1923–1991

Foreign affairs

From the People’s Commissariat to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: the public face of Soviet diplomacy.

People who worked in this line →

Leadership Timeline

  1. 1923–1930 Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs
  2. 1930–1939 Maxim Maksimovich Litvinov People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs
  3. 1939–1949 Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov People’s Commissar, then Minister of Foreign Affairs Nazi–Soviet pact and wartime alliance diplomacy
  4. 1949–1953 Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky Minister of Foreign Affairs
  5. 1953–1956 Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov Minister of Foreign Affairs
  6. 1956–1957 Dmitri Trofimovich Shepilov Minister of Foreign Affairs
  7. 1957–1985 Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko Minister of Foreign Affairs The long-serving Cold War foreign minister
  8. 1985–1991.1 Eduard Ambrosiyevich Shevardnadze Minister of Foreign Affairs
  9. 1991.1–8 Alexander Alexandrovich Bessmertnykh Minister of Foreign Affairs
  10. 1991.8–11 Boris Dmitrievich Pankin Minister of Foreign Affairs
  11. 1991.11–12 Eduard Ambrosiyevich Shevardnadze Minister of External Relations