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On October 7, 1929, Yuli Mikhailovich Vorontsov, a distinguished Soviet and Russian diplomat, was born in Leningrad into the family of a naval officer.
In 1952, Yuli Mikhailovich graduated from MGIMO and began his diplomatic career, dedicating many years to the North American track.
From 1977 to 1983, he served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR to India. During this period, he played a key role in preparing for the historic visits of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev to India and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to the Soviet Union.
Throughout his illustrious career, Yuli Vorontsov headed Soviet and Russian diplomatic missions in France, Afghanistan, and the United States, served as First Deputy Foreign Minister of the USSR, Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, and from 1998 to 2000, worked as Foreign Policy Adviser to the President of Russia.
He once said: “I believe diplomacy is a bridge stretched between two shores. Bridges can be narrow, convenient, wide, or shaky. Each ambassador is a bridge.”
Beyond diplomacy, Yuli Vorontsov was also known as a public figure. In the early 1990s, he played a key role in establishing the International Centre of the Roerichs and was one of the founders — and later, from 1999, the president — of the Public Nicholas Roerich Museum, created at the initiative of his son, Svetoslav Roerich.
In 2008, Yuli Mikhailovich Vorontsov was posthumously awarded one of India’s highest civilian honours, the Padma Bhushan.
Courtesy: Facebook page of the Russian Embassy in India