| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
MY APPOINTMENT TO THE SECRETARIAT of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs in early July of 1979 came shortly before the 70th birthday of Andrei Andreevich Gromyko at the peak of his popularity and influence as one of three CPSU Central Committee Politburo members whose word, at that period, was decisive in laying down the home and foreign policy of the country with a universally recognized great power status.
Before taking up my new duties I had, as was the rule, to learn, from inside and in a brief span of time, about the workings of the Secretariat beginning with the duties of a night duty officer. I will never forget the few anxious nights I spent on my own in the deserted and securely locked up portion of the building outside the open door to the minister's office (to hear if any of the hotline telephones installed inside and nowhere else should ring, * in permanent readiness to respond to any, often unexpected calls coming to the impressive battery of phones of the government communication line at the side table of the minister's senior aide.
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