Transcript prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.
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(Note: This tape was one of the 53 tapes initially withheld from public disclosure.)
Deanna Wilkinson: (sings) In 1981/ Everything will have changed/ You will see, you will see, you will see/ You will stand in line with your passport to sign/ And the government says no to your kind.
(Organ plays)
Wilkinson: (sings) You will walk down the street/ No friends you will meet/ All your friends that you have known are gone and locked in Santa Rita.
(Organ plays)
Wilkinson: (sings) America was not/ What you thought it would be/ We have seen, we have seen all her lies.
(Organ plays)
Wilkinson: (sings) Your family has died for America and its lies/ All your life, all your life/ You have been deprived.
(Organ plays)
Wilkinson: (sings) Yes, in the fall of the year/ In 1981.
(Applause)
(tape edit)
Jones: Okay, thank you, comrade. Thank you, comrade. For many years, we have let our sympathies be quite publicly known, that the United States government was not our mother, (Pause) but that the Soviet Union was our spiritual motherland.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: It is amazing that for so many years we got by saying it. And I’m glad after many hours of the kindest, uh, benevolence of our consular of the Soviet Embassy, Feodor Timofeyev, spending hours and hours fulfilling our highest ideals, and our noblest expectations. We were not mistaken in allying our purposes, our destiny, with the destiny of the Soviet Union.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: For the first time — and we have served many a— many a guest in this community — but for the first time, we had this guest wonder, are we being given special treatment? And we said, yes. And they said, we want no special treatment. We want to eat with you, we want to eat what you eat, and sacrifice with you, if it’s necessary, enjoy what you enjoy, and whatever you go through, go through. That’s the kind of brother and sister we appreciate.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: (Unintelligible word, said twice; "peace"?) For the first time— Hundreds of guests have come through here in the name of socialism, hundreds of guests, but for the first time, and now I give you without further ado, the consular and the chief of the press department of the U— the embassy of the USSR of Guyana, so proudly, Feodor Timofeyev. Will you come forward? Come forward.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: He is deserving of your welcome and your praise.
Congregation: Cheers and applause, redoubles
Timofeyev: (speaks in Russian) Zdrastvuitye, dobrii vecher, dorogiye tovaraschi. (English translation: Hello, good evening, dear comrades.
Congregation: Applause
Timofeyev: (English) Uh, first of all, on behalf of the Embassy of the USSR, I’d like to send to you my deepest and our deepest and the most sincere greetings to the people of this first socialist and communist community of the United States of America, in Guyana and in the world.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Timofeyev: Well, for me, it’s a great privilege uh, to be in your community to see what I’ve heard from the representatives of the Peoples Temple in Georgetown about your successes, about development of your project, about your (pause) (unintelligible word) in many, many fields. What I was heard [told], and then was seen by the picture, now I’ve been their eyewitnesses, and uh, with me, the Soviet people, the Soviet press will know much more about this wonderful, this so dear for us community, which we — as I called before — the first American socialist and the communist community.
Congregation: Applause
Timofeyev: The Soviet Union (tape break-up for few seconds) its history, six— almost 61 years ago. As I heard yesterday from the small boy up to the most senior citizen of your uh, community knows that nineteen se— 1917, October 1917, was the date of the great October Socialist Revolution.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Timofeyev: (Voice builds throughout) It is for the first time in the history of the mankind, working class peasants, intelligentsia, the soldiers, under the guidance of Bolshevik — or now is called Communist Party of the Soviet L— Union — who have been founded by our dear Vladimir Ilich Lenin, created the first socialist country in the world, and the new era of the socialism started in October 1917.
Congregation: Applause
Timofeyev: (Voice builds throughout) I’m sure you read through the books, how difficult was this path for 61 years for us. We passed through the first world war, uh, we call it civil war, we passed through the second world war, and I heard yesterday that everybody knows here that struggling for the socialism, defending the cause of peace and socialism. We lost 20 million of our people, but we protect the whole world against fascism, against imperialism.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Timofeyev: With our uh, glorious victory in the second world war — we called it great patriotic war — the— another stage of the developing of the world community started. After the second world war, the people of Europe, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungaria [Hungary], Romania, Yugoslavia, (unintelligible name) and some other, started in the first time in the history to build their own socialist community, and not only the Soviet Union, but another fraternal socialist country became the power which defends not only themselves, but defends the whole progressive mankind, defends the countries which develop and which uh, pass from colonialism to independence, whose independence comes, but imperialistic forces didn’t want them to be independent—
One voice: True.
Timofeyev: (Voice builds throughout) Superficially only they recognized this independence, but economically, politically, they still tried to reinstate them, to put uh— to make them work under their instructions. And everybody of you know that the Soviet Union, the socialist country of the Europe, of communist Cuba, always support the struggle of the national liberation movement in Africa, in Angola, Mozambique, in Ethiopia, and with— and we will support the national liberation movement in South Africa.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Timofeyev: Well, as I mentioned, comrades, our lives— our— our ways towards the country, as recall ourselves now, the country of developed socialism was not very easy. But when we became the country of developed socialism, from the very beginning, we knew that the working people all over the world are in solidarity with the Soviet Union. The American workers in the 1917 [Revolution], send the letters to Comrade Vladimir Ilich Lenin with a solidarity with our revolution. And it was not only that. During the second world war, we know hundreds and thousands and maybe millions of Americans who send their checks, who send their warm clothes, who— who have been with us during the most difficult period, when the Nazi troops tried to capture the capital of the Soviet Union, our dear Moscow, so I’d like to thank comrades who stay here, who are the socialist by their hearts, by their minds, that you also have the history, you have the history of the socialist brother, which— which shared the communist conviction, and it started not today, and it started together with our revolution. So on behalf of our embassy, thank you very much that you are now the socialists and the communists.
Congregation: Applause
(tape edit)
Timofeyev: Well, I have uh, maybe not much time to speak, uh, because uh— (Laughs) because, comrades, well, if we said any topic about the Soviet Union, it may be interesting for you to know from myself, from our uh, comrade Nikolai, our doctor who had been there, he make uh, a talk with the medical staff of Peoples Temple, and they exchanged very important points of view about the health program which you also have there— here, but uh— well, maybe, I speak a couple of words about what we reach in the field of culture, education, agriculture. Well, we’re the country, and everybody knows of you, with the one hundred and thirty different nationalities and national groups. For us, it was not so easy to resolve the national question, because previously, before the revolution, the tsar and— well, he— he was the head of bourgeois, of imperialistic government, uh, he oppressed the minority who have been lived in the borders of the Russia. We never had, uh— Russia had never been the colonial country as (unintelligible word). That’s why we— uh, well, the Russia never brought to its country the slaves from the different uh— from a— from other continents, like from Africa. We uh, didn’t have — that’s why — uh, big, uh, African population in our country. Some comrades in Guyana, when we organized the exhibition dedicated to the sixtieth anniversary of Great October Revolution in Georgetown asked me, "Well, what I’ve seen is really wonderful, you reached tremendous successes in many fields, but why there is a discrimination of colored people in the Soviet Union?" Well, I answered him, uh, "Dear Comrade, we have 130 national and national groups, but because we’ve never been the colonial country, we have never brought colored — so-called — people from abroad, and that’s why, uh, there is no big community of uh, people from Africa in our country." It’s not our fault. Now we have the young generation of Africans, of uh, our Soviet citizens who grow up in the Africa of the socialism, some people from Africa and Latin America have married the Soviet women and live in the Soviet Union. So they have the kids, and that’s our African and Soviet population, which have the equal rights, privileges with the people of the Soviet Union. So, there is no national discrimination, there is no racial discrimination in the Soviet Union. (Laughs)
Congregation: Applause
(tape edit)
Timofeyev: So, as I continue, uh, we reached the stage when there is no racial discrimination and besides of that, we develop the joint socialist culture. This culture, um— The composition of this culture made from the cultures of every small group, we put all our forces to develop the national languages, to develop national culture, different skills, and they made the contribution to our joint con— uh, to our joint culture, and to call it the culture of the socialism, where every nationality, every national group make the best to develop their ideas of the socialism, to ah, develop ideas of the communism, and this is the base [basis] for our culture, and uh, every nationality participated very active. (Pause) Touching uh, the question that’s very often been asked by me in the different auditorium, but maybe everybody of you know, that uh, the Soviet Union, um, in the fields of culture, make the tremendous progress. We have about 500 big uh, folklore group. Everybody heard the name of the Bolshoi Theater. It’s our ballet. But it’s only one from the 30 ballet theaters in the Soviet Union. We uh, as I mentioned, have uh, many scientific (unintelligible word). It’s uh, also the part of our culture, the part of our educational system. Our opponents in the United States of America imperialist fortress try to say that uh, the Soviet Jewish [people] are discriminated [against].
One voice: (unintelligible, expresses denial)
Timofeyev: I may tell, comrades, if it’s a lie, I agree with your comrades (unintelligible word)—
Congregation: Applause
Timofeyev: There is no question of Soviet Jewish in the Soviet Union. In the opposite. There is a question of discrimination of black, Jewish in the United States of America.
Congregation: Stirs
Timofeyev: There is a question of discrimination of Jewish in their political rights. I don’t speak about the discrimination of different people who are not so-called white in the United States of America, and one who tried to say that we’re discriminate somebody, should first of all resolve its own problem, and in their own country.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Timofeyev: When I mention that in the Soviet Union (coughs), there is a big amount of scientists, just as example how that problem has been resolved. Every sec— every third person from the Jewish— Soviet Jewish have the highest education and is employed as a scientist, teacher, lawyer or doctor by our country. In comparison with other nations, where there— there is maybe the percent of the science— scien— scientific personnel is not so high. Among the Russians, it’s every eight percent, (stumbles over words) every eight persons is a scientist. Among the Jewish, it’s every third person is a scientist. So we give the Jewish people the equal rights, but because they’re smaller, and they want to know much more about the socialism, and they train in the highest university, they have a higher percent than they— some other nations. It doesn’t mean that (laughs) uh, the Russians are discriminated [against] in the Soviet Union, but just as example, I give this. (Pause)
Congregation: Light applause
Timofeyev: Well, comrades, of course, our cul— culture is directly connected with education. From the very beginning of our state, Vladimir Ilich Lenin terl— told— speaking to the youth in the Third Congress of the Communist League of the Soviet Union. Uh— It was a very difficult period. Our country had been destroyed by the foreign intervention in nineteen uh, twenty-one it happened, by foreign intervention, by the local aggression and the bourgeois forces tried to organize coups— military coups in the Soviet Union. They tried to assassinate Lenin, almost a couple months after he speak [spoke]. But in this difficult epoch, Vladimir Ilich Lenin, when he was addressed with the youth, he told, "Comrades, your first task is to study, study, and again, to study, how to build the socialism, how to build the communism." So our young people, our old people, our middle generation, our teenagers, everybody knows the importance of the knowledge. Because only through the knowledge, through the understanding of the international processes, through the understanding of theory of communism, of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy, of political economy, and some other subjects, you can really became [become] the communist, you can really build the society which is free of exploitation, free of any form of racial or any other discrimination, because you should know the theory, how to build. But not only know it, but implement practically and daily in your life. And (sighs) I am very happy that I saw here in Jonestown the full (Pause) uh, harmony of theory which have been created by [German socialist Karl] Marx, [German socialist Friedrich] Engels, Lenin, and uh, the practical implementation of this— some fundamental features of this theory, under the leadership or together with you, by Comrade Jim Jones, and I’d like to thank him for that.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
(tape edit)
Timofeyev: Dear comrades, of course, in our society, in the Soviet Union, we have not only the successes, frankly, as uh, we get used to speak between the socialists, between communist to communist, I might tell you that we also have some difficulties, problems we— we should overcome, which we must overcome. These problems exist in the different sphere. But the— we are not afraid of the problems, we are not afraid of the difficulties. We spoke openly about them, because if we hide your difficulties, if you hide there’s something wrong in your society or in your community, it became worse. So we criticize, through the party meetings, through the go— gathering of our people, we criticize some negative sides of our society. And believe me, every day, every year, we grow up, we became stronger, we pass over our problems and difficulties, and uh, we became stronger in the course of the socialism, in the course of build[ing] the communist society in our country. (Pause) Well, comrades, (Pause) (laughs) I may as I explain here, I might talk for a long period of time (Laughs), but—
Congregation: Laughter, then light applause
Timofeyev: But, uh, will you permit me, uh, to send a couple of words in the end of my short, maybe not a brilliant speech, and I do not pretend to be, but I’d like to wish you, dear comrades, all the successes to your great, to your very big work you’re doing here. You’ve already done a lot, but a lot you should— you should do in the future. You should make your community one of the most (Pause) bet— one of the best community which— which any person in America can dream, and what I’ve heard here, when I spoke to the comrades, I understood that people come together with Comrade Jim Jones in the Peoples Temple for the first of all, because they trust, they believe in the ideas of the socialism, in the equality, and we share absolutely and—
Congregation: Light commotion
Timofeyev: Yes, as an idea of Marxist-Leninism, and we share with you all that idea. We thank you very much that you call us your spiritual motherland.
Congregation: Applause
(Tape edit)
Timofeyev: I’d like to thank you very much for your hospitality. For me, it was a great pleasure to be together with you, to see how happy you are, being in the free society which you built with your own hands, which you developed with your own hands, and I wish you, again and again, all the successes in your work, in your difficult task, to build the socialism, to build the communism. Thank you very much.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: Give him a big hand.
Congregation: Cheers and applause, then sings with Jones
Jones: (sings) United forever in friendship and neighbor/ A mighty people shall ever endure/ A great socialist union shall live through the ages/ A dream of the people, their fortress secure/ Long live the Soviet Motherland/ It was filled by the people’s—
End of side 1
Side 2
Jones: (sings) (begins in mid-song, unintelligible intro) —socialist (unintelligible last word)
Congregation: Applause
Jones: Before we retire for other discussions — and he has been so helpful — I must say that Dr. Nikolai has been spending hours with some of our most difficult cases. He got to the bottom of mine so thoroughly—
Congregation: Applause
Jones: And this gentleman said something that I cannot quote here, but gave me more peace than ever before. I know after I heard his words, I didn’t need to worry about my family, Jonestown, any more.
