Dobrynin, Anatoly Fyodorovich
Anatoly Fyodorovich Dobrynin, 1919–2010, Soviet diplomat, b. Krasnaya Gorka. He studied at a Moscow aviation institute, designed aircraft during World War II, and was selected after the war for diplomatic training. He first came to Washington in 1952 as a Soviet diplomatic counselor. In 1957 he moved to New York as undersecretary to UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld. Returning to Washington in 1962 as Soviet ambassador, he soon played a key role in securing the peaceful resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Despite cold war tensions, the affable Dobrynin was a popular figure, and was widely considered one of the most able diplomats of the late 20th cent. During his long tenure he served six Soviet leaders, worked with six U.S. presidents, and was dean (1979–86) of Washington's diplomatic corps. He returned to Moscow in 1986, became a senior Central Committee official, and retired in 1988.
See his In Confidence (1995, repr. 2001).