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Memoirs
The late Soviet Foreign Minister offers a candid account of his life and the personalities and events that shaped his career, providing incisive portraits of his political contemporaries and an analysis of the continuing implications of Stalinism for the USSR
414 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
Andrei Gromyko
43 books1 followerPolitical leader Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko served as ambassador from 1943 to the United States and then from 1946 to the United Nations to 1948 and later held the posts of foreign minister from 1957 to 1985 and then of chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet to 1988.
This Communist of Belarus during the Cold War responsibly made many top decisions on policy until he retired. Because of his frequent use of the veto in the Security Council in the 1940s, western pundits called him "Mister Nyet" (no) or "grim Grom."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_...
This Communist of Belarus during the Cold War responsibly made many top decisions on policy until he retired. Because of his frequent use of the veto in the Security Council in the 1940s, western pundits called him "Mister Nyet" (no) or "grim Grom."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_...
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 15, 2019
More interesting than I expected.The life and times of the man,who served as the Soviet Union's Foreign Minister,for most of the Cold War.The Soviet propaganda is not overdone,and he met a lot of world leaders,and lived through tumultous times.
May 7, 2020
Verhelderend. Deels persoonlijke memoires, deels observaties en getuigenissen over historische gebeurtenissen en actoren. Andrei Gromyko, die politiek actief was van eind de jaren 30 tot eind de jaren 80, heeft er zo heel wat meegemaakt. Ambassadeur naar de VS tijdens WO2, present bij de onderhandelingen te Jalta en Teheran, minister van buitenlandse zaken gedurende het gros van de Koude Oorlog...
Ik heb niet ongelofelijk veel nieuwe feiten opgedaan; Gromyko is ook niet altijd de meest chronologische verteller. Wat wel een grote meerwaarde is is dat het boek je een inzicht biedt in hoe de Sovjet-Unie zelf wereldpolitiek percipieerde: zaken als de Sino-Sovjet-split, de moord op J.F. Kennedy, Israël-Palestina, het Egypte van Nasser en Sadat, de antikoloniale bevrijdingsbeweging... Best interessant.
Je krijgt soms wel de indruk dat Gromyko vrij snel over bepaalde aspecten gaat. De Sovjet-interventies in Hongarije en Tsjecho-slovakije verdedigt hij over de hele lijn, maar een echte analyse van waar het net misliep komt er niet. Als het volk zelf tegen de opstand gekeerd was, waar vond de opstand dan überhaupt een voedingsbodem? Eveneens paradoxaal is dat hij tot de fouten van Stalin de verslechterende banden met de Oostbloklanden rekent - de breuk met Tito was geheel zijn fout, en wel omdat hij het lot van de kleinere naties ondergeschikt maakte aan de strategische belangen van de Sovjet-Unie. De uitstoot en terechtstelling van Lavrenti Beria verklaart hij eveneens vanuit diens chauvinistische en politiek incorrecte ingesteldheid. Okee, maar het waren wel Chroesjtsjov en nazaten die op aanvraag van de lokale heersende partijen, die klaarblijkelijk al met een zeker legitimiteitsprobleem zaten, de tanks stuurden. Ik spreek er me niet over uit of het gerechtvaardigd was of niet, maar stel me wel vragen bij de consequentheid van de theorie.
Wél erg fijn, op dat vlak, is om uit het soms dominante beeld te stappen dat bij Westerse marxisten heerst - "tot déze figuur ging het goed, en dán werd verraad gepleegd en ging het achter de schermen eigenlijk slecht". Great Man Theory ten top; de bochten die een partij maakt zijn over het algemeen ingespeeld op objectieve problemen en niet een individuele psychopathologie.
Cool cool, niet essentieel, wel goed ter contextualisering.
Ik heb niet ongelofelijk veel nieuwe feiten opgedaan; Gromyko is ook niet altijd de meest chronologische verteller. Wat wel een grote meerwaarde is is dat het boek je een inzicht biedt in hoe de Sovjet-Unie zelf wereldpolitiek percipieerde: zaken als de Sino-Sovjet-split, de moord op J.F. Kennedy, Israël-Palestina, het Egypte van Nasser en Sadat, de antikoloniale bevrijdingsbeweging... Best interessant.
Je krijgt soms wel de indruk dat Gromyko vrij snel over bepaalde aspecten gaat. De Sovjet-interventies in Hongarije en Tsjecho-slovakije verdedigt hij over de hele lijn, maar een echte analyse van waar het net misliep komt er niet. Als het volk zelf tegen de opstand gekeerd was, waar vond de opstand dan überhaupt een voedingsbodem? Eveneens paradoxaal is dat hij tot de fouten van Stalin de verslechterende banden met de Oostbloklanden rekent - de breuk met Tito was geheel zijn fout, en wel omdat hij het lot van de kleinere naties ondergeschikt maakte aan de strategische belangen van de Sovjet-Unie. De uitstoot en terechtstelling van Lavrenti Beria verklaart hij eveneens vanuit diens chauvinistische en politiek incorrecte ingesteldheid. Okee, maar het waren wel Chroesjtsjov en nazaten die op aanvraag van de lokale heersende partijen, die klaarblijkelijk al met een zeker legitimiteitsprobleem zaten, de tanks stuurden. Ik spreek er me niet over uit of het gerechtvaardigd was of niet, maar stel me wel vragen bij de consequentheid van de theorie.
Wél erg fijn, op dat vlak, is om uit het soms dominante beeld te stappen dat bij Westerse marxisten heerst - "tot déze figuur ging het goed, en dán werd verraad gepleegd en ging het achter de schermen eigenlijk slecht". Great Man Theory ten top; de bochten die een partij maakt zijn over het algemeen ingespeeld op objectieve problemen en niet een individuele psychopathologie.
Cool cool, niet essentieel, wel goed ter contextualisering.
June 30, 2012
A very interesting, well written memoir.
It has given me more insight on the Soviet point of view on events in world politics and world history in a period of time that is history for me. (Meaning that I wasn't born in that time frame and did not live when the events occurred.)
Usually these books are very dry, hard to digest, but this was a pleasant exception.
It has given me more insight on the Soviet point of view on events in world politics and world history in a period of time that is history for me. (Meaning that I wasn't born in that time frame and did not live when the events occurred.)
Usually these books are very dry, hard to digest, but this was a pleasant exception.
January 12, 2024
Oh, Mr. Nyet: your book was dense and heavy, in both words and weight. Still, it was a very readable tome by someone I think really did care for his country and really wanted world peace; even if that meant political domination/oppression without nuclear destruction. Gromyko was a Soviet apologist; he'd have to be.
Gromyko had Baltic, Czech, and Hungarian blood on his hands, just like America has Gazan, Haitian, and Philippine blood on its hands. No one is going to declare themselves to be cunning, devious, and
underhanded: Gromyko may have been, but I truly think that all he did was for the safety of the Russian people and not for his personal gain.
Now, lets look at folks like Lavrov, Putin, and Trump. The difference in character is crystal clear.
There were a few surprises in the book:
His open admiration of FDR;
His observation that "with the aid of wealth and technology, mankind is capable of creating something completely alien to his nature";
His open disappointment in modern Soviet architecture as "bland and indefinable";
and his use of the term "rococo" to describe one nation's response to a policy question. Not "evasive", but "rococo". You gotta love a guy who can use the word rococo.
His dismissal of Dubcek is unforgivable.
An honest bio? To a point. I'm sure he omitted more than he fabricated, if he did any of the latter.
I used my DSA membership card as the bookmark.
I did not read the Foreword by Kissinger because IDGAFF what Kissinger has to say about anything.
Gromyko had Baltic, Czech, and Hungarian blood on his hands, just like America has Gazan, Haitian, and Philippine blood on its hands. No one is going to declare themselves to be cunning, devious, and
underhanded: Gromyko may have been, but I truly think that all he did was for the safety of the Russian people and not for his personal gain.
