With his neatly trimmed mustache, pursed lips and pince-nez spectacles, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov seemed the embodiment of "the best filing clerk in Russia," as Revolutionary Leader Vladimir Lenin once called him. But his bland appearance, which led one British diplomat to compare him to a "refrigerator when the lights have gone out," was deceptive. In a political and diplomatic career that spanned the first four decades of Soviet history, Molotov earned the sobriquets "Old Stone Bottom" and "Mr. Iron Pants" from those who witnessed his legendary staying power at the negotiating table. Before his death at age 96, the loyal lieutenant...
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