Vladimir Stepanov (politician)

Vladimir Sevastyanovich Stepanov (Russian: Владимир Севастьянович Степанов; 21 March 1927 – 14 June 2022) was a Soviet diplomat and intelligence officer. He served as ambassador to Finland from December 1973 to June 1979.[2]

Vladimir Sevastyanovich Stepanov
Владимир Севастьянович Степанов
First Secretary of the Karelian Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office
18 April 1984 – 30 November 1989
Ambassador of the Soviet Union to Finland
In office
27 December 1973 – 11 June 1979
Preceded byViktor Maltsev
Succeeded byVladimir Sobolev
Personal details
Born(1927-03-21)21 March 1927
Kovgora, Kondopozhsky District, Karelian ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died14 June 2022(2022-06-14) (aged 95)
AwardsOrder of Lenin
Order of the Red Banner
Grand Cross of the White Rose of Finland[1]

Biography

Vladimir Stepanov was born in 1927 in Kovgora, Kondopozhsky District, to a Karelian family. He spoke Finnish with a strong Karelian accent. He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1950. In 1952 he was elected secretary of the regional Central Committee of Komsomol in Karelia.[1]

From 1963 he was on the staff of the Soviet embassy in Helsinki and was appointed ambassador ten years later. Stepanov was fired in 1979 after a controversial article published in Pravda during the 1979 Finnish parliamentary election. The National Coalition Party was branded by Soviet government newspaper as "unreliable" in foreign policy. This was considered interference in the internal affairs of Finland.[3] Past Finnish foreign minister Keijo Korhonen named Stepanov the "worst enemy of Finland's neutrality".[4]

After returning to the USSR, Stepanov was appointed first vice-premier of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. He was one of the initiators of the Soviet-Finnish Kostomuksha mine project in the north of Karelia. From 1984 Stepanov served as the first secretary of the Karelian Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[1] In 1984 he was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, and from 1986 to 1990 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[5] After his retirement in 1989 he resided in Moscow.[6][7]

Stepanov died on 14 June 2022 at the age of 95.[5] He was buried in the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery on 17 June 2022.[8]

References
  1. "Дипломат и первый секретарь". Republic of Karelia. Official website (in Russian). 22 March 2012. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017.
  2. "Сп - Ся - Свод персоналий". Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  3. Jakobson, Max (1992). Vallanvaihto. Havaintoja ja muistiinpanoja vuosilta 1974−92 (in Finnish). Helsinki: Otava. p. 208. ISBN 951-1-12288-6.
  4. Korhonen, Keijo (1999). Sattumakorpraali (in Finnish). Helsinki: Otava. pp. 102–121. ISBN 951-1-15315-3.
  5. "О кончине В.С.Степанова" (in Russian). Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 14 June 2022. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  6. "Владимир Степанов: Не хочу участвовать в развале государства". PTZ Govorit (in Russian). 21 March 2017.
  7. "Stepanov - Kekkosen paras kaveri?". Yle Elävä Arkisto (in Finnish). 30 January 2014.
  8. "Скончался уроженец Карелии, Чрезвычайный и Полномочный посол СССР Владимир Степанов". karelia.ru (in Russian). 14 June 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
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