Congregation: Applause
Jones: Thank you. The meeting is dismissed. The meeting is dismissed. Peace and love to you. Peace and love, comrades. Some of you wish to shake hands with the comrade, I’m sure he would be happy to have that. He’s— We’ve been such a joy having him, Comrade Feodor Timofeyev. Timofeyev. (Pause) (tape edit?) —to speak in Russian with our comrade. (Small laugh) He had some— He had sent some films, but there’s some confusion. He had sent some films that are in uh, Russian and English, but only now we have the Russian sections, but later we’ll have the English, and then we’ll be able to hear the Russian language, and we will have much more advantage. (Pause)
Congregation: Scattered applause
Jones: It’s eight films in English, and eight films in Russian, so that we’ll be able to understand and hear. (Pause)
(Tape edit)
Jones: (sings) —and we’re glad/ We’re a communist today/ — (calls out) Go ahead — (sings) and we’re glad/ We’re a communist today and communist all the way/ We’re a communist today and we’re glad/ We’re a communist today and we’re glad/ We’re a communist today and we’re glad/ We’re a communist today and a communist all the way/ We’re a communist today and we’re glad/ (Hums)/ We’re a communist today and we’re glad/ We’re a communist today and we’re glad/ I’m a communist today and a communist all the way/ I’m a communist today and I’m glad/ — (calls out) Everybody — Oh, a communist today and I’m glad/ Oh, so glad/ A communist today and so glad/ Oh, so glad/ Communist today, we are communist all the way/ We are communist today and we’re glad/ I said we’re communist today and we’re glad/ We are communist today and we’re glad/ We are communist today, and we’re communist all the way/ We are communist today/ I said we’re communist today and we’re glad/ We are communist today and we’re glad/ Oh, we’re communist today, and we’re communist all the way/ We are communist today and we’re glad/ Said we are communist today—
Congregation: (picks up song) — and we’re glad/ We are communist today
Jones: (sings) and we’re glad/ We are communist today and we’re communist all the way/ We are communist today and I’m glad/
Unknown male: Oh, a communist today and I’m glad/ We are communist today and I’m glad/ Oh we are communist today/ Yes, are communist all the way/ We are communist today and we’re glad/
Jones and man: (Duet) Oh we are communist today and I’m glad/ We are communist today and we’re glad/ Yes, we are communist today, we are communist all the way/ We are communist today and we’re glad—
(Music ends)
Jones: (Speaks) We have other questions that the— we need to give to our Soviet consular, and we have much time to spend. He spent all night with us, so I’m sure the rest of you’ll just give him a hearty salute, that Jonestown, Soviet Union— (laughs)
Congregation: Scattered calls
Jones: Jonestown, Soviet Union, yes, yes, with him all the way.
Congregation: Cheers and calls
Timofeyev: (too far away from mike)
Jones: Oh, just a moment, he wanted to make (unintelligible word) something— presentation. (Pause) A great man. I’ve seen hours, and no contradictions and no discrepancies.
Congregation: Scattered applause
Timofeyev: Dear comrades, of course I’m apologize for— This is not something big, but we uh, like with all our hearts from my behalf and my colleague, Nikolai, to make this presentation, the book that give a very good idea, and it’s called For Life. This book is dedicated to the foreign policy of the Soviet Union. It shows the different aspects of our struggle for peace, disarmament, against the arms races, against the neutron bomb, for the solida— with the solidarity from the different people all around the world. So, on my behalf and my colleague, I’d like to present this book to Comrade Jim Jones as a great fighter for socialism and for peace also.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: All— Already he has presented us many books. He gave us a book yesterday of lovely things. There are some of the most beautiful features — and I’ll show you, we’ll share it — it has all sorts of things about the peoples of the Soviet Union. And by the way, Comrade Feodor, we wanted you to know that we know that there were Jewish communities— entire Jewish communities that work independently in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union has never been anti-Semitic, but it does oppose Zionism and expansionism, as we do also.
Congregation: Cheers and applause
Jones: Thank you very much. We know— You have certainly made us feel welcome, and we know that one of your great writers, [Alexander] Pushkin, was black, and we don’t have any need to hear the fact that (unintelligible phrase) second law of the constitution, that there must be no discrimination. If there is, it is not only— It’s a criminal matter. It’s a criminal matter. So we are totally committed to the Soviet Union, and we’re greatly honored by your presence. Greatly honored.
Congregation: Cheers and applause, quietens. Some laughter.
End of tape
Tape originally posted September 2003