Stalin's personal interpreter at Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam who became the Soviet Union's leading Americanist
At the Tehran conference dinner, when Berezhkov stuffed a piece of steak into his mouth just as Churchill began to speak, Stalin muttered into his ear: 'You weren't invited here to eat.'
Soviet diplomat who served as Stalin and Molotov's personal translator at Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945), witnessing the Big Three diplomacy that shaped the postwar order. As first secretary at the Soviet embassy in Berlin (1940–1941), he interpreted at the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signing and was present when Ribbentrop read Germany's declaration of war. Sidelined over his parents' wartime fate, he became deputy chief editor of Novoye Vremya and founding editor of USA: Economics, Politics, Ideology, the USSR's flagship journal of American studies. Returning to diplomacy as first secretary in Washington (1979–1983), after the Soviet collapse he taught at the Monterey Institute and published candid memoirs of his years at the summit of power.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1938Graduated Kiev Polytechnic Institute; translator, Pacific Fleet
- 1940–1941First Secretary, Soviet Embassy in Berlin
- 1941–1944Advisor-referent, NKID; personal interpreter to Stalin and Molotov
- 1943 · 1945Interpreter at Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam conferences
- 1945–1960sDeputy chief editor, Novoye Vremya (pseud. Bogdanov)
- 1970–1989Founding editor, USA: Economics, Politics, Ideology
- 1979–1983First Secretary, Soviet Embassy in Washington
- 1992–1998Professor, Monterey Institute of International Studies
Related historical events
Under suspicion and return to diplomacy
During the Second World War, Berezhkov feared that he too might be punished after the security services learned that his parents had defected to the West. In retrospect, he said he never understood why Stalin had spared him. Ordered not to speak of his former interpreting work, he was moved into magazine editing at about age thirty. After Stalin's death, his former superior Molotov brought him back into service, and he eventually became first secretary at the Soviet embassy in Washington. His career illustrates the pressure that the threat of purges placed on a diplomat's work and prospects, as well as a limited return to diplomatic service after a change in leadership.