Now, lets look at folks like Lavrov, Putin, and Trump. The difference in character is crystal clear.
There were a few surprises in the book:
His open admiration of FDR;
His observation that "with the aid of wealth and technology, mankind is capable of creating something completely alien to his nature";
His open disappointment in modern Soviet architecture as "bland and indefinable";
and his use of the term "rococo" to describe one nation's response to a policy question. Not "evasive", but "rococo". You gotta love a guy who can use the word rococo.
His dismissal of Dubcek is unforgivable.
An honest bio? To a point. I'm sure he omitted more than he fabricated, if he did any of the latter.
I used my DSA membership card as the bookmark.
I did not read the Foreword by Kissinger because IDGAFF what Kissinger has to say about anything.
November 19, 2016
I'm not really sure why I read this book, other than my longtime obsession with Soviet-era Russia. Andrei Gromyko was the USSR's longtime foreign policy apparatchik, but these memoirs aren't particularly elucidating of who he was or the times that he lived in. Published in 1989, they do serve as an interesting time capsule, however. The world Gromyko believed in pretty much collapsed as soon as he was done writing. It is like he is the insect preserved in fossil amber.
"The 27th Party Congress of February 1986 created a new leadership under Gorbachev. The country and the whole world know this leadership to be capable of the great tasks facing the party and the people. Cool-headedness and perseverance, calm, accurate calculation, careful planning of every step and its consequences, and reliance on the entire spectrum of political, scientific and technical information available to the leadership -- all these are, combined with purposefulness and the will to carry out far-reaching plans for our future development. ...
"I am convinced that when we reach the year 2000, which has been set as the completion date for these far-reaching plans, the Soviet people will be able to look back at the previous fifteen years and see that the party has indeed successfully mobilized the country's vast reserves, and that the leadership has indeed acted correctly in carrying out the Leninist line.
"As a communist to the marrow of my bones, I respect the profound learning of Marx, Engels and Lenin, and the great spirit of our people as they build the communist society. When I cast my gaze over our great country, I feel I want to share my sense of confidence in tomorrow. What gives me that confidence? First, the fact that we have a wonderful people who are capable of solving the most difficult problems. Secondly, we have a wise and perceptive party, closely bound to the people. Thirdly, we have a leadership worthy of the great tasks it has set before society at this crucial stage in its development and in the international situation."
"The 27th Party Congress of February 1986 created a new leadership under Gorbachev. The country and the whole world know this leadership to be capable of the great tasks facing the party and the people. Cool-headedness and perseverance, calm, accurate calculation, careful planning of every step and its consequences, and reliance on the entire spectrum of political, scientific and technical information available to the leadership -- all these are, combined with purposefulness and the will to carry out far-reaching plans for our future development. ...
"I am convinced that when we reach the year 2000, which has been set as the completion date for these far-reaching plans, the Soviet people will be able to look back at the previous fifteen years and see that the party has indeed successfully mobilized the country's vast reserves, and that the leadership has indeed acted correctly in carrying out the Leninist line.
"As a communist to the marrow of my bones, I respect the profound learning of Marx, Engels and Lenin, and the great spirit of our people as they build the communist society. When I cast my gaze over our great country, I feel I want to share my sense of confidence in tomorrow. What gives me that confidence? First, the fact that we have a wonderful people who are capable of solving the most difficult problems. Secondly, we have a wise and perceptive party, closely bound to the people. Thirdly, we have a leadership worthy of the great tasks it has set before society at this crucial stage in its development and in the international situation."
March 20, 2013
A nicely written work, in the form more of personal anecdotes than a deliberate history book. Gromyko gives sketch portraits of numerous C20th prominent persons. There is an element of Soviet propaganda, but that does not eclipse the author's engaging personal style, and sometimes even lyrical narrative.
September 21, 2009
This was fascinating.
Shelved as 'to-keep-reference'
March 7, 2019...Andrei Gromiko, el último de los dinosaurios...
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews