Georgy Markovich Korniyenko (also Kornienko; russian: Гео́ргий Ма́ркович Корние́нко, 13 February 1925 – 10 May 2006) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

diplomat. He joined the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1949 and later became an attaché at the Soviet Embassy in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Then in 1964 he was assigned to head the Soviet Foreign Ministry's American desk. He became a deputy to

Soviet Foreign Minister The Ministry of External Relations (MER) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (russian: Министерство иностранных дел СССР) was founded on 6 July 1923. It had three names during its existence: People's Co ...

Andrei Gromyko Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (russian: Андрей Андреевич Громыко; be, Андрэй Андрэевіч Грамыка; – 2 July 1989) was a Soviet communist politician and diplomat during the Cold War. He served as ...

in 1975 and the first deputy two years later. He was instrumental in developing Soviet policy toward the

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and setting the agenda for U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks in the 1970s and the 1980s. He is known to have clashed on occasion with other members of the Soviet elite on foreign policy issues. In 1983, when a Soviet fighter shot down a Korean airliner intruding into Soviet airspace, killing all 269 people on board, Korniyenko opposed the official Kremlin course on the incident and futilely urged the Communist Party leadership to release more information about it to avoid international isolation. He was one of the few Soviet leaders who opposed the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He was awarded the Hero of Socialist Labour in 1985, one of the highest awards in the Soviet Union. He died after a lengthy unspecified illness.

References

Georgy Korniyenko; helped set agenda for US-Soviet talks
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Korniyenko, Georgy 1925 births 2006 deaths 20th-century diplomats People from Mykolaiv Oblast People from Odessa Governorate Members of the Central Committee of the 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Members of the Central Committee of the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Tenth convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Eleventh convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of Honour (Russia) Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Cold War diplomats Soviet diplomats Soviet expatriates in the United States Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery