Cadres chief pushed from late-Stalin Secretariat into diplomacy
During the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, Pegov appeared at the Indian Foreign Ministry and declared: "The Soviet fleet is already in the Indian Ocean, and the USSR will not allow the Seventh Fleet to intervene."
A Soviet party-state functionary who rose to CC secretary and candidate Presidium member in Stalin's final year, then was transferred to diplomatic postings under Khrushchev. In October 1952 he joined Malenkov and Suslov as one of three officials alternating chairmanship of Secretariat meetings in Stalin's absence, but was removed from both bodies immediately after Stalin's death. Made Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1953–1956), he ran the state apparatus before his transfer to diplomacy as ambassador to Iran, Algeria, and India, concluding as deputy foreign minister in 1973. During the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, he publicly assured India that the Soviet Navy would prevent the US Seventh Fleet from intervening, a concrete demonstration of Soviet naval deterrence.
Career Timeline
- 19383rd Secretary, Far Eastern Regional Committee; 1st Secretary, Primorsky Org Bureau
- 1939–19471st Secretary, Primorsky Krai Committee (concurrently 1st Secretary, Vladivostok City Committee from 1940)
- 1941–1945Member, Military Councils of the Far Eastern Front and Pacific Fleet
- 1947–1952Deputy Chief, CC Party Organs Verification; Head of Light Industry; Head of Party/Trade Union/Komsomol Organs; Head of Cadres Dept.
- 1952–1953CC Secretary and candidate member of the CC Presidium
- 1953–1956Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
- 1956–1973Ambassador to Iran (1956–63), Algeria (1964–67), India (1967–73)
- 1973–1982Deputy Foreign Minister; Head of CC Dept. for Foreign Cadres and Travel Abroad