A Shotgun for Peace: Cold War Relic Symbolizes Rare U.S.-Soviet Diplomacy
A sporting shotgun given to U.S. Secretary of Defense in 1959 symbolizes rare Cold War detente—and is now for sale through The Raab Collection.
In September 1959, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev made history with his visit to the United States. Invited by President Dwight Eisenhower, Khrushchev was the first Soviet leader to come to America. He brought numerous state gifts to commemorate the occasion, including two decorated shotguns; one was given to the President, who was known to enjoy hunting, and one to Neil McElroy, Secretary of Defense. The Raab Collection has acquired McElroy’s gun from his family and is selling it for $125,000.
The dealer calls it “perhaps the most historically important gun to reach the market.” In addition to its role in easing Cold War tensions, it is extremely rare for a gift of state to be available for sale. An Act of Congress passed in 1978 made gifts of state belong to the nation, not to the recipient. Given to McElroy in 1959, the shotgun remained in his family until his descendants chose to sell it.
"As Cold War relics go, a gift of a shotgun from Khrushchev to the U.S. is hard to beat,” says Nathan Raab, president of The Raab Collection and author of The Hunt for History. “It’s an incredibly powerful symbol, given in peace, as a way to deescalate what both nations felt was the major, all-encompassing concern of the day: nuclear war.”
As gifts to promote “mutual understanding” and peaceful relations, the shotguns were not intended as instruments of violence. They were sporting guns, alluding to President Eisenhower’s hobby of hunting, and the emphasis was on their craftsmanship and the beauty of their decorations.
Khrushchev received the guns from craftsmen in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurt Republic in Russia. The city has a history of both metallurgy and armories. In addition to the skilled craftsmanship evident in the shotguns, master engraver A. Lekomtsev elaborately decorated them with precious metals.
McElroy’s gun is carved with the year of its creation, 1959, and engraved with the mark of the Izhevsk Mechanical Plant. Its decorations show hunting scenes, with a fox and ducks on one side and a dog on the other, both in gold, with details in silver or white gold.
The gun will be sold with a copy of a letter from McElroy to Khrushchev. Dated September 18, 1959, the letter includes McElroy’s thanks for the gift, in which he states his desire to "fully reciprocate the wish expressed to me by our representatives that the firearms used in the future by our two countries need be no longer than this shotgun for the preservation of world peace and that even the shotgun be used solely for sporting purposes.”
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