Gromyko was born in Barysaw, in the Byelorussian SSR of the Soviet Union, in 1932, and between 1939 and 1948 lived in the United States, where his father Andrei Gromyko worked as the Soviet ambassador and representative in the United Nations.

In 1954, he graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations,[2] and between 1961 and 1965 worked at the Soviet Embassy to the United Kingdom.

He then returned to diplomacy and acted as the Soviet deputy ambassador in the United States (1973–1974) and East Germany (1974–1975).

From 2010 on, he lectured at the Institute of International Security and at the Moscow State University.

In 1981, he was elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences where he curated African studies.