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Peoples Temple Collection; Box 13, Virtual item 33, Q352 - Part 1, Soviet consular visit to Jonestown community

 Digital Record
Identifier: ms-0183_13.33 Part 1

Dates

  • Digitized: October 1, 1978

Creator

Summary Note

This tape includes Jonestown’s formal welcome of Feodor Timofeyev, the consular of Soviet Union embassy in Guyana and — as the book Raven points out — a man that Jim Jones wanted to cultivate in order to smooth the way for the community’s proposed move to the Soviet Union. The consular’s October 1978 visit had been months in the making, and Jones wanted to be sure that everyone in Jonestown could greet the Soviet visitor in the Russian language and knew enough Russian history to recognize important dates. The tape opens with Deanna Wilkinson performing a song of protest — and some sorrow — of the U.S. government’s betrayal of its citizens. Jones then introduces Timofeyev by declaring Jonestown’s allegiance to the Soviet Union as their alternative to their own homeland. His first words of the evening are, "For many years, we have let our sympathies be quite publicly known, that the United States government was not our mother, but that the Soviet Union was our spiritual motherland." The community gives Timofeyev an enthusiastic welcome, and the Soviet consular is just as effusive in his praise for Jonestown, which he describes as "the first American socialist and … communist community." He expresses his appreciation for the universal knowledge of some Soviet history by every resident he has met (thereby demonstrating the success of Jones’ recent exhortations). Later, he speaks approvingly of the exchange of views on health issues between the Russian doctor who accompanied the consular and the Jonestown clinic. Full summary of the recording available at Alternative Considerations of Jonestown website, along with the tape transcript.

Rights Statement Note

The copyright interests in these materials have not been transferred to San Diego State University. Copyright resides with the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections is such that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine.  Requests for permission to publish must be submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted, permission is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.

Physical Description Note

Original audio cassette tape recording digitized and made available as .mp3 audio file.

Publisher Note

Publisher: The Jonestown Institute

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections & University Archives Repository

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