The Marxists Internet Archive has made available a 1959 column by Raya Dunayevskaya on Nikita Khrushchev’s speech at the 21st Congress of the Russian Communist Party (“Khrushchev Talks On and On“).

Dunayevskaya’s comments on the Russia-China tensions, as well as those on Khrushchev’s main concern, raising the low productivity of the Russian worker, are insightful.

Khrushchev hosted U.S. Vice-President Richard Nixon on a visit the U.S.S.R. later in 1959 (July), during which the so-called “kitchen debate” took up some of the issues Khrushchev discusses in his speech (specifically, the low standard of living of the citizens of the U.S.S.R. relative to the U.S.).

Khrushchev was to visit the U.S. in 1959 as well. One of his main goals during the trip was to visit Disneyland, which, alas for scientific socialism, didn’t happen.