Leonid Zamyatin

File:Leonid Mitrofanovich Zamyatin.jpg

Leonid Mitrofanovich Zamyatin ({{langx|ru|Леонид Митрофанович Замятин}}; 9 March 1922 – 19 June 2019) was a Soviet ambassador and diplomat.{{cite web|url=http://www.kommersant.com/p572821/r_1/%E2%80%9CThatcher_had_a_Definite_Womanish_Feeling_towards_Gorbachev%E2%80%9D/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303212355/http://www.kommersant.com/p572821/r_1/%E2%80%9CThatcher_had_a_Definite_Womanish_Feeling_towards_Gorbachev%E2%80%9D/|archive-date=3 March 2016|title=Thatcher had a Definite Womanish Feeling towards Gorbachev|work=Kommersant|date=4 May 2005}} Interview with Zamyatin by Marina Kalashnikova.

Biography

He graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute, and worked as a diplomat from 1946. He became an adviser to the Soviet delegation at the United Nations, and a permanent representative of the Soviet Union on the IAEA Board of Governors. From 1962 to 1970, he served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, becoming head of the press department. From 1970 to 1978, he was director general of TASS, the official news agency of the Soviet Union. He was Chairman of the International Information Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1978 to 1986.{{Cite news |first=Craig R. |last= Whitney|title= Soviet Envoy Who Knows How to Please|url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE4DC1431F935A35757C0A96F948260&sec=&spon=|work=The New York Times |date= 6 April 1989|accessdate=24 August 2017}} In 1986, he was appointed the Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was forced to resign his ambassadorship after his refusal to condemn the 1991 August coup against Mikhail Gorbachev.{{Cite news |agency=Associated Press|title=Soviet Turmoil: Moscow Calls 6 Envoys Home|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE1DA1431F934A3575AC0A967958260|work=The New York Times |date=7 September 1991|accessdate=24 August 2017}}