The Soviet Cold War diplomat who denied the Cuban missiles at the UN Security Council
Stevenson: 'Do you deny the USSR has placed missiles in Cuba? Yes or no?' Zorin: 'I am not in an American courtroom. You will receive your answer in due course.' Aides then carried aerial photos of the missile sites into the chamber.
A Soviet Cold War diplomat who served as Deputy Foreign Minister for nearly 25 years and held ambassadorships to Czechoslovakia, West Germany, and France, as well as two stints as Permanent Representative to the UN. His defiant refusal to answer Adlai Stevenson's challenge during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis at the UN Security Council became an iconic moment of Cold War diplomacy.
Career Timeline
- 1922–1932Komsomol and pioneer movement organizer, Moscow party committee
- 1941–1945People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs
- 1945–1947USSR Ambassador to Czechoslovakia
- 1947–1965Deputy Foreign Minister of the USSR (three stints)
- 1949–1952Head, Committee of Information (foreign intelligence)
- 1952–1953, 1960–1963Permanent Representative of the USSR to the UN
- 1955–1956First Soviet Ambassador to West Germany
- 1965–1971USSR Ambassador to France
- 1971–1986Ambassador-at-large, USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Related historical events
- 1947–1948The Marshall Plan and the Cold WarDispatched to Prague to orchestrate the coupAs Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, he arrived in Prague on 19 February 1948, conveyed Stalin's order to seize power to Gottwald, and directed the final preparations for the coup.
- 1962The Cuban Missile CrisisDenied the missile deployment at the UN Security CouncilAs Soviet Permanent Representative to the UN, he faced Adlai Stevenson's famous challenge at the October 25, 1962 emergency Security Council meeting. He denied the missile deployment, but Stevenson presented aerial photo evidence. The diplomatic clash became an iconic scene of Cold War history.
The 1948 Czechoslovak Coup
Zorin served as Soviet ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1945 to 1947, giving him deep familiarity with Prague's political landscape. On February 19, 1948, one day before twelve non-Communist ministers resigned, he returned to Prague as deputy foreign minister aboard a special flight from Moscow. Meeting with Communist leader Klement Gottwald, Zorin delivered Stalin's urgent message: the Czechoslovak Communists must seize power immediately, and Soviet troops massed on the Hungarian border stood ready to assist. Gottwald declined the offer of military intervention, assuring Zorin that the party was already in command of the situation, but Stalin's backing (and the implicit threat of the Red Army) emboldened the Communists to mobilize militias and seize control of Prague. On February 25, President Edvard Beneš capitulated and approved a Communist-dominated government; Czechoslovakia remained under Communist rule for the next 41 years. The coup extinguished the last democracy in Eastern Europe, spurring the rapid adoption of the Marshall Plan and the creation of NATO, and hardened the front lines of the Cold War.