“MY VISIT DID NOT REASSURE ME”: FROM THE HISTORY OF VISIT LESTER PEARSON’S TO THE SOVIET UNION (OCTOBER 5–12, 1955)

The article examines the political background, organization and course of the official visit of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Canada Lester Pearson to the Soviet Union in October 1955. It is established that after ten years of mutual mistrust caused by the “Gouzenko case” (exposing the Soviet spy network in Canada), each side pursued its own goal of establishing contacts. Diplomatic searches for common ground between the two countries were made possible by a change of top leadership in the Soviet Union and a brief reduction in international tensions following the 1955 Geneva Summit, which expressed readiness to discuss acute international conflicts. Significantly, Pearson was destined to become the first high-ranking Western official to visit the Soviet Union since NATO’s founding. Pearson tended to be flexible in relations with the USSR, in particular, sought to take advantage of bilateral relations. Despite criticism of Soviet expansionist policies in the international arena and contempt for human rights within the country, he believed that it was in the West’s interest to maintain contacts with the USSR through trade in non-strategic goods and cooperation within the UN. For this he was sometimes accused of being too lenient with communism. At the same time, in the Soviet Union, Pearson was perceived as a cautious politician, “hostile” to their country. The visit of the Canadian official delegation led by L. Pearson to the Soviet Union was organized by the newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Canada John Watkins (1954–1956). Watkins earned the support of the Soviet leadership, but fell victim to the newly formed KGB: they tried to turn him into an “agent of influence” by blackmailing him with leaked spicy information about the diplomat’s homosexual relations. In addition to Moscow, part of the Canadian delegation – only four people – visited Stalingrad, from where in the afternoon of October 11, 1955 arrived in Sevastopol. In addition to two hours of Soviet-Canadian talks with Khrushchev’s expressive behavior, the Crimean part of the Canadian delegation’s visit went down in history with its “drinking session”. The Crimean part of L. Pearson’s visit to the Soviet leadership and Khrushchev personally was an attempt to show that the Soviet Union was a sincere and reliable partner with whom it was profitable to deal. Unaware of common approaches to international issues, the parties focused on economic cooperation, which resulted in a mutually beneficial Canadian-Soviet trade agreement in 1956. The Soviet Union became a regular buyer of Canadian wheat for many years. It was found that conversations during the so-called the “Crimean party” (banquet) became for the Canadian delegation an indicator of the mood and intentions of the new Soviet leadership, which differed little from those that took place in the Stalinist era. Despite slight liberalization, the Soviet regime of the “Khrushchev thaw” period remained expansionist, hostile to human rights and freedoms. Nikita Khrushchev’s anti-Western (primarily anti-American) rhetoric, diluted by reflections on war and peace, allowed Canadian visitors to acknowledge the longevity of Soviet foreign policy and the inevitable continuation of the Cold War.

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