At the Kremlin, Moscow
In the Tzars Rooms
The study
May 31, 1976
The immensity of Russian territory is mind-bggling.
The State Dinner was finished at about 10:00 PM, starting at 7:00 PM. So I have some time to work on the documents: the Communique that establishes diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the Philippines, the Trade Agreement, and the Joint Satement which is a recapitulation of the conversations and agreements.
As soon as we arrived at 11:00 AM sharp (President or Chairman Nicolai Podgorny commended us for the simultaneous arrival of our two planes, the First Lady’s and mine), the honor guard (Trooping the line and their marching past after we met the diplomatic corps) President Podgorny, Deputy Masarov and Foreign Minister Gromyko who met us (with other cabinet ministers) escorted us to the Kremlin and our apartments which they proudly pointed out were the apartments of the Tzars and Tzarinas complete with an old 15th century private chapel and modern projection (movie) room and which leads to all the ornate luxurious banquet and dancing halls including where we had the first conferene at 3:00 PM, the St. Catherine’s Hall and the State Dinner, as well as the St. George’s Hall, an elegant long hall on the walls of which are chiseled the names of the recipients of the St. George Crros which is the highest decoration of the Soviet Union for bravery in action.
There are no serious disagreements. On the first conversations I immediately laid down the parameters of our visit: that we are completely overhauling our foreign policy and completing its evolution from colonial to special relations to complete independence and self reliance but that our objective is the nationalistic objective of eliminating all vestiges of colonialism or neo-colonialism—which indrectly states the fact that as we are liberating ourselves from Aemerica neo-colonialism so we do not wish to be under any other power.
But Siberia was a revelation—green and sunny—Golden dandelions, trees and gardens.
And the border town was a large city Khavarotsk, 65 miles away (north) of the Chinese border marked by the low hills that I could see from my room at their Guest House, a building much larger than our State Guest House.
[p.128] Novosibirsk (New Sibera) the capital of Siberia was also green and sunny. Science City of 3,000 scientists, 30,000 researchers and a total popualtion of 250,000 out of Novosibirsk’s total population of 500,000.
And Siberian mineral and forest resources are fantastic—oil, gas, iron, copper, etc. Name it they have it.
But the most impressive are the people. They are a tough and industious breed with a tradition of courage. It is said that in the Battle of Stalingrad, the Siberian soldiers fought ferociously to the last man.
With such men in Russia, one cannot or should not underestimate the capacity of the Russian troops.
It is unknown where this text comes from because the handwritten entry is missing, what is available are the transcriptions from PCGG Vol. 5 pp.127-128. There are no entries from May 10-30.
No wonder the Chinese are insecure.
But so are the Soviet leaders. Pres. Podgorny spoke lengthily and almost emotionally of the Chinese (the People’s Republic of China) openly announcing that they are preparing for war and their showing me during my visit to China last year their underground tunnels. “Anyone digging underground tunnels is not preparing for peace but for war. We have not dug any such tunnels.”
Although they have their superb and deep subways or “Guetro”
However, right now they seem to be engaged in internal development and the protection of their borders that may have been frozen by the Helsinki Declaration.
And this may take many years.
Minister Gromyko seemed impressed when I told him at the State Dinner, we in the Philippines were self sufficient in grain. And there was hurried consultation across the table with Pres. Podgorny and Deputy Masarov when I told him of the cross breed of rye and burley, triticale.