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Soviet Union [USSR] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had responsibility for
administering the diplomatic relations of the Soviet Union. Once
the Council of Ministers had approved diplomatic recognition of a
state, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would establish embassies
and consulates, provide the core staffs serving abroad, and serve
as a conduit for formal communications between the Soviet political
leadership and the host state. A Soviet ambassador serving abroad
would be regarded under international law as the personal
representative of the chairman of the Supreme Soviet to the head of
government of the host state. In practice, the Soviet diplomatic
service carried out CPSU policy as set forth by the general
secretary and the Politburo.
The
Bolshevik Revolution (see Glossary) of 1917 resulted in a
virtually complete break in diplomatic staffing from the tsarist
period because the majority of tsarist diplomatic personnel refused
to work for the Bolsheviks. Another discontinuity in staffing
occurred in the late 1930s, when the People's Commissariat of
Foreign Affairs (known after 1946 as the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs) was purged and the resulting vacancies filled by young,
professionally trained and politically reliable personnel such as
Andrei Gromyko. The ministry experienced continuity in personnel
and structure throughout Gromyko's tenure as minister (1957-85).
Eduard Shevardnadze, who succeeded Gromyko as foreign minister in
1985, reorganized the ministry and made major personnel changes
among the Collegium members and ambassadors.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was organized into geographical
and functional departments and administrations reflecting Soviet
ideological and pragmatic concerns with various geographical
regions or world problems. Departments and administrations of the
ministry included geographical ones, dealing with the regions of
Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa, and functional ones,
dealing with such concerns as international organizations and
cultural affairs. Shevardnadze restructured some of the
geographical and functional departments, mainly by grouping
countries into categories reflecting modern world realities. For
example, he grouped communist countries into Asian and European
departments, put the member states of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations into a single department, and created another African
office consisting almost entirely of the "frontline states"
proximal to South Africa.
Data as of May 1989
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