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.
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