MOSCOW, Nov. 23, 1963 (UPI) - Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev said today the death of President Kennedy "is a heavy blow to all people who hold dear the cause of peace and Soviet-American cooperation." In a cable to President Johnson, Khrushchev expressed the "indignation of Soviet people against the culprits of this base crime."
Khrushchev described the late president as a "person of broad outlook who realistically assessed the situation and tried to find ways to negotiate settlements of the international problems which now divide the world."
"The Soviet government and the Soviet people share the deep grief of the American people over this great loss and express the hope that the search for setline the disputable issues, a search to which President J.F. Kennedy made a tangible contribution, would be continued in the interests of peace, for the benefit of mankind," he said.
Khrushchev conveyed his sincere condolences and heartfelt sympathy to Mrs. Kennedy.
"All people who knew him greatly respected him," the premier said. "I shall always keep the memory of my meetings with him."
President Leonid Brezhnev also cabled a message to President Johnson in which he expressed his "most sincere condolences."
"I have just learned about the heinous assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy," Brezhnev's cable said. "I am deeply begrieved by this news. The Soviet people share the sorrow of the American people for their grave loss, the tragic death of this outstanding statesman in his prime."
Foreign Secretary Andrei Gromyko was to pay a visit this morning to U.S. Ambassador Foy D. Kohler to express Soviet condolences.
Khrushchev had rushed back to Moscow from the Ukraine today to pay his solemn respects to Kennedy.
Informed sources said Khrushchev has ordered Gromyko to be ready to go to Washington to attend Kennedy's funeral Monday.
Soviet citizens were deeply shocked by the news the president had died from an assassin's bullet.
Moscow radio and television and other news media gave extensive coverage to the reports from the United States.
Soviet commentators blamed "ultra conservatives" for the assassination. They made no mention of Lee Harvey Oswald, charged in Dallas with the murder of the president.
Oswald was in Moscow in 1959 and information available here indicated that he did not leave the Soviet Union until 1962.
(United Press International Paris correspondent Aline Mosby said Oswald arrived in Moscow on Oct. 15, 1959, and applied for Soviet citizenship the next day. Miss Mosby, then assigned to UPI's Moscow bureau, interviewed him at the time.)
Gromyko telephoned Kohler last night to express "shock and greatest sympathy to the American people." He said condolences "will be conveyed later at the highest level," apparently meaning Khrushchev.
The Soviet leader has been on a tour of the Ukraine. Informed sources said he boarded a special train to return to Moscow shortly after hearing of the president's death.
Kohler was stunned by the news.
"Terrible, terrible, I am devastated," he said. "I don't know what to think."
A Russian garbage collector thought the crime was "barbarous." An office worker was "indignant" and thought the murder was "perpetrated by the reactionary forces in Texas where it is known the John Birch Society has a strong following."
A Soviet journalist said, "This is terrible. How could it have happened?"
American students at Moscow University were stunned into disbelief.
"At the time I thought it was a joke," said one. He added, "There was a state of absolute shock with everybody. He was very popular here...very popular...."
British Ambassador Sir Humphrey Trevelyan said, "This is a terrible tragedy for Mr. Kennedy's family, for his country, for my country and the whole world."
Radio and television programs throughout Russia were interrupted or canceled to report that Kennedy had been shot.
The news of his death was a flash announcement.
Long after midnight, lights burned bright in the nine-story American embassy. A crowd of about 100 Russian students gathered outside, talking about the tragedy.
"Kennedy was another Lincoln," said one.
"He was a remarkable man," said another.
"The American people are shocked by the murder of President Kennedy," Moscow Radio said.
Pravda remade the bottom part of its front page - an unusual development here - to carry the report of Kennedy's death and a two column photograph.
A biography depicted him as a champion of peace. The official Soviet news agency Tass called him "a outstanding American leader."
Moscow Radio, in its chief morning newscast at 8 a.m. read a declaration by the American Communist Party calling the assassination "a murderous attack against American democracy."
"It is the result of the work of pro-Fascist and racist forces which do not hesitate to resort to any means to put the clock back," said the declaration, broadcast in Russian.
The station said "there is mourning all over the United States, with theaters closed, sports events canceled and commercial television programs canceled."
