The Lenin Peace Prize Winners of 1962

A remarkable year for a remarkable prize. Winners included Kwame Nkrumah and Pablo Picasso and hailed from Ghana, France, the Hungarian People's Republic, Pakistan and Chile.

From the Soviet Press 1962:

THE International Lenin Prize for the Promotion of Peace among Nations was conferred this year on five eminent statesmen and public leaders.

The aspiration and struggle of working people for peace, freedom and happiness are forever associated with Lenin, with his teachings and his titanic activity. His great ideas light humanity's road to successful solution of the vital problems of today, the road to general peace and prosperity.

The five prize winners, well-known figures in their various countries, people of different social positions, vocations and political loyalties are all united by their humanism, their uncompromising struggle for peace, freedom and happiness for all peoples. They are unanimous in their striving to save humanity from a terrible nuclear holocaust.

The Peace Prize was awarded to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, President of the Republic of Ghana , for his leadership in the African national liberation movement. Dr. Nkrumah enjoys the universal respect of the peoples of all the African countries. The world knows him as a courageous and resolute fighter for peace. "While the disarmament problem remains unsolved and until agreement on this matter is reached," he said at the Belgrade conference of nonaligned nations, "the conditions necessary for the preservation of peace will not be present..."

People of good will everywhere will greet the awarding of the Lenin Peace Prize to Pablo Picasso, world-famous painter and humanist. His name is familiar to millions, his paintings on display in the museums of almost all the world's capitals. For Picasso, painting, to quote his own words, is "a weapon in the defensive and offensive war against the enemy," and the enemy is fascism.

When Spain, in 1936, fought against fascism, Picasso was on the side of the People's Front. During the years of World War II he was with the French Resistance. In the postwar period his name has been inseparably connected with the struggle for peace and democracy.

His Dove of Peace, a world-famous drawing, brought him an earlier International Peace award in 1950.

Istvan Dobi, President of the Presidium of the Hungarian People's Republic, who has worked tirelessly for the relaxation of international tensions, was awarded the Lenin Prize.

Istvan Dobi has devoted all his working life to progress and world betterment. He has invariably championed international peace and friendship and the application of the principle of peaceful coexistence of nations with different social systems. His work on behalf of the peace movement is widely recognized, particularly in the European countries.

Faiz Ahmad Faiz, outstanding son of the Pakistani people and celebrated Eastern poet, was honored with the Lenin Prize. Faiz was one of the organizers of the Association of Progressive Writers. During the dark period of 1949 he worked actively to convene a conference of progressive writers of Pakistan.

At the time he headed Imrose and the Pakistani Times, the largest Pakistani progressive papers. For these and other progressive activities he was jailed on a trumped-up charge and threatened with death. He spent five years in prison. On his release, he worked with greater passion and sacrifice for the cause he had pledged his life to. In 1950 he was elected secretary-general of the Pakistani Peace Conference. He is vice president of the Pakistani Trade Union Congress.

Peace fighters everywhere, and in particular those in the Latin American countries, are gratified that the Peace Prize award went to Olga Poblete de Espinosa of Chile.

She is a professor at Santiago University, a dedicated worker in the peace movement and the fight for women's rights. She organized the Chilean women's movement, which played a very important role in securing political equality for the women of her country. In 1959 she was awarded a gold medal by the World Peace Council. She is secretary of the World Peace Council.

The new International Lenin Prize winners as well known to progressive people the world over. Their popularity and prestige are further proof of the great scope of the peace movement.

Everything that is honest and good in each nation is engaged in a tireless struggle for peace. This is the guarantee that the forces of peace will score a victory over the forces of war .