Pyotr Abrasimov
Pyotr Andreievitch Abrasimov | |
---|---|
Boguszewsk, Mogilev Governorate, Russian Empire | |
Died | 16 February 2009 | (aged 96)
Occupation(s) | Diplomat Ambassador |
Political party | CPSU (1940–1986) |
Pyotr Andreievitch Abrasimov (Belarusian: Пё́тр Андрэ́евіч Абра́сімаў, Russian: Пётр Андреевич Абрасимов; 1912–2009) was a Soviet war hero and politician who became a career diplomat. He served his country as ambassador successively in China, France, Poland and East Germany.[1][2]
Life
Abrasimov was born in
It was only in 1940, as the worst of the Stalinist purges were coming to an end, that he joined the
Between 1950 and 1958 Abrasimov was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Abrasimov's career in the diplomatic service began in 1950[2] or 1956[3] with a posting to China.[3] From 1957 till 1961 he was the Soviet ambassador to Poland. His term in Warsaw directly followed the rehabilitation of Władysław Gomułka who earlier in the 1950s been disgraced, imprisoned and expelled from the party for "right wing-reactionary deviation" but who in 1956 became First Secretary of the Polish Party. Abrasimov and Gomułka formed a good working relationship of mutual trust.[3]
In 1961, to the surprise of many in the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Abrasimov was recalled from Warsaw and appointed as First Secretary of the party committee in the then relatively underdeveloped Smolensk region. The background was a scathing speech by the national leader, Nikita Khrushchev, concerning the collapse of agriculture in various regions including that around Smolensk. Abrasimov knew the region, and he had only respect for its hardworking people. He listened in silence to Krushchev's critical speech to a Central Committee plenum, but directly afterwards asked to be appointed to the Smolensk Regional Party Committee First Secretary job: his request was unhesitatingly granted, and he energetically devoted himself to addressing the matters highlighted by Krushchev.[3]
At the end of 1962 he returned to his ambassadorial career, appointed to head up the Soviet Union's important diplomatic mission in the
On 12 May 1971 the Warsaw Pact War Council convened in East Berlin, followed by a larger than usual series of summer military exercises by the alliance member states.[4] Abrasimov was the only civilian to participate in these exercises.[4] Later in 1971 he received a communication from Leonid Brezhnev who had scheduled a visit to Paris later in the year. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 was relatively fresh in the minds of the French political establishment, and Abrasimov was instructed to take over the Soviet ambassadorship there to prepare for the Brezhnev visit.[3] He remained in Paris for two years after which he returned to Moscow and took a position as a department head with the Party Central Committee.[3]
In 1975 he was sent back to Berlin where he served a second stint as Soviet ambassador to the
Back in Moscow he served as chair of the National Committee for Foreign Tourism between 1983 and 1985. Between 1985 and 1986 he served, briefly, as the Soviet ambassador to Japan.[1]
Awards and honours
(not necessarily a complete list)
- Order of Lenin (twice)
- Order of the Red Banner
- Order of the October Revolution
- Star of People's Friendship (East Germany)
- Order of the Red Banner of Labour
- Order of the Patriotic War
- Order of the Red Star (twice)
- Order of Karl Marx
- Order of the Cross of Grunwald (Poland)
- Honorary citizenship of Berlin
- Honorary citizenship of Żyrardów
- Hero of East Germany
References
- ^ a b c d e Jan Foitzik. "Abrassimow, Pjotr Andrejewitsch * 16.5.1912, † 16.2.2009 Botschafter der UdSSR" (in German). Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur: Biographische Datenbanken. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
- ^ a b "П.А. Абрасимов" (in Russian). Советская Россия. Archived from the original on 23 April 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Абрасимов Петр Андреевич". Живет в Москве (in Russian). Russian Information Network. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "DIPLOMATEN Neuer Stil: Pjotr Andrejewitsch Abrassimow, 59, ist Moskaus dienstältester Botschafter im Ostblock. Der hochdekorierte Weltkrieg-II-Partisan handelte". Der Spiegel. 6 September 1971. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ^ "Berlin, Tyskland Ambassadörens residens". Statens fastighetsverk (in Swedish). Retrieved 14 July 2023.
- ^ JSTOR 20081329.
- ISBN 978-3-631-63678-7.