December 2, 1959
DECEMBER ANNIVERSARY: On the eve of the anniversary of the December 4, 1944 communist uprising in Athens, Russian Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev, speaking to a gathering of 10,000 workers in Budapest, compared the anniversary to the 1956 revolution in Hungary when Soviet troops intervened to put down an uprising by Hungarian freedom fighters. «The imperialists,» said Khrushchev, «felt no shame when they put down the uprising of Greece’s best men, who, after the Second World War, wanted to establish their own regime. The capitalists did not hesitate to intervene to maintain another capitalist regime.» Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis said in a statement: «I regret that at a time when so many efforts are being made to achieve international detente, that the Soviet Union continues with its tactics of interference and threats against our country. In trying to justify the crimes of the [Greek] outlaws’ war, which the Soviet Union supported morally and practically, Khrushchev is interfering in our domestic affairs. The obvious purpose of his speech is to encourage the communist minority in this country to continue their struggle against the overwhelming majority that is determined to remain faithful to the principles of freedom and democracy.»
