KUBYSHKIN A.I., KURILLA I.I. “Reluctant Diplomat”: Nikolai Vasilievich Novikov’s Biography Pages
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2024.1.8
Alexander I. Kubyshkin
Doctor of Sciences (History), Professor,
Department of Theory and Methods of Teaching Humanities, Saint Petersburg State University,
Universitetskaya Emb., 7-9, 199034 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation;
Grant Executor,
Herzen University, reki Moyki Emb., 48, 191186 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation,
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ,
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0633-2842
Ivan I. Kurilla
Doctor of Sciences (History), Professor,
Faculty of Political Science, European University at Saint Petersburg, Gagarinskaya St, 6/1A, 191187 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation,
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7144-2007
Abstract. Introduction. The article analyzes the biography and diplomatic activities of Nikolai Vasilievich Novikov (1903–1989), a Soviet diplomat who represented the USSR in Cairo and in Washington during World War II and took part in the efforts to establish a new system of international relations at the beginning of the Cold War.
Methods and materials. The article is based on published texts by Nikolai Novikov himself, diplomatic documents, periodicals, and materials from his personal archive, deposited in the Archive of the European University at St. Petersburg by the diplomat’s family. Analysis. The authors examine Novikov’s biography, the reasons for his rapid career in the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, his relations with Soviet foreign policy managers, and the circumstances of his resignation at a relatively young age. Special attention is paid to Novikov’s activities in the United States in the context of the emerging Cold War, the place of Novikov’s note (cable) in the process of shaping Soviet approaches to relations with the United States, and his own attitude to these approaches.
Results. Novikov’s contribution to the shaping of the postwar world is underappreciated, as are his attempts to resist the changes that were breaking Soviet-American cooperation in the international arena. In fact, the strategic concepts formulated by Novikov in a memo to Molotov were the basis of the official Soviet interpretation of the causes and nature of the Cold War and were included in Soviet school and university textbooks on universal history and the history of international relations.
Authors’ contributions. A.I. Kubyshkin analyzed the most important stages of Nikolai Novikov’s diplomatic activity and the general situation in relations between the USSR and the USA during the Second World War. He assessed Novikov’s activities from the political leadership of the USSR and foreign countries in which the Soviet diplomat worked. He also examined the most important aspects of the activities of Soviet diplomacy reflected in Novikov’s memoirs and carried out their internal criticism as a historical source. I.I. Kurilla processed the archive of Nikolai Novikov and identified and analyzed the corpus of sources of personal origin. He also analyzed the contents of Nikolai Novikov’s personal diaries, reviewed the personal contribution of N.V. Novikov in developing a strategy in relations with the United States in the initial period of the Cold War, and compared the contents of the “long telegram” of J. Kennan and the “Novikov telegram”.
Key words: Nikolai Novikov, Soviet diplomacy, Soviet-American relations, Cold War, Novikov telegram.
Citation. Kubyshkin A.I., Kurilla I.I. “Reluctant Diplomat”: Nikolai Vasilievich Novikov’s Biography Pages. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 4. Istoriya. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. History. Area Studies. International Relations], 2024, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 87-101. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2024.1.8.
“Reluctant Diplomat”: Nikolai Vasilievich Novikov’s Biography Pages by Kubyshkin A.I., Kurilla I.I. are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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