Arrangements for a visit by a group of US Senators, led by Joseph Biden (Dem.-Delaware) to the USSR between 25 and 30 August [Russian: 24 August 1979, St 173-49], total 4 pp.

NB — This is the only text about the 46th US President in Vladimir Bukovsky’s archive, i.e. the documents he found and copied in 1992 in the CPSU Central Committee archive in Moscow (see “Night of the Looters“).

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[page one of four]

Workers of all Lands, Unite!

COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION. CENTRAL COMMITTEE

[Text along left-hand margin]

Must be returned to CPSU Central Committee (General Department, sector 2)
within 15 days of receipt (Secretariat decision of 17 June 1976, Minutes No 12, item 4s)

TOP SECRET

St-173/49gs, 24 August 1979

Excerpt from Minute No. 173/49gs of the Central Committee Secretariat

Concerning measures to be taken in connection with the visit to the Soviet Union of a group of US senators, led by J. Biden.

1. Give general approval to the programme of the visit to the USSR of the group of US senators led by J. Biden (attached).

2. Instruct the Moscow Party Committee and the Leningrad Region Party committee to ensure that the visit of the group of US senators is organised in accordance with the programme.

3. Instruct TASS, APN, the newspapers Pravda and Izvestiya and the USSR State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting to cover the visit of the group of US senators to the USSR.

4. Permit the group of US senators to fly to the Soviet Union on their special American plane from Brussels to Leningrad, for the said airplane to fly from Leningrad to Moscow, and then leave the USSR according to an established route with an accompanying Soviet crew.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation is to oversee the flights and technical servicing and security of the American plane.

Expenses incurred by the flight of the American plane across Soviet territory, and payment for hotel accommodation and board for members of the crew, will be borne by the American side.

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[page two]

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5. In Moscow the group of US senators and those accompanying them will be accommodated at the Sovetskaya Hotel.

6. Costs arising from the visit to the USSR of the group of US senators, including the acquisition of printed matter and commemorative souvenirs and also the preparation of photographs of the group’s visit to the USSR, will be covered by the reserve fund of the USSR Council of Ministers.

Motor transport for the group of senators will be provided by the Soviet side, but the cost of hotel rooms and food in Leningrad and Moscow will be paid by the American side.

Central Committee Secretary

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[pages three and four]

PROGRAMME

Of the visit of a group of US senators headed by J. Biden to the USSR (25-30 August 1979)

Leningrad — 25-27 August

Moscow — 27-30 August

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NOTES

Joseph R. Biden (b. 1942) represented Delaware in the US Senate from 1973 to 2009. He was vice-president under Barack Obama between 2009 and 2017.

In October 2008 the Frontpage magazine published an article on “Biden’s Secret Diplomacy“, claiming that he had made dismissive remarks about Soviet dissidents thirty years earlier during an official visit to the USSR. A close and critical reading of that text leaves uncertainty about the source for this assertion.

General

1. Notes and additions by translator and editor are bracketed, thus [ ];
2. Text added by hand is indicated in italic script;
3. when a handwritten phrase, figure or word has been added
to a previously typed document it is indicated by underlined italic script.

Translation, John Crowfoot