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Андрей Андреевич Громыко (Andrej Andreevich Gromyko)
b. 5/18 Jul 1909, Starye Gromyki, Gomel' region, Mogilëv province, Russian Empire
d. 2 Jul 1989, Moscow, USSR |
| Title: |
Председатель Президиума Верховного Совета СССР (Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR) |
| Term: |
2 Jul 1985 - 1 Oct 1988 |
| Chronology: |
2 Jul 1985, elected, 3rd session of the 11th USSR Supreme Soviet [1] |
|
1 Oct 1988, discharged, resolution of the 10th session of 11th USSR Supreme Soviet [2] |
| Biography: |
| Andrej Gromyko joined the Communist Party in 1931 as a student of the Economic Institute in Minsk. He worked at the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, but political purges in 1937-1939 depleted the Soviet foreign service and Gromyko was appointed chief of the U.S. division of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs in 1939. In 1943-1946 he served as ambassador to the United States and the Republic of Cuba. In 1946 Gromyko became a Soviet representative to the United Nations. He was appointed deputy foreign minister (1948-1949), and then first deputy foreign minister (1949-1952), but he quit the government to become ambassador to the United Kingdom (Jun 1952 - Apr 1953). The 19th party congress elected him a candidate member of the Central Committee (1952-1956). In 1953 he returned to Moscow and resumed the post of first deputy foreign minister (Apr 1953 - Feb 1957). In 1956 he attained full membership (1956-1989) on the party Central Committee. In 1957 Gromyko began his long tenure as foreign minister of the USSR (15 Feb 1957 - 2 Jul 1985) and became renowned for his extensive knowledge of international affairs and for his negotiating skills. He frequently accompanied other Soviet leaders, including Nikita Hruščëv, Leonid Brežnev, and Aleksej Kosygin, on visits to foreign leaders. He became a full member (27 Apr 1973 - 30 Sep 1988) of the Politburo and was named first deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers (24 Mar 1983 - 2 Jul 1985). After serving for 28 years as Soviet foreign minister, Gromyko handed the post to Eduard Shevardnadze and was elected to the post of chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet on 2 Jul 1985. His tenure witnessed the first steps of what will be known later as perestroika, but he had no personal involvement in these reforms. Advanced age and changes in the party leadership under Mihail Gorbačëv forced Gromyko to tender his resignation to the plenum of the Central Committee on 30 Sep 1988. The plenum approved his withdrawal from the Politburo on the same day. The session of the USSR Supreme Soviet also accepted his resignation as chairman of the Presidium on 1 Oct 1988. Biography source: [3, p. 277] |
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| [1] |
Ведомости Верховного Совета СССР, 1985, № 27, Ст. 470. |
| [2] |
Ведомости Верховного Совета СССР, 1988, № 40, Ст. 625. |
| [3] |
Государственная власть СССР. Высшие органы власти и управления и их руководители. 1923-1991 гг. Историко-биографический справочник / Сост. В.И.Ивкин. М.: РОССПЭН, 1999, |
