In the summer of 1955, India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru flew over to the Soviet Union for a state visit. The trip, extending to almost a month, still remains the longest visit by an Indian Prime Minister to the region— which consists of Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia.[1] The trip was a landmark visit because it escalated the Soviet-Indian friendship to a new high in that era of cold war-ridden bifurcation of the world order. Reminiscing of this visit in his later years, former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev recollected that “…Jawaharlal Nehru’s visit to Moscow in June 1955 was an unexpected stimulus for me in this respect [understanding democracy]. … This amazing man, his noble bearing, keen eyes and warm and disarming smile, made a deep impression on me.”[2] Jawaharlal’s visit to USSR—then one of the two competing powers of the cold war—was an important step for India as cozying up to the Soviets maintained a subtle balance of power in the subcontinent, for the Americans had cozied up to the Pakistanis. So intimate was the visit, that while riding through Moscow, when people threw roses at Nehru and the thorns pricked his fingers, he remarked—sarcastically—“Look, I’ve shed my blood for Russia.”
