Andrei Gromyko has held high office in the Soviet government for more than 50 years, serving under every leader from Stalin to Gorbachev. As his country's Foreign Minister, he met and negotiated with almost every world leader. His memoirs describe the intrigues of power-politics behind the scenes in the Kremlin, and the characters and events which have dominated his political life. They provide unprecented insight into half a century of Soviet and world politics. We learn of Gromyko's upbringing in a small village far from the main cities, of his academic prominence and courtship of his wife, Lidia Grinevich. We see him, already in 1939, as ambassador to Washington, then in Yalta alongside Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt. The book provides portraits of all his leading political contemporaries, and revelations, such as the time Chairman Mao asked for Soviet support for an atomic bombing of American forces.