Trade-and-diplomacy official sacked by Stalin over bananas, then returned as a Cold War ambassador under Khrushchev
When rotten bananas appeared on Stalin's holiday table, the blame fell squarely on the Minister of Foreign Trade. The day after receiving a 'severe reprimand with warning,' Menshikov was summarily dismissed for 'failing to cope with his duties.'
Soviet trade official and diplomat. Born the son of a peasant, he volunteered for the Red Army and later studied economics at Moscow's Plekhanov Institute of National Economy. After heading the Soviet trade cooperative ARCOS in London, he became USSR Minister of Foreign Trade in 1949, only to be dismissed in 1951 when Stalin took offense at the quality of bananas imported from Mexico. He transitioned to diplomacy after Stalin's death, serving as Soviet ambassador to India (1953–1957) and to the United States (1958–1962), managing superpower relations in Washington on the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis. He then served six years as Foreign Minister of the Russian Republic (RSFSR), one of the few officials to work Soviet diplomacy at both the all-union and republican levels.
Career Timeline
- 1918–1920Served in the Red Army
- 1921Took part in suppressing the Tambov peasant uprising
- 1930–1936Director of ARCOS cooperative, London
- 1943–1946Deputy Director of UNRRA, USA
- 1946–1949Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR
- 1949–1951Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR
- 1953–1957Soviet Ambassador to India
- 1957Soviet Ambassador to Nepal (concurrent)
- 1958–1962Soviet Ambassador to the United States
- 1962–1968Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR