Gromyko, Andrey Andreevich (1908-1989)

Soviet diplomat and statesman who worked with all the secretaries general of the CPSU from Stalin to Gorbachev during a government career of more than 50 years.

Gromyko was born on July 18, 1909 in the village Starye [Old] Gromyki, in the Mogilev gubernia of the Russian Empire, which later became part of Belorussia (now the Republic of Belarus.) According to his official biography, he came from a poor Russian peasant family and began earning his living at the age of 13. After finishing secondary school, he studied at a vocational school in Gomel. In 1932 he graduated from the Minsk Agricultural Institute and enrolled in its graduate school. Meanwhile, in 1931 he joined the Communist Party. In 1934 Gromyko moved to Moscow, where he continued his graduate studies at the All-Union Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, graduating in 1936. That year he became a senior fellow at the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, working as an agrarian economist and writing for the journal Voprosy ekonomiki (The Problems of Economics).

In 1939 Gromyko was recruited into the diplomatic service – soon after it had been purged by Stalinist repressions and had suffered from a severe shortage of cadres. For a few months he worked as department head for the Americas in the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (NKID). In late 1939, he was posted as a Counselor to the Soviet Embassy (called the Plenipotentiary Mission until 1941) in Washington, D.C. From 1943 to 1946, Gromyko was the Soviet Ambassador in the United States, simultaneously sharing the office of Soviet envoy to the Republic of Cuba. During this time he was involved in the creation of the United Nations. In 1944 he headed the Soviet delegation to the Dumbarton Oaks conversations in Washington, which laid the groundwork for the post-war international organization. He contributed substantially to elaborating its Charter and in 1945 he was an active participant at the San Francisco conference which established the United Nations Organization — and signed the UN Charter on behalf of the Soviet Union. He also played an organizational role in the World War II-period Big Three conferences at Yalta and Potsdam.

From 1946 to 1949, Gromyko was the Permanent Soviet Representative to the UN Security Council and simultaneously the Soviet Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1949 he returned to Moscow to become the first Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. For a few months during 1952 and 1953, he was the Soviet Ambassador in London (a sort of demotion), but then returned to his former foreign affairs post. In 1956 Gromyko was elected to the Central Committee of the CPSU, and in 1957 he began his 28-year tenure as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR. Gromyko played a role in the Cuban Missile crisis (during which he met with US President John F. Kennedy), facilitated the negotiation of arms limitations treaties, and, in the early 1970s, helped develop the policy of détente between the superpowers.

Throughout his diplomatic and Communist Party career, Gromyko never displayed any ambition to become a major political player on the Soviet domestic scene. He did not become a full member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR until 1973. His major focus was the diplomatic arena, where he became the public face of Soviet foreign policy. In the West, Gromyko’s reputation as a tough negotiator earned him the nicknames “Mr. Nyet” (Mr. No) and “Grim Grom.” In international political and diplomatic circles, however, he was also known for his expertise in international problems, his remarkable memory and his negotiating skills.

In 1973 Gromyko became a member of the Politburo; ten years later, he became the first assistant chairman of the government of the USSR. In 1985, Gromyko formally nominated Mikhail Gorbachev to be the new General Secretary of the CPSU. Soon after, Gromyko himself was elevated to the position of quasi-president, with the title of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The title was honorary and did not carry much power. On September 30, 1988, Gromyko was forced to step down from the Politburo and, the next day, from his post as Presidium chairman. In late 1988, he published his autobiography, Andrey Gromyko. Reminiscences, which he had been writing since 1979. The book was published in Great Britain and the United States in 1990.

Gromyko’s daughter, Emilia Gromyko-Piradova, recalled in her memoir a conversation with her father at the time he was writing his autobiography. “I know a few such things that the world would gasp if they became known.”- “Father, but can’t you write about it?” – the daughter asked. “No”, – answered the father. “Why?”-”Because I am the only witness left. The rest have already died: nobody can corroborate it now. I cannot do this. In fact, I know quite a lot of different things. But I will take it to my grave.” ¹

In April 1989, Gromyko retired from the Central Committee. He died on July 2 of the same year.