Translated material
The “Man of the System” has died
Georgy Arkadyevich Arbatov was born on May 19, 1923 in the Ukrainian city of Kherson. In 1930-1935, he lived in Germany, where his father, who served in the USSR trade mission in that country, was sent to work. After graduating from school in June 1941, Georgy Arbatov entered the 1st Moscow Artillery School named after Krasin, and on November 7, 1941 took part in the famous military parade on Red Square. After graduating from college, he fought. For military services he was awarded many orders and medals, including the Order of the Red Star.
After demobilization, Georgy Arbatov entered the newly opened Faculty of International Relations at Moscow State University, which was soon transformed into an independent institute under the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the future MGIMO. Then he decided to specialize in studying the history and modern life of the United States. His comrades recalled that for the first time, 20-year-old Georgy read an announcement about the opening of a new faculty in the fall of 1943 in the Izvestia newspaper and immediately announced to everyone: “This is where I will go after the war!”...
In 1949, Arbatov graduated with honors from MGIMO with a degree in international law, and then, with an interval of just six years, he defended his candidate and doctoral dissertations.
Having worked in several periodicals, as well as at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in 1967 he created and headed the Institute of the USA and Canada of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which for many years occupied one of the leading places in developing the foreign policy course of our country. He was its permanent director until 1995, and three years later, in 1998, he took up the post of honorary director of the institute. He took an active part in all Soviet-American negotiations, thoroughly knew the problems of bilateral relations, including in the field of disarmament and nuclear security, and was familiar with six US presidents - from Lyndon Johnson to George H. W. Bush. “A man of the system” is what he called himself in his memoirs published in 2002.
In 1970, Georgy Arbatov was elected a corresponding member, and in 1974, a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. More than a hundred scientific monographs with a total circulation of over 2 million copies have been published from his pen. For his contribution to the development of domestic science, Academician Arbatov was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree, two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, the Red Star, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, and the Order of the Badge of Honor. “Your fundamental research has always been distinguished by professional analysis and was actively applied in practice - it contributed to the formation of key foreign policy steps and decisions,” emphasized the congratulations that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent to Academician Arbatov in 2008 on the occasion of his 85th birthday.
The funeral of Georgy Arbatov will take place on Wednesday, October 6.