On numerous occasions during Jonestown\u2019s brief history, Jim Jones raised the possibility of uprooting the community and emigrating to the Soviet Union. Part of his motivation for this stemmed from his oft-stated \u2013 and seemingly firmly-held \u2013 belief that the USSR was the perfect society. He consistently described Lenin and Stalin as his two main heroes. More importantly throughout the Cold War \u2013 which lasted throughout Jones’ adult life \u2013 the USSR was the chief antagonist of the US and the only superpower to check what Temple political leaders characterized as “American aggression and imperialism.” Since Jones also considered himself an enemy of the US \u2013 and since, as the proverb has it, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” \u2013 he pledged allegiance to (and forgave more of the sins of) the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n
To that stated end, Jonestown hosted a number of delegations from the Soviet Union, including representatives of the Tass News Agency<\/a> and officials from the Soviet embassy in Georgetown<\/a>. Community residents were also required to study the Russian language, and were periodically tested on it. Perhaps the most pervasive reminder of the plan was Jones\u2019 daily reading of the news, which he took from Russian and Warsaw Pact news services.<\/p>\n Sometime in the late summer or early fall of 1978 \u2013 possibly in anticipation of the visit from the Soviet Embassy officials \u2013 the people of Jonestown signed a petition<\/a> which expressed the \u201cdesire to emigrate to the Soviet Union.\u201d<\/p>\n The plan was discussed by the Temple leadership as well, both in Jonestown and in Georgetown. Numerous documents recovered from Jonestown show the extent of contact with foreign embassies \u2013 especially the Soviet and Cuban embassies \u2013 and an informational packet about the Temple was prepared for several officials from these embassies in January 1978. A memo<\/a> written to Jones, likely in October 1978, also raises the possibility of such a migration.<\/p>\n But how serious was the plan? According to Terri Buford, some of the Temple leadership in Guyana \u2013 other than Jones himself \u2013 wanted to go to the Soviet Union, and conversations over the radio between Georgetown and Jonestown often touched on the subject. Jones allowed his lieutenants to explore the idea, but he himself wasn\u2019t serious about it, opting instead for a final stand in Jonestown.<\/p>\n Those sentiments are borne out in the Jonestown tapes. When discussing the possibility of emigration during several Jonestown meetings, Jones pointed out the problems and hurdles of any migration as much as he lauded their potential new home. Asking Cuba to take them in might be asking the country to break its own laws, he says in one tape<\/a>. \u201cDo you think that\u2019d be too heavy burden to put on Cuba?\u201d During a lengthier discussion in another tape<\/a>, he says seeking asylum in Russia may require that he \u201cagree not to be the leader,\u201d that \u201cwe might be [considered] a threat in any country, \u201c that Russians \u201cdon\u2019t really know how mean our White Nights can be\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s why I like<\/em> Guyana,\u201d Jones adds, \u201cin the terms we can be our own independent government. For all matters and purposes, we are our own independent sovereign existence. That\u2019s something you won\u2019t have any place in the world, not likely that you\u2019ll have that anyplace else in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n