The Soviet diplomat who warned Khrushchev about Berlin
In 1958, Pushkin — head of the new CPSU Information Department — reported to Khrushchev: the 'Free City of West Berlin' idea would lead to armed conflict. Khrushchev cut him off: 'Nonsense! Even if we send troops into West Berlin, there will be no war.' He then dissolved the department.
A career diplomat who served as Soviet ambassador in three capitals during the formation of Eastern Europe's satellite states: wartime Slovakia, postwar Hungary, and East Germany. As political adviser to the Allied Control Commission in Hungary (1944–1945), he was a key conduit for implanting a Stalinist regime; his two stints as ambassador to the GDR (1949–1952, 1954–1958) placed him at the center of East German state-building. In 1958 Khrushchev tapped him to head the newly created CPSU Central Committee Information Department, briefing the leadership directly on world affairs. But when Pushkin warned that the 'Free City of West Berlin' scheme risked armed conflict, Khrushchev cut him off and dissolved the department. Reinstated as Deputy Foreign Minister in 1959, he led the Soviet delegation at the 1961–1962 Geneva conference on Laotian neutrality.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1937–39NKID Second Western and Central European departments
- 1940–41Plenipotentiary, then Ambassador to Slovakia
- 1942–44Consul-General in Urumqi, China
- 1944–45Political adviser, Allied Control Commission, Hungary
- 1945–49Envoy, then Ambassador to Hungary (from 1948)
- 1949–52Envoy, then Ambassador to the GDR
- 1952–53Deputy Foreign Minister of the USSR
- 1954–58Ambassador to the GDR and Soviet High Commissioner
- 1958–59Head, CPSU CC Information Department
- 1959–63Deputy Foreign Minister; lead delegate, Geneva Laos conference
Related historical events
The 1958–1959 Information Department and the Berlin warning
In 1958 a top-secret information department was created within the CPSU Central Committee, and Pushkin became its head. The unit was tasked with preparing, for every Politburo session, a survey of the current international situation and an analysis of the documents submitted by the Foreign Ministry, the intelligence services and the military. From that post Pushkin reported directly to Khrushchev, and on the 'free city of West Berlin' scheme he warned that nothing useful would come of it and that pushing it too hard could escalate to an armed confrontation. According to Valentin Falin's recollection, Khrushchev cut the report short, dismissed the danger ('even if we send troops into West Berlin, there will be no war'), and dissolved the department.
That episode survives through a participant's memoir rather than a documentary policy record, and should be presented as such. The department's existence, its briefing function and the fact of disagreement inside the leadership over the Berlin scheme are documented; the exact words and timing rest on the recollection. After the department was dissolved, Pushkin moved to the post of Deputy Foreign Minister in 1959 and returned to the center of diplomatic work, a path that led to his heading the Soviet delegation at the 1961–1962 Geneva conference on the neutralization of Laos.