A.A. Gromyko and Security Policy: Conflict of Strategies after Helsinki

The article continues the study of the role of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR A.A. Gromyko in the formation, development and maintenance of security policy, its principles and structural elements. The subject of the article is the analysis and comparison of the strategies of A.A. Gromyko and the Western countries in 1976–1977 after the signing of the Helsinki Final Act. The article consists of three parts. In the first part, the author analyzes the strategic course of A.A. Gromyko and proves that the Soviet Foreign Minister understood détente as a three-level process. For this reason, he wanted to agree on the common content of détente and to build cooperation between states of different status in the system of international relations that would be beneficial for all participants. The second part describes the West’s strategic course. The author shows that the West hoped to weaken the USSR, lure the country into a foreign policy game, «keep the Soviets in good spirits» and obtain voluntary concessions from the country. The Helsinki Final Act was as a «provisional high point» that would lead to a fight for what had been achieved. In the third part, the positions of A.A. Gromyko and the Western political elite were compared. For the first time in historiography, the thesis about a real possibility of dialogue between the USSR and the United States on the legal formalization of the status of the great powers was presented. The author recommends taking into account the proposals of A.A. Gromyko in the modern system of international relations. The sources of the article are published documents of the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, the use of which can be explained methodologically. It was important for the author to conduct the analysis on the basis of the foreign partners' assessment of the statements made by the Soviet Foreign Minister during official negotiations (outer reflection). The author's reasoning should be understood in the context of his earlier article in the journal.