Gromyko's point man on America who ran arms-control talks, opposed the Afghan invasion, and demanded truth over KAL 007
In the fall of 1979, Korniyenko instructed subordinates to draft a memo arguing against sending troops into Afghanistan. Gromyko refused to sign it and never forwarded it to the Central Committee.
Georgy Korniyenko was the Soviet Foreign Ministry's operational architect of American policy for over four decades, serving as First Deputy Minister (1977–1986) under Andrei Gromyko and designing the agenda for US-Soviet arms-control negotiations across the 1970s and 1980s. As attaché in Washington during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he stood on the Cold War's front line, later heading the ministry's USA desk and preparing every Soviet-American summit from Nixon through Reagan. He internally opposed the 1979 decision to invade Afghanistan and, after the 1983 KAL 007 shootdown, argued that releasing the truth would cost less than the official cover-up: both positions were overruled. After the Cold War, his memoir The Cold War: Testimony of a Participant documented the inner workings of Soviet foreign-policy decision-making.
Career Timeline
- 1949Began diplomatic career in the Committee of Information under the Soviet MFA
- 1960–1964Counselor, then Minister-Counselor, Soviet Embassy in Washington
- 1965–1975Head of the USA Department, Soviet MFA
- 1975–1977Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR
- 1977–1986First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR
- 1981–1989Member of the CPSU Central Committee
- 1986–1988First Deputy Head, International Department, CC CPSU