected
is neported to have
when he deserted to the west last February has disappeared in Moscow,
This
eastern officials said here today. Diplomatic report received from the
Soviet capital, said Mrs. Yanina Khokhlov vanished without trace from her
three room apartment several weeks ago and apparently is in secret police
custody.
"Khokhlev, who backed down on a Red assignment to kill a Russian resistance
leader in Frankfurt, had appealed to the free world to help save his
family from what he said were certain Soviet reprisals, possibly death.
His wife, the 31 year old Russian said, had persuaded him not to go thru
with the plot to do away with George S. Okelovich, anti-communist leader,
with the special weapons - including a cyanide poison pistol shaped like
a cigaret case - with which he had been equipped.
FORD & LIBRARY
"The reports did not make clear what has happened to the Khokhlov's
Statement. by Repossentative Gerald R. 7nd Jr
of Representatives - Wed Jane 16, 1954
For ndease
Mr. Speaker,
wed PM
Before me I have an Associated Press news story which has
shocked all Americans and others in the free world. It reads as follows:
"Mrs. Nikolai Khokhlev Vanishes in Moscow"-
The wife left behind by Soviet Secret Intelligener Police Capt. Nikolai Khokhlev
defected
is reported to have
when he deserted to the west last February has disappeared in Moscow,
This
eastern officials said here today. Diplomatic report received from the
Soviet capital said Mrs. Yanina Khokhlov vanished without trace from her
three room apartment several weeks ago and apparently is in secret police
custody.
"Khokhlev, who backed down on a Red assignment to kill a Russian resistance
leader in Frankfurt, had appealed to the free world to help save his
family from what he said were certain Soviet reprisals, possibly death.
His wife, the 31 year old Russian said, had persuaded him not to go thru
with the plot to do away with George S. Okelovich, anti-communist leader,
with the special weapons - including a cyanide poison pistol shaped like
a cigaret case - with which he had been equipped.
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
"The reports did not make clear what has happened to the Khokhlov's
Page 2
18 month old son and the 14 year old sister of Mrs. Khokhlov, who lived
with them."
In recent months we have had dramatic evidence of some
increasing insecurity in the ranks of formerly trusted officials in the
Soviet government, Defections of Soviet secret service efficers are
intensity most interesting - in a somewhat negative way - because they
reflect the psychological ferment and growing unrest of which the Beria
purges were also a manifestation. This is the atmosphere of dictatorship,
which feeds on blood and fear.
At this particular moment in our history - when our most
vital concern is the meaning of freedom and the meaning of what it is to
be human - we can, however, look at these defections in a more positive
light. Each man who breaks with his past normally does so for some
unique, personal reason. The reaons are seldom clear cut, but they are
always basically human, A man is afraid of punishment for some misdeed,
He seeks a better material life, Or, in the very apt phrase of one
defecter, "I left the Soviet Union because I wanted to be a Russian,"
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
.Page 3
A few days ago I had an unusual oppertunity to meet and talk
at some length with one of these defectors - Nikola Khokhlov - the man
assigned by Soviet intelligence to assassinate a Russian emigre in
Germany. You have read his story in the press. Recently, he testified
before the Senate Sub-committee on Internal Security. Khekhlov stands
as an example of the fact that human beings can never be mentally enslaved.
His refusal to carry out his assignment to commit murder was an independent,
Mnselfish decision which corroborates the basic principles of free Christian
society. It further corroborates the fact that the Soviet government
has not renounced the old policy of wilful and deliberate terror and
at this Time it is highly appropriate to ask this question
oppression to achieve its goals. How is this Seviet policy compatible
with its current claims of seeking closer, more friendly relations with
other nations? How does this planned and premeditated mission by the
Soviet hierarchy fit in with the picture of happy life promised to its
own people?
