Andrei Gromyko
Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (Russian: Андрей Андреевич Громыко; Belarusian: Андрэй Андрэевіч Грамыка; 18 July [O.S. 5 July] 1909 – 2 July 1989) was a Soviet politician and diplomat during the Cold War. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1957–1985) and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1985–1988). Gromyko was responsible for many top decisions on Soviet foreign policy until he retired in 1988. In the 1940s Western pundits called him Mr Nyet ("Mr No") or "Grim Grom", because of his frequent use of the Soviet veto in the United Nations Security Council.
Andrei Gromyko | |
|---|---|
Андрей Громыко | |
Gromyko in 1972 | |
| Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union | |
| In office 27 July 1985 – 1 October 1988 | |
| Deputy | Vasily Kuznetsov Pyotr Demichev |
| Preceded by | Konstantin Chernenko Vasily Kuznetsov (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Mikhail Gorbachev |
| First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union | |
| In office 24 March 1983 – 2 July 1985 | |
| Premier | Nikolai Tikhonov |
| Preceded by | Heydar Aliyev |
| Succeeded by | Nikolai Talyzin |
| Full member of the 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union | |
| In office 27 April 1973 – 30 September 1988 | |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 15 February 1957 – 2 July 1985 | |
| Premier | Nikolai Bulganin Nikita Khrushchev Alexei Kosygin Nikolai Tikhonov |
| Preceded by | Dmitri Shepilov |
| Succeeded by | Eduard Shevardnadze |
| Permanent Representative of the Soviet Union to the United Nations | |
| In office April 1946 – May 1948 | |
| Premier | Joseph Stalin |
| Preceded by | Post created |
| Succeeded by | Yakov Malik |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko 18 July [O.S. 5 July] 1909 Staryye Gromyki, Mogilev Governorate, Russian Empire (now Gomel, Belarus) |
| Died | 2 July 1989 (aged 79) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Resting place | Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow |
| Nationality | Soviet |
| Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1931–1989) |
| Spouse |
Lydia Grinevich (m. 1931) |
| Children | Anatoly and Emiliya |
| Profession | Economist, diplomat, civil servant |
Gromyko's political career started in 1939 in the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (renamed Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1946). He became the Soviet ambassador to the United States in 1943, leaving that position in 1946 to become the Soviet Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. Upon his return to Moscow he became a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and later First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He went on to become the Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1952.
As Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, Gromyko was directly involved in deliberations with the Americans during the Cuban Missile Crisis and helped broker a peace treaty ending the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War. Under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev, he played a central role in the establishment of détente with the United States by negotiating the ABM Treaty, the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the SALT I & II among others. When Brezhnev suffered a stroke in 1975 impairing his ability to govern, Gromyko effectively dictated policymaking alongside KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov, Defense Minister Andrei Grechko and Grechko's successor, Marshal Dmitry Ustinov. Even after Brezhnev's death, Gromyko's rigid conservatism and distrust of the West continued to dominate the Soviet Union's foreign policy until Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power in 1985.
Following Gorbachev's election as General Secretary, Gromyko lost his office as foreign minister and was appointed to the largely ceremonial post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Subsequently, he retired from political life in 1988, and died the following year in Moscow.