The late Jyotindra Nath Dixit (Mani Dixit to his many friends and admirers) took over as Foreign Secretary on December 1, 1991. He retired 26 months later, on January 31, 1994 — 58 years was then the retirement age.
Republics and Moscow
Those were times of change. On December 25, 1991, Soviet Union’s General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, the flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was lowered for the last time at the Kremlin and the following day, the USSR was formally dissolved. In its place, 15 republics emerged. India accepted the challenge and set about opening new embassies to build new relationships with these countries in Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Central Europe while maintaining its traditional ties with Moscow.
