The Soviet Ambassador: The Making of the Radical Behind PerestroikaFew realize that behind Mikhail Gorbachev’s Cold War-ending perestroika reforms stood an owlish figure who was just as important as the Soviet leader himself. Fewer still know the role Canada played in transforming Gorbachev’s advisor from a devout Stalinist to the most potent force for democracy and justice ever to walk the halls of the Kremlin. His name was Aleksandr Yakovlev. Today in an increasingly autocratic Russia he’s reviled as the man who brought down the Soviet empire–the "architect" of perestroika and the "godfather" of glasnost, who, some say, was the puppetmaster manipulating Gorbachev’s strings. Yakovlev is acknowledged to have devised the strategy that won Gorbachev the job of Soviet leader. After the Soviet collapse, Yakovlev was the only other man present as Gorbachev negotiated his transfer of power to Russian president Boris Yeltsin. In between, Yakovlev was behind every democratic measure Gorbachev instituted, leading the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Remnick to dub him "Gorbachev’s good angel." His origins were anything but democratic. As a youth, Yakovlev was a faithful Communist who idolized Stalin. By 1970 he had ascended to a position that controlled every media outlet in the Soviet Union, requiring him to plot repressive strategies against such dissidents as Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov But then a mis-step caused the Party to banish him from Moscow. A disgraced Yakovlev landed in the Cold War backwater of Ottawa working as the Soviet ambassador to Canada. His career should have been over. But Yakovlev’s diplomatic posting functioned as an education in Western democracy. He grew fascinated with elections, attended trials and became an expert in the machinations of a market economy. He also developed a close friendship with Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who helped arrange to bring Mikhail Gorbachev on his first visit to North America. It was in Canada that Gorbachev and Yakovlev struck up their friendship as they strategized for the first time the radical changes known as perestroika. Drawing on interviews with Yakovlev’s family and dozens of his friends, as well as never-before-disclosed archival research material, The Soviet Ambassador recounts Yakovlev’s tortuous evolution from Stalin’s acolyte to Stalinism’s nemesis, from faithful member of the Communist Party to liberal democrat engineering the same Party’s collapse. With profound implications for diplomacy in a conflict-driven age, Yakovlev’s story is also a remarkable testament to the power of conviction, and an inspiring account of an underdog overcoming injustice to improve the lives of his fellow citizens. |
Contents
The Target | 3 |
The Traitor | 6 |
The Doomsayer | 12 |
The Putsch | 18 |
PART TWO Questions | 23 |
The Blow that Exploded My Head | 25 |
The Secret Speech | 38 |
The Paranoid Style | 50 |
AFTERWORD | 277 |
The Liberated | 279 |
Notes | 282 |
Bibliography Interviews | 291 |
Acknowledgements Index 3620 12 | 302 |
18 | 303 |
25 | 304 |
38 | 305 |
8 | 55 |
Power Struggle | 70 |
Iron Shurik | 78 |
A Fist to the | 90 |
One Tragedy Like Any Other | 99 |
Inspiration from America | 107 |
Acting Chief of AgitProp | 116 |
PART THREE Answers | 139 |
The Reluctant Diplomat | 141 |
The New Canada | 158 |
Throwing Snowballs at Lenins Tomb | 168 |
A Time of Rest and Many Thoughts | 187 |
War Minus the Shooting | 194 |
Persona Non Grata | 206 |
Killing Time | 226 |
Misha in the Other World | 246 |
70 | 307 |
78 | 311 |
90 | 314 |
107 | 315 |
116 | 319 |
141 | 322 |
158 | 324 |
168 | 326 |
187 | 329 |
194 | 330 |
206 | 332 |
226 | 333 |
229 | 334 |
299 | 342 |
Other editions - View all
The Soviet Ambassador: The Making of the Radical Behind Perestroika Christopher Shulgan Limited preview - 2009 |
The Soviet Ambassador: The Making of the Radical Behind Perestroika Christopher Shulgan No preview available - 2008 |
The Soviet Ambassador: The Making of the Radical Behind Perestroika Christopher Shulgan No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
Aleksandr Yakovlev American Anatoly Yakovlev Andropov Arbatov asked Brezhnev bureaucrats Canada Canadian Canadian government Central Committee Cohon Cold Cold War Columbia Communist Party context criticism Czechoslovakia December democracy democratic diplomatic Doukhobors embassy essay Eugene Whelan External Affairs Fonda foreign George Cohon glasnost Golikov Gorbachev Gotlieb Graham happened intelligentsia interview Ivan Head Kalugin Khrushchev Kryuchkov LAC RG25 later leader Lenin's meeting memo memoirs Mikhail missiles Montreal Moscow Mounties Nemtsanov newspaper Nina Novy Novy Mir nuclear official Oleg Kalugin Olympic Ottawa party member Party's perestroika Politburo political Prague Spring prime minister propaganda protesters radical nationalists RCMP Reagan reform RG25 vol Russian secret secretary seemed Shelepin Solyanik Solzhenitsyn Soviet ambassador Soviet citizens Soviet Union speech Stalin Stalinist Sumerki Suslov thought tion told Toronto trip Trudeau Tvardovsky USSR wanted West Western Whelan writers Yakovlev wrote Yaroslavl Yeltsin York