Source, in full
No instance of this statement, allegedly in reference to nuclear war, has been found in Khrushchev's writings or documented remarks, as indicated in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989). Herman Kahn used "the survivors [will] envy the dead" in his 1960 book On Thermonuclear War. In Russia the quote is usually attributed to the translation of Treasure Island by Nikolay Chukovsky: "А те из вас, кто останется в живых, позавидуют мертвым!" "Those of you who will be still alive will envy the dead", originally: "Them that die'll be the lucky ones." A precedent for all of these is Jeremiah 8:3, "Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain."