Andrei Gromyko
Encyclopedia
Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko ' onMouseout='HidePop("62381")' href="/topics/Belarusian_language">Belarusian
Андрэ́й Андрэ́евіч Грамы́ка; – 2 July 1989) was a Soviet
statesman during the Cold War
. He served as Minister
of Foreign Affairs (1957–1985) and as Chairman of the Presidium
of the Supreme Soviet (1985–1987). Gromyko was responsible for many top decisions on Soviet foreign policy until he retired in 1987. In the West
he was given the nickname
Mr. Nyet ("Mr. No").
Gromyko's political career started in 1939 with his employment at the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (later renamed Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1946). In 1943 Gromyko became the Soviet ambassador to the United States
, leaving in 1946 to become the Soviet Permanent Representative
to the United Nations
. Upon his return to the Soviet Union he became a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and later the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He went on to become the Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom
in 1952.
Gromyko played a direct role in the Cuban Missile Crisis
in his role as the Soviet Foreign Minister. Gromyko helped negotiate arms limitations treaties such as the ABM Treaty
, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and SALT I and II among others. Under Leonid Brezhnev
's leadership Gromyko helped build the policy of détente
between the US and the USSR. He supported Mikhail Gorbachev
's candidacy for General Secretary in 1985. Gromyko lost his office as foreign minister when Gorbachev became General Secretary, and was instead appointed to the largely ceremonial office of head of state. Gromyko retired from political life in 1988 and died the following year on 2 July 1989 in Moscow.
ian village of Staryja Gramyki, near Gomel on 18 July 1909. Gromyko's father, Andrei Matveyevich, worked as a seasonal worker in a local factory
. Andrei Matveyevich was not a very educated man, having only attended four years of school, but knew how to read and write. He had fought in Russian-Japanese war of 1904–1905. Gromyko's mother, Olga Jevgenyevna, came from a poor peasant family in the neighbouring city of Sjelesniki. She attended school only for a short period of time as, when her father died, she left to help her mother with the harvest
.
Gromyko grew up near the district town of Vetka
where most of the inhabitants were devoted Old Believers
in the Russian Orthodox Church
. Gromyko's own village was also predominantly religious, but Gromyko started doubting the supernatural
at a very early age. His first dialog on the subject was with his grandmother Marfa, who answered his inquiry about God with "Wait until you get older. Then you will understand all this much better". According to Gromyko, "Other adults said basically the same thing" when talking about religion. Gromyko's neighbour at the time, Mikhail Sjeljutov, was a freethinker
and introduced Gromyko to new non-religious ideas and told Gromyko that scientists were beginning to doubt the existence of God. From the age nine, after the Bolshevik revolution, Gromyko started reading atheist propaganda
on flyers
and pamphlet
s. At the age of thirteen Gromyko became a member of the Komsomol
and held anti-religious speeches in the village with his friends as well as promoting Communist
values.
The news that Germany had attacked
the Russian Empire
in August 1914 came without warning to the local population. This was the first time, as Gromyko notes, that he felt "love for his country
". His father, Andrei Matveyevich, was again conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army
and would serve for three years on the south-western front, under the leadership of General Aleksei Brusilov
. Andrei Matveyevich returned on the eve of the October Revolution
which marked the end of Tsarism in Russia. In the beginning of 1923 Gromyko was elected First Secretary of the local Komsomol
chapter. Following Vladimir Lenin
's death in 1924 the villagers asked Gromyko what would happen in the leader's absence. Gromyko remembered a communist slogan from the heyday of the October Revolution: "The revolution was carried through by Lenin and his helpers." He then told the villagers that Lenin was dead but "his aides, the Party, still lived on."
in Gomel, he moved to Borisov to attended technical school
. Gromyko became a member of the All-Union Communist Party bolsheviks
in 1931, something he had dreamed of since he learned about the "difference between a poor farmer and a landowner, a worker and a capitalist". Gromyko was voted in as secretary of his party cell at his first party conference and would use most of his weekends doing volunteer work. Gromyko received a very small stipend
to live on, but still had a strong nostalgia for the days when he worked as a volunteer. It was about this time that Gromyko met his future wife, Lydia Dmitrievna Grinevich. Grinevich was the daughter of a Belarusian peasant family and came from Kamenki, a small village to the west of Minsk
. She and Gromyko would have two children, Anatolij and Emilia.
After studying in Borisov for two years Gromyko was appointed principal
of a secondary school
in Dzerzhinsk
, where he taught, supervised the school and continued his studies. One day a representative from the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of Byelorussia offered him an opportunity to do post-graduate work in Minsk. Gromyko traveled to Minsk for an interview with the head of the university, I.M. Borisevitsj, who explained that a new post-graduate program had been formed for training in economics; Gromyko's record in education and social work made him a desirable candidate. Gromyko advised Borisevitsj that he would have difficulty living on a meager student stipend. Borisevitsj assured him that on finishing the program his salary would be at the party's top pay grade -- "a decent living wage." Gromyko accepted the offer, moving his family to Minsk in 1933. Gromyko and the other post-graduates were invited to an anniversary reception at which, as recounted in Gromyko's Memoirs:
After that day of pleasantry Gromyko for the first time in his life wanted to enter higher education
but in 1934, without warning, Gromyko and his family were moved to Moscow
, settling in the north eastern fringe at Aleksejevski. In 1936, after another three years of studying, Gromyko became an assistant researcher. Gromyko assumed his new found job would be a permanent one, but in 1939 Gromyko was called upon by a Central Committee Commission
which selected new personnel to work in diplomacy
. At the panel Gromyko immediately recognised such familiar faces as Vyacheslav Molotov
and Georgy Malenkov
. A couple of days later he was transferred from the Academy of Sciences to the diplomatic service
.
was more "colourful" and seemed "genuinely interested" in improving the relations between the two countries. Davies received the Order of Lenin
for his work in trying to improve diplomatic relations between the US and the USSR. After heading the Americas department for 6 months Gromyko was called upon by Joseph Stalin
. Stalin started the conversation by telling Gromyko that he would be sent to the Soviet embassy in the United States to become second-in-command
. "The Soviet Union," Stalin said, "should maintain reasonable relations with such a powerful country like the United States, especially in light of the growing fascist threat". Vyacheslav Molotov
contributed with some minor modifications but mostly agreed with what Stalin had said. "How are your English skills improving?," Stalin asked, "Comrade Gromyko you should pay a visit or two to an American church and listen to their sermons. Priests usually speak correct English with good accents. Do you know that the Russian revolutionaries when they were abroad, always followed this practice to improve their skills in foreign languages?" Gromyko was quite amazed about what Stalin had just told him but he never visited an American church.
Gromyko had never been abroad before and, to get to the United States, he had to travel via airplane through Romania
, Bulgaria
and Yugoslavia
to Genova
, Italy
, where they boarded a ship to the United States. Italy became the first capitalist country in which Gromyko set foot in. He later wrote in his Memoirs that New York City
was a good example on how humans, by the "means of wealth and technology are able to create something that is totally alien to our nature". He further noticed the New York working districts which, in his own opinion, were proof of the inhumanity of capitalism
and of the system's greed. Gromyko met and consulted with most of the senior officers of the United States government during his first days and succeeded Maxim Litvinov
as ambassador to the United States in 1943. In his Memoirs Gromyko wrote fondly of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
even though he believed him to a representative of the bourgeoisie class. During his time as ambassador Gromyko met prominent personalities such as British actor Charlie Chaplin
, American actress Marilyn Monroe
and British economist John Maynard Keynes
.
Gromyko was a Soviet delegate to the Tehran
, Dumbarton Oaks
, Yalta
and Potsdam
conferences. In 1943, the same year as the Teheran conference, the USSR established diplomatic relations with Cuba
and Gromyko was appointed the Soviet ambassador to Havana
. Gromyko claimed that the accusations brought against Roosevelt by American right-wingers, that he was socialist sympathizer, were absurd. While he started out as a member delegate Gromyko later became the head of the Soviet delegation to the San Francisco conference
after Molotov's departure. When he later returned to Moscow to celebrate the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War, Stalin commended him saying a good diplomat was "worth two or three armies at the front".
, a former Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs. But according to Gromyko Lie became an active supporter in the "expansionist behaviour" of the United States and supported so-called "American aggressionist" policy. Because of this political stance Gromyko believed Lie to be a bad Secretary-General. Trygve's successor, the Swede Dag Hammarskjöld
, also promoted what Gromyko saw as "anti-Soviet
policies". U Thant
, the third Secretary-General, once told Gromyko that it was close to impossible to have an objective opinion of the USSR in the Secretariat of the United Nations, because the majority of secretariat members were of American ethnicity or supporters of the United States. Gromyko often used the Soviet veto power on behalf of the Soviet Union in the early days of the United Nations. So familiar was a Soviet veto in the early days of the UN that Gromyko became known as Mr Nyet, literally meaning "Mr No". During the first 10 years of the UN the Soviet Union used its veto 79 times. In the same period the Republic of China
used the veto once, France twice and the others not at all.
at a June 1952 meeting with Joseph Stalin
in the Kremlin
. Stalin went back and forth as normal and told Gromyko about the importance of his new office, saying "The United Kingdom now has the opportunity to play a greater role in international politics. But it is not clear in which direction the British government with their great diplomatic experience will steer their efforts [...] This is why we need people who understand their way of thinking". Gromyko handed over his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II to make his role as ambassador official. Gromyko met up with Winston Churchill
, again in 1952, not to talk about current politics but about World War II in nostalgia. Gromyko met Churchill again in 1953 to talk about their experiences during World War II and this was the last time Gromyko ever talked to Churchill face-to-face as his return was not likely after the credentials of his role as ambassador had been revoked when he was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
(CPSU) headed by Boris Ponomarev
. Ponomarev advocated for an expanded role for the ID in Soviet foreign relations, Gromyko flatly refused it. Valentin Falin
, a top Soviet official, said the ID "interfered in the activities" of Gromyko and his ministry countless times. Gromyko both disliked Ponomarev and the power sharing between the ID and the foreign ministry.
In 1958 Mao Zedong
tried to look for supporters within the Soviet leadership for his planned war with the Republic of China
(Taiwan
). He flabbergasted Gromyko by telling him that he was willing to sacrifice the lives of "300 million people" just for the sake of annexing the Republic of China into the People's Republic of China
. Gromyko assured Mao that the proposal would never get the approval of the Soviet leadership. When the Soviet leadership learnt of this discussion they responded by terminating the Soviet-Chinese nuclear program and various industrialization projects in the People's Republic of China. Years later Gromyko, during the Cuban Missile Crisis
under Nikita Khrushchev
, acting on the instruction of the Soviet leadership met John F. Kennedy
, then President of the United States
. Gromyko wrote in his Memoirs that Kennedy seemed out of touch when he first met him, he further claimed that Kennedy was not practical but instead very ideologically driven. Gromyko, in an interview in 1988, described Kennedy as nervous and said most of his arguments were contradictory. Threats towards Cuba were followed by assertions by the United States government that they were not planning any assaults on Cuba. During his twenty-eight years as Minister of Foreign Affairs Gromyko supported the policy of disarmament, stating in his Memoirs that "Disarmament is the ideal of Socialism".
One accomplishment Gromyko took particular pride in was the signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty
on 5 August 1963. The negotiations regarding the treaty had dragged on since 1958. But there were other achievements too such as when Gromyko, along with Alexei Kosygin, were able to get both Pakistan
and India
to sign the Tashkent Declaration
—a peace treaty in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965. Other achievements he considered his greatest were the signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons on 1 July 1968, the ABM Treaty and SALT I, followed by the Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War in 1973. In retrospect Gromyko said, "If we collect the deliberative nature of the documents, including hundreds of Coded Telegrams, information from the embassies, the analysis of the situation around these problems, there are perhaps as high as the mountain of Mont Blanc. Those papers show the difficulties in overcoming congestions to the path to an agreement, requires the present art of diplomacy." Gromyko always believed in the superpower status of the Soviet Union and always promoted an idea that no important international agreement could be reached without its involvement. In 1972 he said "no international problem of significance anywhere can be resolved without Soviet participation".
In 1966 he engaged in a dialog with Pope
Paul VI, as part of the pontiff's ostpolitik
, which resulted in greater openness for the Roman Catholic Church
in Eastern Europe
although there was still heavy persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union
. Gromyko entered the Politburo in 1973 and, from there on, gradually took over the decision making of Soviet foreign policy. During his peak of personal influence Gromyko's policy was being built on the very same qualities which had underpinned his early career. His memory, which has been described by many as "phenomenal", had made him inflexible, un-imaginative and his total lack of a vision for the future led him to never think outside the box. As the Soviet economy was stagnating
, Gromyko's diplomatic skills were of less importance as, during the leadership of Yuri Andropov
and Konstantin Chernenko
, Gromyko had adopted a more hard-line position than his superiors.
After Brezhnev's death
in 1982 Andropov was voted in as General Secretary by the Politburo. Immediately after his appointment Andropov asked Gromyko if he wanted to take over Brezhnev's old office of the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. Gromyko turned down Andropov's offer, believing that Andropov would eventually take the office for himself. He did not believe that Andropov would take the office because of pure vanity
, but rather due to its functions. After Andropov's death in 1984 and Chernenko's in 1985, Gromyko nominated Mikhail Gorbachev
for the General Secretaryship on 11 March 1985. In supporting Gorbachev, Gromyko knew that the influence he carried would be strong. After being voted in Gorbachev relieved Gromyko of his duty as foreign minister and replaced him with Eduard Shevardnadze
and Gromyko was appointed to the largely honorary position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
of the Supreme Soviet, literally head of state, which was largely ceremonial, and his influence in ruling circles diminished. A number of First World
journalists believed Gromyko was uncomfortable with many of Gorbachev's reforms, however, in his Memoirs Gromyko writes fondly of Gorbachev and the policy of perestroika
. Gromyko believed that perestroika was about working for the construction of a socialist society and saw glasnost
and perestroika as an attempt at making the USSR more democratic.
During a party conference in July 1988 Vladimir Melnikov called for Gromyko's resignation. Melnikov blamed Brezhnev for the economic and political stagnation
that had hit the Soviet Union and, seeing that Gromyko was a prominent member of the Brezhnev leadership, Gromyko was one of the men which had led the USSR into the crisis. Gromyko was promptly defended as "a man respected by the people" in a note by an anonymous delegate. After discussing it with his wife Gromyko decided to leave Soviet politics for good. Gromyko recounts in his Memoirs that he told Gorbachev that he wished to resign before he made it official. The following day, 1 October 1988, Gromyko sat beside Gorbachev, Yegor Ligachev
and Nikolai Ryzhkov
in the Supreme Soviet to make his resignation official:
Gorbachev was formally named the leader of the Soviet Union after Gromyko's resignation. After his resignation Gorbachev praised Gromyko for his half-a-century of service to USSR. Critics, such as Alexander M. Belongov the Permanent Representative of the Soviet Union to the United Nations, claimed Gromyko's foreign policy was permeated with "a spirit of intolerance and confrontation".
After retiring from active politics in 1989 Gromyko started working on his memoirs. Gromyko died on 2 July 1989 after being hospitalised for a vascular
problem that was not further identified. His death was followed by a minute of silence at the Congress of People's Deputies to commemorate him. The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union
(TASS), the central news organ in the USSR, called him one of the country's most "prominent leaders". President of the United States
George H. W. Bush
sent his condolences to Gromyko's son, Anatoli. Gromyko was offered a grave in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis
, but at the request of his family he was not buried near the Kremlin wall
but instead at the Novodevichy cemetery
.
said, "He is one of the most active and efficient members of the Soviet leadership. A man with an excellent memory, a keen intellect and extraordinary endurance [...] Maybe Andrey is the most informed Minister for Foreign affairs in the world". Gromyko's dour demeanour was shown clearly during his first term in Washington and echoed throughout his tenure as Soviet foreign minister. There is a story that Gromyko was leaving a Washington hotel one morning and was asked by a reporter; "Minister Gromyko, did you enjoy your breakfast today?" His response was "Perhaps."
During his twenty-eight years as Minister of Foreign Affairs Gromyko became the "number-one" on international diplomacy at home, renowned by his peers to be consumed by his work. Henry Kissinger once said "If you can face Gromyko for one hour and survive, then you can begin to call yourself a diplomat". Gromyko's work influenced Soviet and Russian ambassadors such as Anatoly Dobrynin
. Mash Lewis and Gregory Elliott described Gromyko's main characteristic as his "complete identification with the interest of the state and his faithful service to it". According to historians Gregory Elliot and Moshe Lewin this could help explain his so-called "boring" personality and the mastery of his own ego. West German politician Egon Bahr
, when commenting on Gromyko's memoirs, said;
On 18 July 2009 Belarus
marked the 100 year anniversary of the birth of Gromyko in nationwide celebrations. In the city of his birth many people laid flowers in front of his bust. A ceremony was held attended by his son and daughter, Anatoli and Emiliya. Several exhibitions were opened and dedicated to his honour and a school and a street in Gomel were re-named in honour of him.
Belarusian language
The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...
Андрэ́й Андрэ́евіч Грамы́ка; – 2 July 1989) was a Soviet
Soviet people
Soviet people or Soviet nation was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Initially used as a nonspecific reference to the Soviet population, it was eventually declared to be a "new historical, social and international unity of people".-Nationality politics in early Soviet...
statesman during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. He served as Minister
Minister (government)
A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....
of Foreign Affairs (1957–1985) and as Chairman of the Presidium
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was a Soviet governmental institution – a permanent body of the Supreme Soviets . This body was of the all-Union level , as well as in all Soviet republics and autonomous republics...
of the Supreme Soviet (1985–1987). Gromyko was responsible for many top decisions on Soviet foreign policy until he retired in 1987. In the West
West
West is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of east and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the left side of a map is west....
he was given the nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
Mr. Nyet ("Mr. No").
Gromyko's political career started in 1939 with his employment at the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (later renamed Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1946). In 1943 Gromyko became the Soviet ambassador to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, leaving in 1946 to become the Soviet Permanent Representative
Permanent Representative
A Permanent Representative is the head of a diplomatic mission to one of various international organisations. The best known of the organisations to which states send Permanent Representatives is the United Nations; of these, the most high-profile ones are those assigned to headquarters in New...
to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. Upon his return to the Soviet Union he became a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and later the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He went on to become the Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1952.
Gromyko played a direct role in the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
in his role as the Soviet Foreign Minister. Gromyko helped negotiate arms limitations treaties such as the ABM Treaty
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was a treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile systems used in defending areas against missile-delivered nuclear weapons....
, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and SALT I and II among others. Under Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
's leadership Gromyko helped build the policy of détente
Détente
Détente is the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation. The term is often used in reference to the general easing of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s, a thawing at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War...
between the US and the USSR. He supported Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
's candidacy for General Secretary in 1985. Gromyko lost his office as foreign minister when Gorbachev became General Secretary, and was instead appointed to the largely ceremonial office of head of state. Gromyko retired from political life in 1988 and died the following year on 2 July 1989 in Moscow.
Background and youth
Gromyko was born to a poor "semi-peasant, semi-worker" family in the BelarusBelarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
ian village of Staryja Gramyki, near Gomel on 18 July 1909. Gromyko's father, Andrei Matveyevich, worked as a seasonal worker in a local factory
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
. Andrei Matveyevich was not a very educated man, having only attended four years of school, but knew how to read and write. He had fought in Russian-Japanese war of 1904–1905. Gromyko's mother, Olga Jevgenyevna, came from a poor peasant family in the neighbouring city of Sjelesniki. She attended school only for a short period of time as, when her father died, she left to help her mother with the harvest
Harvest
Harvest is the process of gathering mature crops from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper...
.
Gromyko grew up near the district town of Vetka
Vetka
Vetka is a small, historical town in Belarus, situated on the bank of the Sozh River.It is the principal centre in Vetka Raion in Gomel Region....
where most of the inhabitants were devoted Old Believers
Old Believers
In the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers separated after 1666 from the official Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon between 1652–66...
in the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
. Gromyko's own village was also predominantly religious, but Gromyko started doubting the supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
at a very early age. His first dialog on the subject was with his grandmother Marfa, who answered his inquiry about God with "Wait until you get older. Then you will understand all this much better". According to Gromyko, "Other adults said basically the same thing" when talking about religion. Gromyko's neighbour at the time, Mikhail Sjeljutov, was a freethinker
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
and introduced Gromyko to new non-religious ideas and told Gromyko that scientists were beginning to doubt the existence of God. From the age nine, after the Bolshevik revolution, Gromyko started reading atheist propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
on flyers
Flyer (pamphlet)
__notoc__A flyer or flier, also called a circular, handbill or leaflet, is a form of paper advertisement intended for wide distribution and typically posted or distributed in public place....
and pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
s. At the age of thirteen Gromyko became a member of the Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
and held anti-religious speeches in the village with his friends as well as promoting Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
values.
The news that Germany had attacked
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...
the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in August 1914 came without warning to the local population. This was the first time, as Gromyko notes, that he felt "love for his country
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
". His father, Andrei Matveyevich, was again conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
and would serve for three years on the south-western front, under the leadership of General Aleksei Brusilov
Aleksei Brusilov
Aleksei Alekseevich Brusilov was a Russian general most noted for the development of new offensive tactics used in the 1916 offensive which would come to bear his name. The innovative and relatively successful tactics used were later copied by the Germans...
. Andrei Matveyevich returned on the eve of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
which marked the end of Tsarism in Russia. In the beginning of 1923 Gromyko was elected First Secretary of the local Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
chapter. Following Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
's death in 1924 the villagers asked Gromyko what would happen in the leader's absence. Gromyko remembered a communist slogan from the heyday of the October Revolution: "The revolution was carried through by Lenin and his helpers." He then told the villagers that Lenin was dead but "his aides, the Party, still lived on."
Education and party membership
When he was young Gromyko's mother Olga told him that he should leave his home town to become an educated man. Gromyko followed his mother's advice and, after finishing seven years of primary school and vocational educationVocational education
Vocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation...
in Gomel, he moved to Borisov to attended technical school
Technical school
Technical school is a general term used for two-year college which provide mostly employment-preparation skills for trained labor, such as welding, culinary arts and office management.-Associations supporting technical schools:...
. Gromyko became a member of the All-Union Communist Party bolsheviks
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
in 1931, something he had dreamed of since he learned about the "difference between a poor farmer and a landowner, a worker and a capitalist". Gromyko was voted in as secretary of his party cell at his first party conference and would use most of his weekends doing volunteer work. Gromyko received a very small stipend
Stipend
A stipend is a form of salary, such as for an internship or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from a wage or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work performed, instead it represents a payment that enables somebody to be exempt partly or wholly from waged or salaried...
to live on, but still had a strong nostalgia for the days when he worked as a volunteer. It was about this time that Gromyko met his future wife, Lydia Dmitrievna Grinevich. Grinevich was the daughter of a Belarusian peasant family and came from Kamenki, a small village to the west of Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
. She and Gromyko would have two children, Anatolij and Emilia.
After studying in Borisov for two years Gromyko was appointed principal
Principal (academia)
The Principal is the chief executive and the chief academic officer of a university or college in certain parts of the Commonwealth.-Canada:...
of a secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
in Dzerzhinsk
Dzerzhinsk, Russia
Dzerzhinsk is a city in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, situated along the Oka River, about east of Moscow. Population: The city is named after Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, a Polish Bolshevik leader who was the first head of the Cheka ....
, where he taught, supervised the school and continued his studies. One day a representative from the Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
of the Communist Party of Byelorussia offered him an opportunity to do post-graduate work in Minsk. Gromyko traveled to Minsk for an interview with the head of the university, I.M. Borisevitsj, who explained that a new post-graduate program had been formed for training in economics; Gromyko's record in education and social work made him a desirable candidate. Gromyko advised Borisevitsj that he would have difficulty living on a meager student stipend. Borisevitsj assured him that on finishing the program his salary would be at the party's top pay grade -- "a decent living wage." Gromyko accepted the offer, moving his family to Minsk in 1933. Gromyko and the other post-graduates were invited to an anniversary reception at which, as recounted in Gromyko's Memoirs:
"We were amazed to find ourselves treated as equals and placed at their table to enjoy what for us was a sumptuous feast. We realised then that not for nothing did the Soviet state treat its scientists well: evidently scienceScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and those who worked in it were highly regarded by the state."
After that day of pleasantry Gromyko for the first time in his life wanted to enter higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
but in 1934, without warning, Gromyko and his family were moved to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, settling in the north eastern fringe at Aleksejevski. In 1936, after another three years of studying, Gromyko became an assistant researcher. Gromyko assumed his new found job would be a permanent one, but in 1939 Gromyko was called upon by a Central Committee Commission
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
which selected new personnel to work in diplomacy
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
. At the panel Gromyko immediately recognised such familiar faces as Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
and Georgy Malenkov
Georgy Malenkov
Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov was a Soviet politician, Communist Party leader and close collaborator of Joseph Stalin. After Stalin's death, he became Premier of the Soviet Union and was in 1953 briefly considered the most powerful Soviet politician before being overshadowed by Nikita...
. A couple of days later he was transferred from the Academy of Sciences to the diplomatic service
Diplomatic service
Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel enjoy diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to other countries...
.
Ambassador and the Great Patriotic War
In the spring of 1939 Gromyko started working for the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in Moscow. Gromyko became the Head of the Department of Americas and because of his position Gromyko met with American ambassador to the Soviet Union Lawrence Steinhardt. Gromyko believed Steinhardt to be "totally uninterested in creating good relations between the US and the USSR" and that Steinhardt's successor Joseph DaviesJoseph E. Davies
Joseph Edward Davies was appointed by President Wilson to be Commissioner of Corporations in 1912, and First Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission in 1915. He was the second Ambassador to represent the United States in the Soviet Union and U.S. Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg...
was more "colourful" and seemed "genuinely interested" in improving the relations between the two countries. Davies received the Order of Lenin
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
for his work in trying to improve diplomatic relations between the US and the USSR. After heading the Americas department for 6 months Gromyko was called upon by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
. Stalin started the conversation by telling Gromyko that he would be sent to the Soviet embassy in the United States to become second-in-command
Second-in-command
The Second-in-Command is the deputy commander of any British Army or Royal Marines unit, from battalion or regiment downwards. He or she is thus the equivalent of an Executive Officer in the United States Army...
. "The Soviet Union," Stalin said, "should maintain reasonable relations with such a powerful country like the United States, especially in light of the growing fascist threat". Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
contributed with some minor modifications but mostly agreed with what Stalin had said. "How are your English skills improving?," Stalin asked, "Comrade Gromyko you should pay a visit or two to an American church and listen to their sermons. Priests usually speak correct English with good accents. Do you know that the Russian revolutionaries when they were abroad, always followed this practice to improve their skills in foreign languages?" Gromyko was quite amazed about what Stalin had just told him but he never visited an American church.
Gromyko had never been abroad before and, to get to the United States, he had to travel via airplane through Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
to Genova
Génova
Génova may refer to:* Spanish spelling of the city of Genoa, Italy* Génova, Quindío, a municipality in the department of Quindío, Colombia* Génova, Quetzaltenango, a municipality in the department of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, where they boarded a ship to the United States. Italy became the first capitalist country in which Gromyko set foot in. He later wrote in his Memoirs that New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
was a good example on how humans, by the "means of wealth and technology are able to create something that is totally alien to our nature". He further noticed the New York working districts which, in his own opinion, were proof of the inhumanity of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and of the system's greed. Gromyko met and consulted with most of the senior officers of the United States government during his first days and succeeded Maxim Litvinov
Maxim Litvinov
Maxim Maximovich Litvinov was a Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet diplomat.- Early life and first exile :...
as ambassador to the United States in 1943. In his Memoirs Gromyko wrote fondly of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
even though he believed him to a representative of the bourgeoisie class. During his time as ambassador Gromyko met prominent personalities such as British actor Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
, American actress Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
and British economist John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, CB FBA , was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments...
.
Gromyko was a Soviet delegate to the Tehran
Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill between November 28 and December 1, 1943, most of which was held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first World War II conference amongst the Big Three in which Stalin was present...
, Dumbarton Oaks
Dumbarton Oaks Conference
The Dumbarton Oaks Conference or, more formally, the Washington Conversations on International Peace and Security Organization was an international conference at which the United Nations was formulated and negotiated among international leaders...
, Yalta
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
and Potsdam
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 16 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States...
conferences. In 1943, the same year as the Teheran conference, the USSR established diplomatic relations with Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and Gromyko was appointed the Soviet ambassador to Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
. Gromyko claimed that the accusations brought against Roosevelt by American right-wingers, that he was socialist sympathizer, were absurd. While he started out as a member delegate Gromyko later became the head of the Soviet delegation to the San Francisco conference
Treaty of San Francisco
The Treaty of Peace with Japan , between Japan and part of the Allied Powers, was officially signed by 48 nations on September 8, 1951, at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, California...
after Molotov's departure. When he later returned to Moscow to celebrate the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War, Stalin commended him saying a good diplomat was "worth two or three armies at the front".
The United Nations
Gromyko was granted the office of Permanent Representative of the Soviet Union to the United Nations (UN) in April 1946. The USSR supported the election of the first Secretary-General of the United Nations, Trygve LieTrygve Lie
Trygve Halvdan Lie was a Norwegian politician, labour leader, government official and author. He served as Norwegian Foreign minister during the critical years of the Norwegian government in exile in London from 1940 to 1945. From 1946 to 1952 he was the first Secretary-General of the United...
, a former Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs. But according to Gromyko Lie became an active supporter in the "expansionist behaviour" of the United States and supported so-called "American aggressionist" policy. Because of this political stance Gromyko believed Lie to be a bad Secretary-General. Trygve's successor, the Swede Dag Hammarskjöld
Dag Hammarskjöld
Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author. An early Secretary-General of the United Nations, he served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is the only person to have been awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. Hammarskjöld...
, also promoted what Gromyko saw as "anti-Soviet
Anti-Sovietism
Anti-Sovietism and Anti-Soviet refer to persons and activities actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union.Three different flavors of the usage of the term may be distinguished....
policies". U Thant
U Thant
U Thant was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, from 1961 to 1971. He was chosen for the post when his predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld, died in September 1961....
, the third Secretary-General, once told Gromyko that it was close to impossible to have an objective opinion of the USSR in the Secretariat of the United Nations, because the majority of secretariat members were of American ethnicity or supporters of the United States. Gromyko often used the Soviet veto power on behalf of the Soviet Union in the early days of the United Nations. So familiar was a Soviet veto in the early days of the UN that Gromyko became known as Mr Nyet, literally meaning "Mr No". During the first 10 years of the UN the Soviet Union used its veto 79 times. In the same period the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
used the veto once, France twice and the others not at all.
Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom
Gromyko was appointed Soviet ambassador to the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
at a June 1952 meeting with Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
in the Kremlin
Kremlin
A kremlin , same root as in kremen is a major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there...
. Stalin went back and forth as normal and told Gromyko about the importance of his new office, saying "The United Kingdom now has the opportunity to play a greater role in international politics. But it is not clear in which direction the British government with their great diplomatic experience will steer their efforts [...] This is why we need people who understand their way of thinking". Gromyko handed over his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II to make his role as ambassador official. Gromyko met up with Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, again in 1952, not to talk about current politics but about World War II in nostalgia. Gromyko met Churchill again in 1953 to talk about their experiences during World War II and this was the last time Gromyko ever talked to Churchill face-to-face as his return was not likely after the credentials of his role as ambassador had been revoked when he was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Gromyko spent his initial days as Minister of Foreign Affairs solving problems between his ministry and the International Department (ID) of the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionCommunist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
(CPSU) headed by Boris Ponomarev
Boris Ponomarev
Boris Nikolayevich Ponomarev was a Soviet politician, ideologist and historian, and a member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...
. Ponomarev advocated for an expanded role for the ID in Soviet foreign relations, Gromyko flatly refused it. Valentin Falin
Valentin Falin
Valentin Mikhaylovich Falin is a former Soviet diplomat and politician. Born in Leningrad he graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1950. From 1951–1958 he worked at the USSR Foreign Ministry. From 1971 – 78 he was the Ambassador of the USSR to the German Federal...
, a top Soviet official, said the ID "interfered in the activities" of Gromyko and his ministry countless times. Gromyko both disliked Ponomarev and the power sharing between the ID and the foreign ministry.
In 1958 Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
tried to look for supporters within the Soviet leadership for his planned war with the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
(Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
). He flabbergasted Gromyko by telling him that he was willing to sacrifice the lives of "300 million people" just for the sake of annexing the Republic of China into the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. Gromyko assured Mao that the proposal would never get the approval of the Soviet leadership. When the Soviet leadership learnt of this discussion they responded by terminating the Soviet-Chinese nuclear program and various industrialization projects in the People's Republic of China. Years later Gromyko, during the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
under Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, acting on the instruction of the Soviet leadership met John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, then President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. Gromyko wrote in his Memoirs that Kennedy seemed out of touch when he first met him, he further claimed that Kennedy was not practical but instead very ideologically driven. Gromyko, in an interview in 1988, described Kennedy as nervous and said most of his arguments were contradictory. Threats towards Cuba were followed by assertions by the United States government that they were not planning any assaults on Cuba. During his twenty-eight years as Minister of Foreign Affairs Gromyko supported the policy of disarmament, stating in his Memoirs that "Disarmament is the ideal of Socialism".
One accomplishment Gromyko took particular pride in was the signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty
Partial Test Ban Treaty
The treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water, often abbreviated as the Partial Test Ban Treaty , Limited Test Ban Treaty , or Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is a treaty prohibiting all test detonations of nuclear weapons...
on 5 August 1963. The negotiations regarding the treaty had dragged on since 1958. But there were other achievements too such as when Gromyko, along with Alexei Kosygin, were able to get both Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to sign the Tashkent Declaration
Tashkent Declaration
The Tashkent Declaration of 10 January 1966 was a peace agreement between India and Pakistan. In September 1965 before the two had engaged in the short run Indo-Pakistani War of 1965...
—a peace treaty in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965. Other achievements he considered his greatest were the signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons on 1 July 1968, the ABM Treaty and SALT I, followed by the Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War in 1973. In retrospect Gromyko said, "If we collect the deliberative nature of the documents, including hundreds of Coded Telegrams, information from the embassies, the analysis of the situation around these problems, there are perhaps as high as the mountain of Mont Blanc. Those papers show the difficulties in overcoming congestions to the path to an agreement, requires the present art of diplomacy." Gromyko always believed in the superpower status of the Soviet Union and always promoted an idea that no important international agreement could be reached without its involvement. In 1972 he said "no international problem of significance anywhere can be resolved without Soviet participation".
In 1966 he engaged in a dialog with Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
Paul VI, as part of the pontiff's ostpolitik
Ostpolitik
Neue Ostpolitik , or Ostpolitik for short, refers to the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republic beginning in 1969...
, which resulted in greater openness for the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
although there was still heavy persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union
Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union
The history of Christianity in the Soviet Union was not limited to repression and secularization. Soviet policy toward religion was based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, which made atheism the official doctrine of the Soviet Union...
. Gromyko entered the Politburo in 1973 and, from there on, gradually took over the decision making of Soviet foreign policy. During his peak of personal influence Gromyko's policy was being built on the very same qualities which had underpinned his early career. His memory, which has been described by many as "phenomenal", had made him inflexible, un-imaginative and his total lack of a vision for the future led him to never think outside the box. As the Soviet economy was stagnating
Brezhnev stagnation
The Era of Stagnation, also known as Brezhnev stagnation or the Stagnation Period, refers to a period of economic stagnation under the rules of Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko in the history of the Soviet Union which started in the mid-1970s.-Terminology:Various authors...
, Gromyko's diplomatic skills were of less importance as, during the leadership of Yuri Andropov
Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.-Early life:...
and Konstantin Chernenko
Konstantin Chernenko
Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko was a Soviet politician and the fifth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He led the Soviet Union from 13 February 1984 until his death thirteen months later, on 10 March 1985...
, Gromyko had adopted a more hard-line position than his superiors.
After Brezhnev's death
Death and funeral of Leonid Brezhnev
On 10 November 1982, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, the third General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the fifth leader of the Soviet Union, died a 75 year-old man after suffering a heart attack following years of serious ailments. His death was officially acknowledged on 11...
in 1982 Andropov was voted in as General Secretary by the Politburo. Immediately after his appointment Andropov asked Gromyko if he wanted to take over Brezhnev's old office of the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. Gromyko turned down Andropov's offer, believing that Andropov would eventually take the office for himself. He did not believe that Andropov would take the office because of pure vanity
Vanity
In conventional parlance, vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant futility. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic synonym for vanity, but...
, but rather due to its functions. After Andropov's death in 1984 and Chernenko's in 1985, Gromyko nominated Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
for the General Secretaryship on 11 March 1985. In supporting Gorbachev, Gromyko knew that the influence he carried would be strong. After being voted in Gorbachev relieved Gromyko of his duty as foreign minister and replaced him with Eduard Shevardnadze
Eduard Shevardnadze
Eduard Shevardnadze is a former Soviet, and later, Georgian statesman from the height to the end of the Cold War. He served as President of Georgia from 1995 to 2003, and as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party , from 1972 to 1985. Shevardnadze was responsible for many top decisions on...
and Gromyko was appointed to the largely honorary position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
Head of state, retirement and death
Gromyko held the office of the Chairman of the PresidiumPresidium of the Supreme Soviet
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was a Soviet governmental institution – a permanent body of the Supreme Soviets . This body was of the all-Union level , as well as in all Soviet republics and autonomous republics...
of the Supreme Soviet, literally head of state, which was largely ceremonial, and his influence in ruling circles diminished. A number of First World
First World
The concept of the First World first originated during the Cold War, where it was used to describe countries that were aligned with the United States. These countries were democratic and capitalistic. After the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the term "First World" took on a...
journalists believed Gromyko was uncomfortable with many of Gorbachev's reforms, however, in his Memoirs Gromyko writes fondly of Gorbachev and the policy of perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
. Gromyko believed that perestroika was about working for the construction of a socialist society and saw glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
and perestroika as an attempt at making the USSR more democratic.
During a party conference in July 1988 Vladimir Melnikov called for Gromyko's resignation. Melnikov blamed Brezhnev for the economic and political stagnation
Brezhnev stagnation
The Era of Stagnation, also known as Brezhnev stagnation or the Stagnation Period, refers to a period of economic stagnation under the rules of Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko in the history of the Soviet Union which started in the mid-1970s.-Terminology:Various authors...
that had hit the Soviet Union and, seeing that Gromyko was a prominent member of the Brezhnev leadership, Gromyko was one of the men which had led the USSR into the crisis. Gromyko was promptly defended as "a man respected by the people" in a note by an anonymous delegate. After discussing it with his wife Gromyko decided to leave Soviet politics for good. Gromyko recounts in his Memoirs that he told Gorbachev that he wished to resign before he made it official. The following day, 1 October 1988, Gromyko sat beside Gorbachev, Yegor Ligachev
Yegor Ligachev
Yegor Kuzmich Ligachev is a Russian politician who was a high-ranking official in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . Originally a protege of Mikhail Gorbachev, Ligachev became a challenger to his leadership.-Early life:...
and Nikolai Ryzhkov
Nikolai Ryzhkov
Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov was a Soviet official who became a Russian politician following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He served as the last Chairman of the Council of Ministers or Premier of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991...
in the Supreme Soviet to make his resignation official:
"Such moments in life are just as memorable as when one is appointed to prominent positions. When my comradeComradeComrade means "friend", "colleague", or "ally". The word comes from French camarade. The term is frequently used by left-wing organizations around the globe. "Comrade" has often become a stock phrase and form of address. This word has its regional equivalents available in many...
s took farewell to me, I was equally moved as I had ever been when I was given an important office. What I thought most about was that I had finished my duties towards the people, the Party and the state. This memory is very precious to me."
Gorbachev was formally named the leader of the Soviet Union after Gromyko's resignation. After his resignation Gorbachev praised Gromyko for his half-a-century of service to USSR. Critics, such as Alexander M. Belongov the Permanent Representative of the Soviet Union to the United Nations, claimed Gromyko's foreign policy was permeated with "a spirit of intolerance and confrontation".
After retiring from active politics in 1989 Gromyko started working on his memoirs. Gromyko died on 2 July 1989 after being hospitalised for a vascular
Vascular
Vascular in zoology and medicine means "related to blood vessels", which are part of the circulatory system. An organ or tissue that is vascularized is heavily endowed with blood vessels and thus richly supplied with blood....
problem that was not further identified. His death was followed by a minute of silence at the Congress of People's Deputies to commemorate him. The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union
Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union
The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union , was the central agency for collection and distribution of internal and international news for all Soviet newspapers, radio and television stations...
(TASS), the central news organ in the USSR, called him one of the country's most "prominent leaders". President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
sent his condolences to Gromyko's son, Anatoli. Gromyko was offered a grave in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Burials in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolshevik victims of the October Revolution were buried in mass graves on Red Square. It is centered on both sides of Lenin's Mausoleum, initially built in wood in 1924 and rebuilt in granite in 1929–1930...
, but at the request of his family he was not buried near the Kremlin wall
Kremlin Wall
The Kremlin Wall is a defensive wall that surrounds the Moscow Kremlin, recognizable by the characteristic notches and its Kremlin towers. The original walls were likely a simple wooden fence with guard towers built in 1156.-History:...
but instead at the Novodevichy cemetery
Novodevichy Cemetery
Novodevichy Cemetery is the most famous cemetery in Moscow, Russia. It is next to the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. It should not be confused with the Novodevichy Cemetery in Saint Petersburg....
.
Legacy
Having been a person of considerable stature during his life Gromyko held an unusual combination of personal characteristics. Some criticised Gromyko for being mundane and boring, while others were impressed by his diplomatic skills. An article written in 1981 in The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
said, "He is one of the most active and efficient members of the Soviet leadership. A man with an excellent memory, a keen intellect and extraordinary endurance [...] Maybe Andrey is the most informed Minister for Foreign affairs in the world". Gromyko's dour demeanour was shown clearly during his first term in Washington and echoed throughout his tenure as Soviet foreign minister. There is a story that Gromyko was leaving a Washington hotel one morning and was asked by a reporter; "Minister Gromyko, did you enjoy your breakfast today?" His response was "Perhaps."
During his twenty-eight years as Minister of Foreign Affairs Gromyko became the "number-one" on international diplomacy at home, renowned by his peers to be consumed by his work. Henry Kissinger once said "If you can face Gromyko for one hour and survive, then you can begin to call yourself a diplomat". Gromyko's work influenced Soviet and Russian ambassadors such as Anatoly Dobrynin
Anatoly Dobrynin
Anatoly Fyodorovich Dobrynin was a Russian statesman and a former Soviet diplomat and politician. He was Soviet Ambassador to the United States, serving from 1962 to 1986 and most notably during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was appointed by Nikita Khrushchev....
. Mash Lewis and Gregory Elliott described Gromyko's main characteristic as his "complete identification with the interest of the state and his faithful service to it". According to historians Gregory Elliot and Moshe Lewin this could help explain his so-called "boring" personality and the mastery of his own ego. West German politician Egon Bahr
Egon Bahr
Egon Karl-Heinz Bahr is a German SPD politician.The former journalist was the creator of the "Ostpolitik" promoted by West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, for whom he served as Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office from 1969 until 1972...
, when commenting on Gromyko's memoirs, said;
"He has concealed a veritable treasure-trove from future generations and taken to the grave with him an inestimable knowledge of international connection between the historical events and major figures of his time, which only he could offer. What a pity that this very man proved incapable to the very end of evoking his experience. As a faithful servant of the state, he believed that he should restrict himself to a sober, concise presentation of the bare essentials."
On 18 July 2009 Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
marked the 100 year anniversary of the birth of Gromyko in nationwide celebrations. In the city of his birth many people laid flowers in front of his bust. A ceremony was held attended by his son and daughter, Anatoli and Emiliya. Several exhibitions were opened and dedicated to his honour and a school and a street in Gomel were re-named in honour of him.