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Bezig met laden... The Soviet Ambassador: The Making of the Radical Behind Perestroikadoor Christopher Shulgan
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Few 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. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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 Google Books — Bezig met laden...GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)947.085History and Geography Europe Russia and eastern Europe [and formerly Finland] Russian & Slavic History by Period 1855- 1953-1991LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde: (4.5)
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I was both impressed and disappointed by "The Soviet Ambassador." On the one hand, Christopher Shulgan has written a well-timed biography about an under-analyzed figure of the late Soviet era in Aleksandr Yakovlev. However, on the other hand, the background context that Shulgan provides is incomplete and therefore the result is an oversimplified analysis.
The book is roughly divided into three parts; the events surrounding the putsch in 1991; Yakovlev's childhood and rise through the Communist Party; and finally his years as the USSR's Ambassador to Canada. All the parts regarding Yakovlev's biography are very well done, well-researched and well-written. Yakovlev's service during the Great Patriotic War, his short time at Columbia university, and the many years in Canada during the Trudeau years. Most interesting were Yakovlev's intimate relationships with the many government and corporate representatives including a McDonald's executive whose ambitious plan to start a franchise in Moscow with the help of Yakovlev. Clearly, as Shulgan shows, Yakovlev was deeply influenced by his time in Canada, his ideas for Perestroika and Glasnost directly reflected.
Some of the historical context for the events surrounding the 1991 putsch attempt, the rise of Gorbachev and the development of Perestroika and Glastnost are incomplete and oversimplified. For example, the biggest mistake the KGB made during the 1991 putsch was that they didn't arrest Yeltsin right away and allowed him to rally his supporters. That is why the soldiers decided to obey Yeltsin instead of the KGB, something that Shulgan omits from his narrative. In Shulgan's discussion on Khrushchev, he fails to point out the main reason why he was ousted: Khrushchev tried to implement term limits which angered many senior apparatchik. This, and not the Cuban missile crisis, Novocharkassk, or the failed Virgin Land Campaigns was the result of his downfall.
In his epilogue discussing the Gorbachev years, Shulgan implies that Perestroika and Glasnost were Gorbachev's plan from the first day he came to office. That is simply not the case, Gorbachev was very puritanical in his approach from the beginning. It was only when his orthodox approach failed, mostly due to the collapse of oil prices in the mid-80's when he announced the reforms.
In doing so, Shulgan falls into the trap of most who hold Gorbachev in such high regard. Perestroika was doomed to fail from the start, when you consider that the CPSU was paradoxically both the initiator and the object of Perestroika. As Stephen Kotkin shows in "Armageddon Averted," Gorbachev's vision was simply too idealistic to be implemented in reality. Yakovlev observed Canada's free elections, open and transparent democracy, but didn't realize that it was the existence of liberal institutions which allowed for it to work, that which the USSR did not have.
Despite some of the contextual issues, I still think "The Soviet Ambassador" is a good book. Viewing Canada from a different perspective is interesting in itself, and therefore worth reading if just for all the great insight into Yakovlev's years in Canada and looking past some of the flawed background analysis. (