People of the Revolution and the USSR

Soviet Union state institutions Soviet communism 1931–

The post-coup foreign minister of the collapsing Union

On August 21, 1991, with the coup still unfolding, Pankin appeared on Czechoslovak television — the only Soviet ambassador to publicly condemn the putsch as 'a fatal mistake on Yanayev's part,' demanding he 'correct it as soon as possible.'

A journalist who transformed Komsomolskaya Pravda into the Soviet Union's boldest youth paper and a literary critic who won the USSR State Prize. As a diplomat, he was the only Soviet ambassador to openly condemn the August 1991 coup. Appointed the last Soviet foreign minister, he established diplomatic relations with Israel and launched US-Soviet disarmament talks in his brief tenure before the Union dissolved.