In October, 1970, a new Moscow's envoy - Vladimir Vinogradov arrived in Cairo. One of the prominent Soviet diplomats in the second half of the 20th century, Vinogradov specialized in the Middle East. He had the unique "talent" of getting into extreme situations. His assassination was plotted in Japan; during his work in Egypt, the Arab-Israeli war broke out ; after his assignment as ambassador to Iran, the Islamic revolution took place, and the Soviet mission was destroyed; when in the summer of 1976 he arrived for couple of days in Sudan an armed rebellion there started unexpectedly…
Vinogradov was born in 1921 in Ukraine (Vinnitsa). He received his first higher education in 1945 in Moscow becoming an engineer - technologist. Then Vinogradov graduated the All-Union academy of foreign trade (1948). After finishing his studies he was appointed assistant to the commercial representative of the USSR in London. Four years later Vinogradov returned to Moscow to work in the central apparatus of the Ministry of Trade. For the next 10 years he was the Deputy Chief of the Department of Commerce dealing with western countries.
During his work in the Ministry of Trade, Vinogradov acquired the skills of diplomatic work (in particular he was a member of the delegation headed by the leader of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, during his historic visit to the USA in 1959). He also scrutinized the western economic system, reached fluency in English and learned colloquial Spanish.
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| Vladimir Vinogradov (L) with the President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser, Cairo, 1970 |
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In 1962-66 Vinogradov was the ambassador of the USSR in Japan. He essentially promoted the normalization of relations between the two countries after the WWII. After returning to Moscow, he was appointed to the post of Deputy Foreign Minister. He supervised the Asian sphere, and in particular, the Middle East. After the revolution in Sudan in 1969, Vinogradov established relations with the new regime of Colonel Nimeiri. During this period he repeatedly met with the Iranian Shah, Mohammed Pehlevi, the King of Afghanistan, Zahir-Shah and the President of Egypt, Nasser.
The Ambassador in Egypt
The first president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, personally solicited the Soviet leadership to assign Vinogradov as ambassador in Cairo. By a twist of fate, this request was satisfied a day after Nasser's death (October 1970). Vinogradov's mission was not to allow a cooling off of the relations between the USSR and Egypt under its new leadership. During his work in Egypt, Vinogradov met with the new President, Anwar Sadat, more than 100 times. The Soviet ambassador actively participated in the preparation of the bilateral Friendship and Cooperation treaty, signed in May 1971. Despite that, the period of his stay in Cairo was marked with the sharp deterioration of Soviet-Egyptian relations. As a result Moscow lost control over Egypt. In the summer of 1972 the Soviet military contingent was called out of the country. During the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, Vinogradov constantly remained in Cairo carrying on communications between Sadat and the Kremlin. He estimated that the conflict was a result of collusion between Egypt and the USA, possibly with Israel's consent. In Vinogradov's opinion the purpose of the conflict was the creation of favorable conditions for beginning a peace process under the aegis of Washington, and accordingly, the total removal of Moscow's influence from the region. Shortly before returning to Moscow, Vinogradov had three meetings in Cairo with the Secretary of State of the USA,
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Vladimir Vinogradov (L) with King of Jordan Hussein, Amman, 1976 |
Henry Kissinger. At the beginning of 1974 his mission in Egypt ended.
A Friend of Jordan
After returning from Cairo, Vinogradov was appointed to be a special envoy. He was dealing with the problems of the Middle-Eastern conflict, frequently meeting with leaders of the Arab countries. At the beginning of 1975, Vinogradov acted as the initiator of a rapprochement between the USSR and Jordan. For this purpose in March of the same year, he came to Amman where he had several meetings with the Prime Minister of the country and with the king.
Vinogradov's main task during this period was to organize an international conference on Middle East issues. This forum, as the Kremlin intended, should have neutralized the efforts of the USA on the Israeli - Egyptian conflict and led to an increase in the influence of the USSR in the Arab world.
The Ambassador in Iran
From February 1977 until April 1982 Vinogradov was the ambassador of the USSR in Iran. The Islamic revolution, which took place during this period, caused an appreciable deterioration in Soviet-Iranian relations.
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Delivering of credentials to last Shah of Iran from Pehlevi Dynasty.
Tehran, 1977 |
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For the first two years of his position in Tehran, the new ambassador repeatedly met with Shah Mohammed Pehlevi. Vinogradov was polite but cautious. In his reports to Moscow, he was critical in his assessment of the Shah, emphasizing the influence the USA had on the Iranian leader.
At the initial stage of Islamic revolution, Vinogradov was impressed by the national popularity of imam Khomeini. The Soviet ambassador sympathized with one of the spiritual leaders of revolution, Mahmud Taleghani, (for his leftist orientation, he was nicknamed "red mullah "). By the way, Taleghani died under rather strange circumstances in the beginning of September 1979 right after the meeting with Vinogradov. (Apparently, the adherents of Khomeini who considered Taleghani one of his main political competitors poisoned the "red mullah"). Soon after that there was a prompt deterioration of relations between Teheran and Moscow. The principal ideological contradictions of Shia fundamentalism and Russian communism; the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan (December, 1979); connections of leftist Iranian organizations, in particular those of the Communist Party with special services of the USSR were the main reasons for that.
In January and in December, 1980 demonstrators protesting against the invasion of Soviet armies into Afghanistan twice attacked the embassy headed by Vinogradov.
Influenced by the events of 1979 - 1980, during the last one and a half years of his service, Vinogradov began to see the new Iranian regime in a rather negative light. In his reports to Moscow, he criticized more and more the methods of suppression of opposition, the absence of a precise economic concept, and the position of local authorities concerning the conflict in Iraq. At the same time, from the moment of the revolution and until his departure from Iran, Vinogradov met with Khomeini seven times. Thus he won first place among the foreign diplomats in Tehran in the amount of meetings with the leader of the Islamic revolution (Khomeini practically had no contacts with foreign ambassadors). Some of the conversations between the Iranian leader and Soviet ambassador were confidential. In such cases, except for Khomeini and Vinogradov, only the first secretary of the Soviet embassy and the Soviet translator were allowed into the meetings.
The Minister and the Adviser
After returning from Iran, Vinogradov was appointed to the post of Minister for Foreign Affairs of Russia (in the structure of the USSR). He held this post for eight years, continuing actively to participate in Soviet policy in the Middle East. For example, in 1985 Vinogradov headed the Soviet delegation at the conference of the United Nations on the Arab-Israeli settlement.
In 1990, one year prior to the collapse of the Communistic regime, Vinogradov finished his diplomatic career, having given more than 40 years of his life to Soviet foreign policy. But after his retirement he did not lose interest in the Middle East. In 1992 this ex-Minister headed the Russian Committee of Public Organizations on Assistance to the Arab-Israeli settlement. Through this structure many informal contacts of Moscow with political figures of the countries of the Middle East were carried out in the 1990s . Vinogradov participated in them very actively, from time to time advising diplomats of the official position of post-Soviet Russia on various regional questions.
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