On November 22, 1963, US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The event shocked the entire world and elicited waves of sympathy on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The generally positive attitude in the USSR towards the young American president was finally solidified after the publication in Pravda on June 11,ContinueContinue reading “1963: A Cold War Stand-Down: Top Secret Documents on Kremlin Response to JFK Assassination”
Tag Archives: Gromyko
1943: Molotov Informs Gromyko, Sobolev of Acceptance of Terms of Italy’s Surrender to the Allies
The following is a translation of a 2 September 1943 Top Secret message from the People’s Commissar Of Foreign Affairs Of The USSR Vyacheslav Molotov To Soviet Ambassador To The US Andrey Gromyko and Soviet Charge D’Affairs Of The USSR In Great Britain Arkady Sobolev. 2 September 1943 Top Secret Priority On 26 AugustContinueContinue reading “1943: Molotov Informs Gromyko, Sobolev of Acceptance of Terms of Italy’s Surrender to the Allies”
1977 Top Secret KGB Document on Amnesty International’s Anti-Soviet Tendencies – “Just Ignore Them”
The following is the translation of a declassified Top Secret paper written by KGB Chairman Yuriy Andropov and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Gromyko, addressed to the Central Committee of the CPSU: “Concerning measures in connection with the anti-Soviet aspirations in the activities of Amnesty International,” dated 7 June 1977. Top Secret SPECIAL FOLDERContinueContinue reading “1977 Top Secret KGB Document on Amnesty International’s Anti-Soviet Tendencies – “Just Ignore Them””
1986: Gorbachev Reacts to US Mass Expulsion of Soviets on Heels of Reykjavik Summit
1986 was an exciting year in the world of foreign policy, especially for the Americans and Soviets. Here’s a brief rundown of events that sets the tone for this article: March 7: The United States orders the Soviet Union to reduce staff members of the Soviet, Ukrainian, and Belorussian missions to the United Nations toContinueContinue reading “1986: Gorbachev Reacts to US Mass Expulsion of Soviets on Heels of Reykjavik Summit”
Top Secret 1974 Politburo Records on the Solzhenitsyn Issue: Exile? Imprison? Expel?
By January 1974, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was already well known throughout most of the Soviet Union as a rabble-rouser, trouble-maker, ne’er-do-well, and pretty good author. When he quietly sent his weighty manuscript for ‘Gulag Archipelago’ off to the YMCA Press to be published in Paris and New York City, many inside Kremlin circles were shocked, toContinueContinue reading “Top Secret 1974 Politburo Records on the Solzhenitsyn Issue: Exile? Imprison? Expel?”
Two Versions of the Beginning of the Korean War, Stalin and Gromyko Embrace the Lie
Translating History continues its look at the early days of the Korean War with two new translations of declassified documents from 1950. The materials in the collection contain two versions of the origin of the Korean War of 1950-1953 and the degree of guilt of the DPRK and ROK in unleashing it. One of themContinueContinue reading “Two Versions of the Beginning of the Korean War, Stalin and Gromyko Embrace the Lie”
Cuban Missile Crisis, Document 19
25 October 1962 / Cable from Zorin to the TsK KPSS TOP SECRET Reproduction prohibited Copy No. 12 6116 26/X/62 Enciphered Cable [Translator’s note: Distribution for this cable is as follows: Brezhnev, Voronov, Kirilenko, Kozlov, Kosygin, Kuusinen, Mikoyan, Podgornyy, Polyanskiy, Suslov, Khrushchev, Khrushchev, Shvernik, Grishin, Rashidov, Mazurov, Mzhavanadze, Shcherbitskiy, Demichev, Ilyevich, Ponomarev, Shelepin, Gromyko, Malinovskiy,ContinueContinue reading “Cuban Missile Crisis, Document 19”
Cuban Missile Crisis, Document 17
23 October 1962 / Enciphered cable from Havana from Alekseyev on mobilizing the national militia in Cuba TOP SECRET Reproduction prohibited Copy No. 12 5962 23/X/62 Enciphered Cable [Translator’s note: Distribution for this cable is as follows: Brezhnev, Voronov, Kirilenko, Kozlov, Kuusinen, Mikoyan, Podgornyy, Polyanskiy, Suslov, Khrushchev, Khrushchev [sic], Shvernik, Grishin, Rashidov, Mazurov, Mzhavanadze, Shcherbitskiy,ContinueContinue reading “Cuban Missile Crisis, Document 17”
Cuban Missile Crisis: Document 1
The first set of documents I’ll be translating and posting over the coming weeks are from those donated to the National Security Archive by Russian historian Sergo Mikoyan dealing with the Cuban Missile Crisis. There are 60 documents in all, and will be of interest to Cold War historians and those interested in Soviet, Russian,ContinueContinue reading “Cuban Missile Crisis: Document 1”
Translating History 