If Khokhlev had fulfilled his assignment, if he had killed
a fellow human being whom the MGB wanted liquidated, he would have been
showered by his diabolical supervisers in the Kremlin with favors and
honors - promotion, bonuses, and citations. But fortunately Khokhlov
ALD is R. FORD LIBRARY
Page 4
a human being with a conscience - a concept rejected by fundamental
Communish doctrine and the Soviet regime. He is married to a woman of
deep religious convictions - a faith in God denied by Communist doctrine
and the Soviet regime. To put it straightforwardly Khokhlov could not
carry out an order to murder another human being. Such an act was
contrary to his and his wife's moral principles, His defection was due
not to fear or the need to escape a purge or his desire for material
advantage, It was the result of a growing certainty that he could not
live the life of Soviet Communism or continue as a servant of the secret
policy and still conferm to fundamental principles of decency and morality.
His defection, therefore, has a deeper meaning for all Americans. By
refusing to carry out his assignment, Khokhlev affirmed our fundamental
beliefs in the value of the individual, in human dignity, in the right of
all people to live in freedom from fear, freedom from eppression, and
freedom from violence.
Behind Khokhlev stands his wife, who guided and strengthened
him in these decisions, With full knowledge of pessibly fatal consequences
FORD i LIBRARY 077839
Page 5
to herself and their child, she urged her husband to follow his conscience,
to follow the best traditions of humanity. For all of us she is a symbol
she epstomyes the firest standards of Kike principles.
of courage and independence, of freedom and human dignity. Yet today,
from a recent Associated Press dispatch, we know that despite appeals to
the Soviet government to allow her to join her husband, she and her small
child are missing from her Moxcow apartment, Although she may be in the
hands of the secret police, those ideals for which she stands are confirmed
again and again by free men everywhere - in their homes, on the battle-
field, at the conference table, Their goal is a world where no man will
be forced to show his courage under the conditions faced by the Khokhlovs.
It is evident from the action of this woman and her husband -
and from the action of others who have renounced tyranny - that America
and freedom have a strong but often silent ally, living and thinking
behind the bars of dictatership. We know from many defectors that there
are thousands of Russians who have renounced Soviet tyranny and who look
quietly for assurance and understanding from outside the borders of the
Soviet world. For us this fact is of vast importance: these people
FORD i LIBRARY GERAID
represent a force for freedom, a force potentially far mightier than all
the machines of destruction which a police state can turn upon its opponents,
Page 6
his
The Khokhlov, have placed their trust in the free world.
His
Their decision to reject murder and oppression as exemplified by the
diabolical Soviet rulers, knowing full well the consequences, and to
seek a new life under freedom dramatically emphasizes the utter lack of
PANYUSHKIN
morality among such men as Malenkov, Molotov, Panyshin, Khruchev, and
Khrushchev
the others,
The sequel to the Khokhlev story, however it may finally
be written on the indelible pages of history, can convey in concrete
terms the understanding and reassurance for which those silent Russian
allies wait. The outcome depends first of all upon the force and
conviction with which the people of the free world express their moral
support of the Khokhlevs. We who are blessed with freedom and liberty,
a form of government predicated on the dignity of man and leaders who are
dedicated to high moral principles must demand of the Soviet leaders that
they respond to one single instance of decency and free the wife and
child of Nikolai Khokhlev. Yes, the final word rests with the Soviet
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
government. Will it by continued silence admit its disregard of the
principles it professes? Or is it able to grant at least two defenseless
Page 7
beings, a mother and a child, the right to the kind of life in which
they believe?
FORD s LIBRARY GERALD
Statement by Representative Gerald R. Ford, Jr.,
House of Representatives - Wednesday, June 16, 1954
FOR RELEASE - Wednesday, P.M.
Mr. Speaker -
Before me I have an Associated Press news story which has shocked all
Americans and others in the free world. It reads as follows:
"Mrs. Nikolai Khokhlov Vanishes in Moscow - Bonn, Germany, June 2 (AP) - -
"The wife left behind by Soviet Intelligence Capt. Nikolai Khokhlov when he
defected to the west last February is reported to have disappeared in Moscow. This
report, received from the Soviet capital, said Mrs. Yanina Khokhlov vanished without
trace from her three room apartment several weeks ago and apparently is in secret
police custody.
"Khokhlov, who backed down on a Red assignment to kill a Russian resistance
leader in Frankfurt, had appealed to the free world to help save his family from what
he said were certain Soviet reprisals, possibly death, His wife, the 31 year old
Russian said, had persuaded him not to go thru with the plot to do away with George
S. Okolovich, anti-communist leader, with the special weapons - including a cyanide
poison pistol shaped like a cigaret case - with which he had been equipped.
"The reports did not make clear what has happened to the Khokhlov's 18 month
old son and the 14 year old sister of Mrs. Khokhlov, who lived with them."
In recent months we have had dramatic evidence of some increasing insecurity
in the ranks of formerly trusted officials in the Soviet government. Defections of
Soviet secret service officers are intensely interesting - in a somewhat negative
way - because they reflect the psychological ferment and growing unrest of which the
Beria purges were also a manifestation. This is the atmosphere of dictatorship, which
feeds on blood and fear.
At this particular moment in our history - when our most vital concern is
the meaning of freedom and the meaning of what it is to be human - we can, however,
look at these defections in a more positive light. Each man who breaks with his past
normally does so for some unique, personal reason. The reasons are seldom clear cut,
but they are always basically human. A man is afraid of punishment for some misdeed.
He seeks a better material life. Or, in the very apt phrase of one defector, "I left
the Soviet Union because I wanted to be a Russian."
A few days ago I had an unusual opportunity to meet and talk at some length
with one of these defectors - Nikolai Khokhlov - the man assigned by Soviet intel-
GEBALO R.FORD LIBRAR,
ligence to assassinate a Russian emigre in Germany. You have read his story in the
Page 2
press. Recently, he testified before the Senate Sub-committee on Internal Security.
Khokhlov stands as an example of the fact that human beings can never be mentally
enslaved, His refusal to carry out his assignment to commit murder was an impendent,
unselfish decision which corroborates the basic principles of free Christian society.
It further corroborates the fact that the Soviet government has not renounced the old
policy of willful and deliberate terror and oppression to achieve its goals. At this
time it is highly appropriate to ask this question - How is this Soviet policy
compatible with its current claims of seeking closer, more friendly relations with
other nations? How does this planned and premeditated mission by the Soviet hierarchy
fit in with the picture of happy life promised to its own people?
If Khokhlov had fulfilled his assignment, if he had killed a fellow human
being whom the MGB wanted liquidated, he would have been showered by his diabolical
supervisors in the Kremlin with favors and honors - promotion, bonuses, and citations.
But fortunately Khokhlov is a human being with a conscience - a concept rejected by
fundamental Communist doctrine and the Soviet regime, He is married to a woman of
deep religious convictions - a faith in God denied by Communist doctrine and the
Soviet regime. To put it straightforwardly Khokhlov could not carry out an order to
murder another human being. Such an act was contrary to his and his wife's moral
principles. His defection was due not to fear or the need to escape a purge, or his
desire for material advantage. It was the result of a growing certainty that he
could not live the life of Soviet Communism or continue as a servant of the secret
police, and still conform to fundamental principles of decency and morality. His
defection, therefore, has a deeper meaning for all Americans. By refusing to carry
out his assignment. Khokhlov affirmed our fundamental beliefs in the value of the
individual, in human dignity, in the right of all people to live in freedom from fear,
freedom from oppression, and freedom from violence,
Behind Khokhlov stands his wife, who guided and strengthened him in these
decisions, With full knowledge of possibly fatal consequences to herself and their
child, she urged her husband to follow his conscience, to follow the best traditions
of humanity. For all of us she is a symbol of courage and independence. She epitomizes
the finest of God's principles, Yet today, from a recent Associated Press dispatch,
we know that despite appeals to the Soviet government to allow her to join her husband,
she and her small child are missing from her Moscow apartment. Although she may be in
the hands of the secret police, those ideals for which she stands are confirmed again
and again by free men everywhere - in their homes, on the battlefield, at the
conference table, Their goal is a world where no man will be forced to show his
courage under the conditions faced by the Khokhlovs.
