Valentin Berezhkov

Valentin Mikhailovich Berezhkov (2 July 1916 – 20 November 1998) was a Soviet diplomat, translator, interpreter, and journalist who served as the personal translator-referent to Joseph Stalin and Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov during key World War II conferences, most notably at Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945). After the war, he transitioned to journalism, becoming deputy chief editor of The New Times, and later the founding editor of USA , Economics, Politics, Ideology. Berezhkov returned to diplomacy in the 1970's as the First Secretary at the Soviet Embassy in Washington. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he moved to the United States, where he taught on Russian American affairs at institutions including Stanford University and Occidental College. In 1992, he went to work at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, serving there until his death several years later. He published several memoirs, including At Stalin's Side, and died in Claremont, California, in 1998.