Andrei Kozyrev (born March 27, 1951) was the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia under President Yeltsin from October 1991 to January 1996. He began working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR in 1974, but he made an instant career with the advent of Boris Yeltsin.
Origin and nationality
Where did Andrey Vladimirovich Kozyrev begin his life? His biography began in Brussels, where for a long time his father worked, an engineer and technical employee of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. As Kozyrev himself said in an interview with the New York Times this summer, his family (probably his father’s parents) fled the village (apparently, during the period of collectivization). Two uncles Kozyrev were officers of the Soviet army with the rank of colonel.
About his mother, one can only assume that she was apparently Jewish, since Kozyrev himself is a member of the presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress, and it is customary for the Jews to conduct their kind on the maternal side. So who is Andrey Vladimirovich Kozyrev then? His nationality was quite clearly manifested in the very fact of the election of the aforementioned organization to the podium: he is a Jew. Although in his Soviet profile he always indicated in the column "nationality" "Russian".
Years of study
Andrei Kozyrev studied at a specialized Spanish school, which greatly helped him when he entered the institute. But at first he didn’t at all aspire to get a higher education and after school he went to work as a locksmith at the regimen Moscow machine building plant Kommunar, intending to go to the army after a year of work (he sets forth this version in an interview with Forbes magazine). But after a year of physical labor, his life priorities changed dramatically, and Andrei went to the party organizer of his workshop for a recommendation for admission to the institute.
Such a document was issued to him, and with him the applicant went to the University. Patrice Lumumba, which was taken only on such recommendations. But he was prevented from entering the state secrets received in the process of working at Kommunar (after all, there were many foreign students in this “university”). However, the Kommunara party committee corrected its mistake and rewrote the recommendation at MGIMO. With her, Andrei Kozyrev in 1969 still enters this prestigious university and after five years successfully graduates from it.
The beginning of the diplomatic career and the change of worldview
After completing his studies, Andrei Kozyrev enters the Office of International Organizations (UMO) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was responsible for issues related to the UN and arms control, including biological and chemical weapons. Over the next three years, he prepared and defended his Ph.D. thesis on the role of the UN in the process of defusing tensions in the 70s.
In 1975, Kozyrev first went abroad - to the United States. The 24-year-old Soviet diplomat is experiencing, according to him, a real shock from the abundance of goods seen there. He would recall the words of Vladimir Mayakovsky: “The Soviet have their own pride! We look down on the bourgeoisie! ” But apparently, this very pride was poorly brought up by young Soviet diplomats.
The second blow to Kozyrev’s worldview was the reading of Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago. By his own admission in the same Forbes interview, he then became "an internal dissident and, frankly, an anti-Soviet."
Career during the Soviet period
Kozyrev very difficult to move up the career ladder. He was not sent for permanent work abroad; after 12 years of service, he rose to the post of head of the department of UMO. A very important role in his future career was played by good relations with Eduard Shevardnadze, who replaced Andrei Gromyko in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1988. The new minister began a radical reorganization of his department. Under him, Kozyrev became the head of UMO, replacing a person who was 20 years older than him. In 1989, Kozyrev published a sharp article in the journal International Life criticizing the foreign policy of the Soviet state, urging her to give up support for numerous pseudo-socialist allied countries. The article was reprinted by The New York Times; it was dismantled by the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. But Shevardnadze supported his position.
Activities as Minister
Through a former Foreign Ministry official, Lukin, who became chairman of the committee on international relations of the RSFSR parliament, Kozyrev succumbed to the team of parliament chairman Boris Yeltsin. He is appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR. This post was purely decorative, Russia did not conduct any foreign policy of its own within the USSR.
After a failed coup attempt in 1991, he ended up on the team of young reformers, which included Yegor Gaidar and Anatoly Chubais, who shared his pro-Western liberal-democratic ideals with Kozyrev. Together with Gennady Burbulis, he prepared a document on the termination of the existence of the USSR and the formation of the CIS in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in December 1991.
Kozyrev claimed that he was trying to make Russia a Western partner in the emerging world order after the Cold War. He initiated major arms control agreements with the United States. He is also regarded by many as one of the most active supporters of liberalism and democracy in post-communist Russia.
It is widely known (according to Yevgeny Primakov) Kozyrev’s statement that Russia does not have formed national interests and it needs help from the United States to develop them. He did not oppose the expansion of NATO to the East in the early 90s, which caused a sharp rejection of many Russian politicians. He facilitated Russia's joining the NATO Partnership for Peace program, which resulted in a hasty and unprepared withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany in 1994.
The personnel policy of the Minister was actually aimed at the collapse of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Over the years of his leadership, the department has left more than 1 thousand qualified diplomats.
Anticipating his imminent resignation, the minister prudently organized his election to the State Duma in 1995, and then asked Yeltsin for the resignation, which was given to him. For some time he worked in the Russian parliament, and then withdrew from political life. However, could such a well-known politician as Andrei Kozyrev be completely lost? Where now lives the former head of the Russian Foreign Ministry. He settled in Miami. This summer, he gave an interview to The New York Times, in which he expressed hope for imminent changes in Russia's political course. Well, wait and see.