Page 3
It is evident from the action of this woman and her husband - and from the
action of others who have renounced tyranny - that America and freedom have a strong
but often silent ally, living and thinking behind the bars of dictatorship. We know
from many defectors that there are thousands of Russians who have renounced Soviet
tyranny and who look quietly for assurance and understanding from outside the borders
of the Soviet world. For us this fact is of vast importance: these people represent
a force for freedom, a force potentially far mightier than all the machines of
destruction which a police state can turn upon its opponents.
Khokhlov has placed his trust in the free world. His decision to reject
murder and oppression as exemplified by the diabolical Soviet rulers, knowing full
well the consequences, and to seek a new life under freedom dramatically emphasizes
the utter lack of morality among such men as Malenkov, Molotov, Panyushkin, Khrushchev,
and the others,
The sequel to the Khokhlov story, however it may finally be written on the
indelible pages of history, can convey in concrete terms the understanding and
reassurance for which those silent Russian allies wait. The outcome depends first
of all upon the force and conviction with which the people of the free world express
their moral support of the Khokhlovs. We who are blessed with freedom and liberty,
a form of government predicated on the dignity of man and leaders who are dedicated
to high moral principles must demand of the Soviet leaders that they respond to one
single instance of decency and free the wife and child of Nikolai Khokhlov. Yes, the
final word rests with the Soviet government. Will it by continued silence admit its
disregard of the principles it professes? Or is it able to grant at least two
defenseless beings, a mother and a child, the right to the kind of life in which they
believe?
GERALD FORD
Statement by Representative Gerald R. Ford, Jr.,
House of Representatives - Wednesday, June 16, 1954
FOR RELEASE - Wednesday, P.M.
Mr. Speaker -
Before me I have an Associated Press news story which has shocked all
Americans and others in the free world. It reads as follows:
"Mrs. Nikolai Khokhlov Vanishes in Moscow - Bonn, Germany, June 2 (AP) - -
"The wife left behind by Soviet Intelligence Capt. Nikolai Khokhlov when he
defected to the west last February is reported to have disappeared in Moscow. This
report, received from the Soviet capital, said Mrs, Yanina Khokhlov vanished without
trace from her three room apartment several weeks ago and apparently is in secret
police custody.
"Khokhlov, who backed down on a Red assignment to kill a Russian resistance
leader in Frankfurt, had appealed to the free world to help save his family from what
he said were certain Soviet reprisals, possibly death. His wife, the 31 year old
Russian said, had persuaded him not to go thru with the plot to do away with George
S. Okolovich, anti-communist leader, with the special weapons - including a cyanide
poison pistol shaped like a cigaret case - with which he had been equipped.
"The reports did not make clear what has happened to the Khokhlov's 18 month
old son and the 14 year old sister of Mrs. Khokhlov, who lived with them."
In recent months we have had dramatic evidence of some increasing insecurity
in the ranks of formerly trusted officials in the Soviet government. Defections of
Soviet secret service officers are intensely interesting - in a somewhat negative
way - because they reflect the psychological ferment and growing unrest of which the
Beria purges were also a manifestation. This is the atmosphere of dictatorship, which
feeds on blood and fear.
At this particular moment in our history - when our most vital concern is
the meaning of freedom and the meaning of what it is to be human - we can, however,
look at these defections in a more positive light. Each man who breaks with his past
normally does so for some unique, personal reason, The reasons are seldom clear cut,
but they are always basically human. A man is afraid of punishment for some misdeed.
He seeks a better material life. Or, in the very apt phrase of one defector, "I left
the Soviet Union because I wanted to be a Russian."
A few days ago I had an unusual opportunity to meet and talk at some length
with one of these defectors - Nikolai Khokhlov - the man assigned by Soviet intel-
ligence to assassinate a Russian emigre in Germany. You have read his story in the
Page 2
press. Recently, he testified before the Senate Sub-committee on Internal Security.
