Andrei Kozyrev: biography, activities

Andrei Kozyrev (born March 27, 1951) was the first foreign minister of Russia under President Yeltsin from October 1991 to January 1996. He began to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR since 1974, but made a lightning career with the coming to power of Boris Yeltsin.

Origin and nationality

Where did Kozyrev Andrei Vladimirovich start his life? His biography began in Brussels, where his father, an engineering and technical employee of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, worked for a long time. As Kozyrev himself told the New York Times in the summer of this year, his family (probably father's parents) fled the village (apparently during the collectivization period). Two uncles Kozyrev were officers of the Soviet Army in the rank of colonel.

His mother can only be presumed to be Jewish, since Kozyrev himself is a member of the presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress, and the Jews are supposed to lead their families along the maternal line. So who is Andrei Kozyrev then? His nationality was quite clearly manifested in the very fact of election to the presidium of the above-mentioned organization: he is a Jew. Although in his Soviet questionnaire always indicated in the column "nationality" "Russian".

Years of study

Andrei Kozyrev studied in a specialized Spanish school, which greatly helped him when entering the institute. But at first he did not at all seek higher education and after school went to work as a mechanic at the Moscow-based Moscow machine-building plant "Kommunar", intending to serve in the army after a year of work (he himself stated in his interview to Forbes magazine). But after a year of physical work, his life priorities changed greatly, and Andrei went to the party organizer of his shop for a recommendation for admission to the institute.

Such a document he was given, and with him the applicant went to the University. Patrice Lumumba, where they took only on such recommendations. But the entrance to the state secrets, received during the work at Kommunar (because in this "university" there were a lot of foreign students) prevented him from entering. However, the Kommunar Party Committee corrected its mistake and rewritten the recommendation to MGIMO. With her, Andrei Kozyrev in 1969 still goes to this prestigious university and five years later he successfully graduates.

Home diplomacy and change of outlook

After completing his studies, Andrei Kozyrev comes to work at the Department of International Organizations (UMO) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was responsible for issues related to the United Nations, arms control, including biological and chemical weapons. Over the next three years, he prepared and defended his thesis on the role of the United Nations in the process of detente in the 1970s.

In 1975, Kozyrev first traveled abroad - in the United States. The 24-year-old Soviet diplomat is experiencing, in his words, a real shock from the commodity abundance that he saw there. He would recall the words of Vladimir Mayakovsky: "The Soviets have their own pride! We look down on the bourgeoisie! "But apparently, they brought up this very pride in 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 became after that "an internal dissident and, frankly, an anti-Soviet."

Career in the Soviet period

Kozyrev very difficult to move up the career ladder. He was not sent to work abroad permanently, after 12 years of service, he rose to the position of head of the Department of Internal Affairs. A very important role in his future career was played by good relations with Eduard Shevardnadze, who came to the Foreign Ministry in 1988 to replace Andrei Gromyko. The new minister began a radical reorganization of his department. Under him, Kozyrev became the head of the UMO, replacing a man who was 20 years older than him. In 1989, Kozyrev published in the magazine "International Life" a sharp article criticizing the foreign policy of the Soviet state, called for it to abandon the support of numerous pseudo-socialist allies. The article was reprinted by The New York Times, and it was analyzed by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. But Shevardnadze supported his position.

Activities as Minister

Through a former Foreign Ministry official Lukin, who became chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Parliament of the RSFSR, Kozyrev was plunged into the command of the Chairman of the Parliament 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.

After a failed coup attempt in 1991, he found himself in a team of young reformers that included Yegor Gaidar and Anatoly Chubais, who shared with Kozyrev his pro-Western liberal-democratic ideals. Together with Gennady Burbulis, he prepared in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in December 1991 a document on the termination of the existence of the USSR and the formation of the CIS.

Kozyrev claimed that he was trying to make Russia a partner of the West in the post-Cold War world order. He initiated large arms control agreements with the United States. He is also seen 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 assistance from the US in their development. He did not oppose the expansion of NATO to the East in the early 90s, which caused sharp resentment of many Russian politicians. Contributed to Russia's joining the NATO Partnership for Peace program, which resulted in the hasty and unprepared withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany in 1994.

The ministerial personnel policy was in fact aimed at the collapse of the Foreign Ministry. Over the years of his leadership, the department was left more than 1 thousand qualified diplomats.

Sensing his imminent resignation, the minister prudently organized his election to the State Duma in 1995, and then asked Yeltsin for 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 famous politician as Kozyrev Andrey Vladimirovich have completely lost himself? Where now lives the former head of the Russian Foreign Ministry. He settled in Miami. In the summer of this year he gave an interview to The New York Times, in which he expressed his hope for swift changes in Russia's political course. Well, wait and see.

Kozyrev Andrey Vladimirovich: family and personal life

Today our hero sunbathes and reads folios about democratic changes in the world. He periodically visits Washington to attend meetings of the American Council on Foreign Policy, which supplies analytical information to members of Congress.

And what about the family Andrei Kozyrev? His wife, Elena, was once an employee of the Foreign Ministry. Now it is their common household. They have an 18-year-old son, Andrei.