Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union)
Министерство иностранных дел СССР | |
Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (
The Ministry of External Relations negotiated diplomatic treaties, handled Soviet foreign affairs along with the
Duties and responsibilities
The primary duty of the foreign ministry was directing the general line of
Exit
Organisation and structure
The inner policy making group of the ministry was the Collegium. The members of the Collegium were usually the minister, the two first deputy ministers, the nine deputy ministers, a chief of the general secretariat and fourteen other members. In total there were 27 members of the Collegium in 1990.[3] Each deputy minister was responsible for a department. The remaining members controlled either a department or an administrative body of the ministry. A Collegium in the USSR was, in many ways, the same as collective leadership. The Collegium coordinated decision making regarding the allocation of specific tasks on the basis of the MER's policy. This body was expected to review new directives ordered by the minister and note their successes and failures. Mikhail Gorbachev's "new political thinking" was made official in the Collegium in 1988, such as by setting goals for improving diplomatic relations and creating "decent, human, material and spiritual living conditions for all nations".[4] Furthermore, the Collegium noted that the improvements in international efforts "to save the world" was the best "class notion of socialism." It believed that if socialism could create a more peaceful world, socialism would truly have carried out a "world revolution."[4]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Moscow_July_2011-38a.jpg/220px-Moscow_July_2011-38a.jpg)
The
Because the
An important branch of the central apparatus, from the point of view of day-to-day operational diplomatic guidance, is the executive diplomatic division. The nature of activities engaged in by these divisions is determined by their territorial and functional characteristics. Territorial departments handle questions of foreign relations with specific groups of states. These groups of countries are divided by regions.
The reorganisation efforts that took place in 1986 and the beginning of 1987 led to the replacement of many senior diplomats. The government also introduced a new principle which stated, "Once an ambassador has been at the same post for 4 or 5 years, he loses the edge of his perceptiveness. The optimum period of service in one and the same post is three years as a maximum."[4]
Ideology and policy-making
Ideology was a key component of Soviet foreign policy.
There are many examples of rivalry between party and state in Soviet history. In foreign policy the state was represented by the MER, while the International Department (ID) represented the party. The ID's foreign policy approach was more ideological than the MER's, which followed a policy of détente, literally meaning the easing of strained relations with the First World. Historian Jan Adams explained the conflict in the following manner:[12]
"Deeply embedded and seemingly inescapable conflict between these two major Soviet foreign policy institutions and their missions. On the other hand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeks to cultivate formal state to state relationships; on the other hand the ID pursues the party's dream of building a communist world at the expense of capitalism."
The MER used much more of its human and financial resources for
History
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Andrei_Gromyko_1972_%28cropped%29.jpg/150px-Andrei_Gromyko_1972_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the
As Soviet foreign minister,
List of commissars and ministers
The following persons headed the Commissariat/Ministry as commissars (narkoms) during the Soviet era:
No. | Portrait | Name (birth–death) |
Term | Cabinet | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Took office | Left office | Duration | ||||
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR | ||||||
1 | ||||||
2 | Maxim Litvinov (1876–1951) | 21 July 1930 | 3 May 1939 | 8 years, 286 days | Molotov I–II–III–IV | |
3 | Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986) | 3 May 1939 | 15 March 1946 | 6 years, 305 days | Molotov IV Stalin I–II | |
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR | ||||||
3 | Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986) | 19 March 1946 | 4 March 1949 | 2 years, 350 days | Stalin II | |
4 | Andrey Vyshinsky (1883–1954) | 4 March 1949 | 5 March 1953 | 4 years, 1 day | Stalin II | |
(3) | ||||||
5 | ||||||
6 | Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989) | 15 February 1957 | 2 July 1985 | 28 years, 137 days | Khrushchev I–II Kosygin I–II–III–IV–V Tikhonov I–II | |
7 | Eduard Shevardnadze (1928–2014) | 2 July 1985 | 15 January 1991 | 5 years, 197 days | Tikhonov II Ryzhkov I–II | |
8 | Alexander Bessmertnykh (born 1933) | 15 January 1991 | 28 August 1991 | 225 days | Pavlov | |
– | Boris Pankin (born 1931) Acting | 28 August 1991 | 18 November 1991 | 82 days | Silayev | |
Minister of External Relations of the USSR | ||||||
(7) | Eduard Shevardnadze (1928–2014) | 19 November 1991 | 26 December 1991 | 37 days | Silayev |
List of first deputy ministers
There are ten individuals are elected as the First Deputy Minister, Vasily Kuznetsov spent the longest time in office (22 years). Vladimir Petrovsky spent the shortest time in office (96 days).
No. | Portrait | Name (birth–death) |
Term | Cabinet | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Took office | Left office | Duration | ||||
First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union
(1953–1991) | ||||||
1 | Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989) | 20 July 1953 | 15 February 1957 | 3 years, 179 days | Malenkov I–II Bulganin Khrushchev I | |
2 | Vasily Kuznetsov (1901–1990) | 15 February 1955 | 7 October 1977 | 22 years, 234 days | Khrushchev I–II Kosygin I–II–III–IV | |
3 | ||||||
4 | Georgy Korniyenko (1925–2006) | 7 October 1977 | 27 April 1986 | 8 years, 202 days | Kosygin IV Tikhonov I–II Ryzhkov I | |
5 | Viktor Maltsev (1917–2003) | 24 December 1977 | 27 May 1986 | 8 years, 154 days | Kosygin IV Tikhonov I–II Ryzhkov I | |
6 | Anatoly Kovalev (1923–2002) | 27 May 1986 | 26 December 1991 | 5 years, 213 days | Ryzhkov I–II Pavlov Silayev | |
7 | Yuli Vorontsov (1929–2007) | 27 May 1986 | 24 February 1990 | 3 years, 273 days | Ryzhkov I–Ryzhkov II | |
8 | Alexander Bessmertnykh (born 1933) | 8 July 1988 | 25 April 1990 | 1 year, 291 days | Ryzhkov I–Ryzhkov II | |
9 | Yuli Kvitsinsky (1936–2010) | 12 May 1991 | 21 September 1991 | 132 days | Pavlov Silayev | |
10 | Vladimir Petrovsky (1933–2014) | 21 September 1991 | 26 December 1991 | 96 days | Silayev |
See also
- Ministries of the Soviet Union
- List of Russian foreign ministers
- Foreign relations of the Soviet Union
References
- Notes
- ISBN 90-247-3075-9.
- ISBN 978-90-247-2863-3.
- ^ Staar 1991, p. 51–2.
- ^ a b c Staar 1991, p. 55.
- ISBN 1-56324-059-9.
- ^ a b Staar 1991, p. 52.
- ^ Staar 1991, p. 53.
- ^ Staar 1991, p. 65.
- ^ Jacobson 1994, p. 103
- ^ Staar 1991, p. 67.
- ^ Staars 1991, p. 68.
- ISBN 1-56324-059-9.
- ^ Staars 1991, p. 75.
- ISBN 1-56324-059-9.
- ISBN 0-8422-0529-2.
- ISBN 0-521-83368-X.
- ^ a b Gromyko 1989, p. 290.
- ^ Gromyko 1989, p. 290–91.
- ^ Gromyko 1989, p. 292.
- ISBN 0-521-89244-9.
- ISBN 978-0-470-55099-1.
- ^ Постановление Государственного Совета СССР от 14 ноября 1991 г. N ГС-14 "О Министерстве внешних сношений СССР"
- ^ United Kingdom Materials on International Law 1993, BYIL 1993, pp. 579 (636).
- "Russia is now a party to any Treaties to which the former Soviet Union was a party, and enjoys the same rights and obligations as the former Soviet Union, except insofar as adjustments are necessarily required, e.g. to take account of the change in territorial extent. [...] The Russian federation continues the legal personality of the former Soviet Union and is thus not a successor State in the sense just mentioned. The other former Soviet Republics are successor States."
- Bibliography
- ISBN 0-385-41288-6.
- Jon Jacobson (1994). When the Soviet Union Entered World Politics. ISBN 0-520-08976-6.
- ISBN 0-8179-9102-6.
- Further reading
- Annuaire diplomatique du Commissariat de peuple pour les affaires etrangeres (in French and Russian). Moscow: Ежегодник Наркоминдела. 1935 [1929].
- Chlevnjuk, O.V. (1992). 1937-ой: Сталин и советское общество. Moscow: Республика.
- Knoll, Viktor; Kölm, Lothar (1995). Michael G. Müller (ed.). "Das Narkomindel im Urteil der Partei. Ein Kaderanalyse aus dem Jahre 1930". Berliner Jahrbuch für osteuropäische Geschichte (in German). Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
- Korzhichina, T.P.; Figatner, Ju Ju. (1993). Советская номенклатура: становление, механизмы, действия (in Russian). Vol. 7. Вопросы истории. pp. 25–38.
- Uldricks, Teddy J. (1979). Diplomacy and Ideology - The Origin of Soviet Foreign Relations 1917-1930. London: Sage Publications.