Mikhail Smirnovsky

{{Short description|Soviet diplomat (1921–1989)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Mikhail Smirnovsky

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1921|8|7}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1989|6|9|1921|8|7}}

| death_place = Moscow, Soviet Union

| image = Michael Smirnovsky (1971).jpg

| office = Ambassador to the United Kingdom

| term_start = 25 January 1966

| term_end = 27 April 1973

| predecessor = Aleksandr Soldatov

| successor = Nikolai Lunkov

| office2 = Ambassador to Malta

| termstart2 = 30 October 1967

| termend2 = 12 May 1973

| successor2 = Nikolai Lunkov

| predecessor2 = Position established

| party = CPSU

}}

Mikhail Nikolayevich Smirnovsky ({{Langx|ru|Михаил Николаевич Смирновский|links=no}}; 7 August 1921 – 9 June 1989) was a Soviet diplomat and a specialist in Soviet relations with English-speaking countries. He was first secretary of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C. in 1953, and served a second time in Washington as the minister-counselor and second-ranking officer of the Embassy at the beginning of the 1960s. Around 1963, Smirnovsky returned to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, where he was chief of the USA section of the Ministry. In 1966, he became Soviet Ambassador to the United Kingdom (with concurrent accreditation in Malta starting in 1967), where he served until 1973.{{cite news|url=http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//RTV/1966/02/08/BGY506030155/?s=mikhail|title=U.K.: GREAT BRITAIN: ARRIVAL OF MR. SMIRNOVSKY, NEW SOVIET AMBASSADOR.|agency=Reuters|date=8 February 1966|publisher=BBC|accessdate=16 December 2012}}{{cite news|url=http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2011-07-31/news/series-of-talks-on-maltas-relations-with-other-states-exploring-the-links-and-relationship-between-malta-and-russia-296461/|title=Series of talks on Malta’s relations with other states – Exploring the links and relationship between Malta and Russia |date=31 July 2011|work=The Malta Independent|accessdate=16 December 2012}}{{cite news|title=FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE|date=10 July 1973|work=The London Gazette|pages=7969–7970}} It is believed that he was later, in Moscow, a member of the Foreign Ministry's Collegium, understood to have been an advisory group of senior officers. He played in US-Soviet relations at critical times, including the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} Smirnovsky was viewed by American colleagues as an efficient, businesslike diplomat who, in contrast to many other Soviet officials, eschewed rudeness and avoided unnecessary exaggeration.{{citation needed|date=December 2012}}