Andrei Gromyko was the long-serving Soviet foreign minister whose stern, unsmiling presence made him the face of Soviet diplomacy for nearly three decades of the Cold War. Born to a peasant family in Belarus, he trained as an economist and joined the Communist Party in 1931, rising through the diplomatic service during the Stalin era.
He served as Soviet ambassador to the United States during the Second World War and took part in the great wartime conferences, then became one of the founders of the United Nations and the Soviet Union's representative on its Security Council, where he wielded the veto so often that he earned the nickname "Mr. Nyet."
Appointed foreign minister in 1957, Gromyko held the post for twenty-eight years, an extraordinary tenure that spanned the rule of Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and their successors. A tireless, encyclopedically prepared, and famously rigid negotiator, he was involved in nearly every major episode of the Cold War, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the arms-control agreements of détente.
His patient endurance made him a symbol of Soviet continuity through changing leaders. In 1985 it was Gromyko who formally nominated the reformer Mikhail Gorbachev to lead the party, and he was then promoted to the largely ceremonial post of head of state, serving as president until shortly before his death in 1989, as the system he had served so long began to change.