Vladimir Stepanov (diplomat)

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

Vladimir Stepanov
Владимир Степанов
First Secretary of the Karelian Regional Committee of the CPSU
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, Soviet Union
AwardsOrder of Lenin
Order of the Red Banner
Grand Cross of the White Rose of Finland[1]

Vladimir Stepanov was born in 1927 in Kovgora, Kondopozhsky District to a Karelian family. 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 in 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] Former 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 Soviet Communist party.[1] After retirement in 1989 he resides in Moscow.[5][6]

References
  1. "Дипломат и первый секретарь". Republic of Karelia. Official website (in Russian). 2012-03-22. Archived from the original on 2017-07-01.
  2. "Сп - Ся - Свод персоналий". Retrieved June 10, 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. p. 102-121. ISBN 951-1-15315-3.
  5. "Владимир Степанов: Не хочу участвовать в развале государства". PTZ Govorit (in Russian). 2017-03-21.
  6. "Stepanov - Kekkosen paras kaveri?". Yle Elävä Arkisto (in Finnish). 2014-01-30.
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