January 13, 1959
ANASTAS MIKOYAN: Chicago, 10 – The first deputy premier of the Soviet Union, Anastas Mikoyan, responding to questions put to him last night at a dinner given in his honor by US Secretary of State Adlai Stevenson, described the following politicians as members of the «Anti-Party» group. Regarding Vyacheslav Molotov, he said: «I continue to respect and admire him very much. However he is a person with a conservative way of thinking. He thinks that everything in the past was good and that everything in the future is bad. Now he is our ambassador in Mongolia, but Mongolia is larger than Panama. Lazar Kaganovich, said Mikoyan, is something similar to Molotov. There are of course several differences between the two but Kaganovich has distanced himself from the leadership. Nikolai Bulganin, meanwhile, now has a very important position, at the head of a service which is something like your own monopolies. Lavrentiy Beria I knew well but did not respect. He was an adventurer, a type of man capable of doing anything to serve his own personal interests. He had the entire police force in his hands. He was tried, convicted and executed. Since then no death sentence has been carried out in our country for any political crime.»