Khokhlov stands as an example of the fact that human beings can never be mentally
enslaved, His refusal to carry out his assignment to commit murder was an inependent,
unselfish decision which corroborates the basic principles of free Christian society.
It further corroborates the fact that the Soviet government has not renounced the old
policy of willful and deliberate terror and oppression to achieve its goals. At this
time it is highly appropriate to ask this question - How is this Soviet policy
compatible with its current claims of seeking closer, more friendly relations with
other nations? How does this planned and premeditated mission by the Soviet hierarchy
fit in with the picture of happy life promised to its own people?
If Khokhlov had fulfilled his assignment, if he had killed a fellow human
being whom the MGB wanted liquidated, he would have been showered by his diabolical
supervisors in the Kremlin with favors and honors - promotion, bonuses, and citations.
But fortunately Khokhlov is a human being with a conscience - a concept rejected by
fundamental Communist doctrine and the Soviet regime. He is married to a woman of
deep religious convictions - a faith in God denied by Communist doctrine and the
Soviet regime. To put it straightforwardly Khokhlov could not carry out an order to
murder another human being. Such an act was contrary to his and his wife's moral
principles. His defection was due not to fear or the need to escape a purge, or his
desire for material advantage. It was the result of a growing certainty that he
could not live the life of Soviet Communism or continue as a servant of the secret
police, and still conform to fundamental principles of decency and morality. His
defection, therefore. has a deeper meaning for all Americans, By refusing to carry
out his assignment. Khokhlov affirmed our fundamental beliefs in the value of the
individual, in human dignity, in the right of all people to live in freedom from fear,
freedom from oppression, and freedom from violence,
Behind Khokhlov stands his wife, who guided and strengthened him in these
decisions, With full knowledge of possibly fatal consequences to herself and their
child, she urged her husband to follow his conscience, to follow the best traditions
of humanity. For all of us she is a symbol of courage and independence. She epitomizes
the finest of God's principles, Yet today, from a recent Associated Press dispatch,
we know that despite appeals to the Soviet government to allow her to join her husband,
she and her small child are missing from her Moscow apartment. Although she may be in
the hands of the secret police, those ideals for which she stands are confirmed again
and again by free men everywhere - in their homes, on the battlefield, at the
conference table, Their goal is a world where no man will be forced to show his
courage under the conditions faced by the Khokhlovs,
Page 3
It is evident from the action of this woman and her husband - and from the
action of others who have renounced tyranny - that America and freedom have a strong
but often silent ally, living and thinking behind the bars of dictatorship. We know
from many defectors that there are thousands of Russians who have renounced Soviet
tyranny and who look quietly for assurance and understanding from outside the borders
of the Soviet world. For us this fact is of vast importance: these people represent
a force for freedom, a force potentially far mightier than all the machines of
destruction which a police state can turn upon its opponents.
Khokhlov has placed his trust in the free world. His decision to reject
murder and oppression as exemplified by the diabolical Soviet rulers, knowing full
well the consequences, and to seek a new life under freedom dramatically emphasizes
the utter lack of morality among such men as Malenkov, Molotov, Panyushkin, Khrushchev,
and the others.
The sequel to the Khokhlov story, however it may finally be written on the
indelible pages of history, can convey in concrete terms the understanding and
reassurance for which those silent Russian allies wait. The outcome depends first
of all upon the force and conviction with which the people of the free world express
their moral support of the Khokhlovs. We who are blessed with freedom and liberty,
a form of government predicated on the dignity of man and leaders who are dedicated
to high moral principles must demand of the Soviet leaders that they respond to one
sigle instance of decency and free the wife and child of Nikolai Khokhlov. Yes, the
final word rests with the Soviet government. Will it by continued silence admit its
disregard of the principles it professes? Or is it able to grant at least two
defenseless beings, a mother and a child, the right to the kind of life in which they
believe?
GERALD FOR