In chapter
The sensational confession of the former head of the international department of the CPSU Central Committee, Valentin Falin, about the betrayal of the “architect of perestroika” Alexander Yakovlev, heard last week, once again forced people to talk about the controversial figure of the main ideologist of the USSR and his role in the collapse of the country. Meanwhile, there is reason to believe that, in contacting with representatives of foreign intelligence services, he only carried out the will of the highest leaders of the Soviet state - first Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev, and then Mikhail Gorbachev.
First, a few words about what Alexander Yakovlev is actually famous for. He is called the “Architect of Perestroika” for a reason: it was Yakovlev who headed the commission at the 19th All-Union Party Conference that prepared the famous resolution “On Glasnost.” It was Yakovlev who was behind the sudden appearance of the “national liberation movement” in the Baltic states, which began the collapse of the USSR. In the summer of 1988, he went on visits to Riga and Vilnius, but there he met not so much with the leadership of the republics, but with the local university front. And in October of the same year, the Popular Front of Estonia, then the Popular Front of Latvia and the Lithuanian “Sąjūdis” simultaneously appeared on the political scene. It is Yakovlev who initiates the rewriting of modern history - he authored a scandalous report on the consequences of the signing of the Non-Aggression Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in 1939 (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact). The report was heard at the Second Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR in December 1989, despite the fact that the speaker never presented the “secret protocols to the pact” on the basis of which Yakovlev made his conclusions. They appeared only in 1992 and, according to historians, are nothing more than a hastily concocted fake. But at the same time, Yakovlev is making titanic efforts to build bridges between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Soviet state. It was he who contributed to the return of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, Optina Hermitage and several monasteries to the Russian Orthodox Church. And in December 1991, Yakovlev unexpectedly opposed the signing of the Belovezhskaya Accords. So who exactly was he, this “architect of perestroika”?
Fulfilling Brezhnev's instructions, Yakovlev comes into contact with the British Foreign Office, and the head of the Soviet trade union delegation in Great Britain is unexpectedly met with mass protest demonstrations.In 1973, Yakovlev left for Canada and was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. And soon information arrives in Moscow: the ambassador is “in the pocket of the Americans.” According to Valentin Falin, “Yakovlev fell into the snare of the American intelligence services” much earlier - “during an internship at Columbia University in the USA.”
For a long time, no one could prove the fact of his cooperation with the Americans. And when this fact seemed to be established, they still did not arrest him - “for some reason, Andropov (at that time the chairman of the KGB of the USSR) ordered that Yakovlev be closely monitored, and, if the opportunity arises, recalled from Canada, but to the Central Committee apparatus , where he previously worked, should not be allowed in.” Yakovlev returned from Canada only in 1983, and he was indeed not allowed into the Central Committee apparatus - the same Andropov, already being Secretary General, assigned him to the post of director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. But why? If the fact of cooperation with American intelligence services was established, then Yakovlev should have been assigned to a completely different place, much less comfortable. Valentin Falin believes that at that time Andropov still did not have enough evidence: “Already under Gorbachev, the KGB received documentary evidence of data compromising Yakovlev. I know about this from Vladimir Kryuchkov, who was instructed to meet with the defendant, outline the essence of the reports and see what the reaction would be. Yakovlev, according to Kryuchkov, did not utter a word and the question of what to report to the Secretary General was passed over in silence. After listening to Kryuchkov’s report, Gorbachev asked and answered himself: “Is Yakovlev a useful person for perestroika? If it is useful, then we will forgive it. Who didn’t have sins in their youth?!”
On this topic
New details have emerged about the situation with football player Alexander Kokorin. His agent recalled the current contract with Zenit and denied the report that the athlete would train with the reserve team of the St. Petersburg team.
And here’s what Vladimir Kryuchkov himself said about this: “I began to receive materials on Yakovlev that he had very unkind contacts... with someone. However, he was a member of the Politburo, and we had no right to double-check this literally stunning information. The situation was complicated by the fact that Yakovlev’s old connections suddenly and very seriously began to be confirmed.”
As a student at the Academy of Social Sciences, in 1957, as a student exchange student, the future “architect of perestroika” was sent for an internship at Columbia University. There he, according to Kryuchkov, “was noticed in establishing relations with American intelligence services. However, then he managed to present the matter as if he had done this in an effort to use the opportunity that had arisen to get materials important for the USSR from a closed library.”
Another KGB chairman, Viktor Chebrikov, recalled how Andropov once showed him a memorandum with which he went to Brezhnev. The note stated that Yakovlev spends much more money than he receives, moreover, the ambassador’s expenses are many times greater than the size of his representative fund, so “by all indications, he is an agent of American intelligence.”
Brezhnev read the report and told Andropov: “A member of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU Central Committee cannot be a traitor.” And Andropov tore up the note. So, maybe the leaders of the state knew something about Yakovlev that only they could know? It is not for nothing that later Andropov himself, having headed the Soviet Union, not only did not send Yakovlev to jail as a traitor to the Motherland, but also appointed him to a very responsible post in the institute, which was considered basic for domestic intelligence (Yakovlev’s successor in the director’s chair was none other than future head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Yevgeny Primakov).
In the 60–70s, the so-called behind-the-scenes diplomacy began to take shape in the USSR and the USA. Its representatives carried out delicate instructions from state leaders, building bridges at the highest level. A prominent representative of this “behind-the-scenes diplomacy” was former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, whom Washington “hawks” even accused of spying for Moscow. As did Yakovleva - the KGB chairmen Chebrikov, Andropov and Kryuchkov. Perhaps Alexander Yakovlev was a kind of “Kissinger in reverse.” This version is supported by one story that Pyotr Shelest, a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, once told the author of this material.
In 1975, the head of Soviet trade unions, Alexander Shelepin, was scheduled to visit London on an official visit. By that time, the confrontation between him and Brezhnev had reached its climax. It must be said that at one time Shelepin and Brezhnev competed quite fiercely in the struggle for the position of Secretary General after Khrushchev’s resignation. Shelepin lost the fight, but almost did not lose his position in power: although he ceased to be the secretary of the Central Committee, he remained a member of the Politburo. In addition, he led trade unions, that is, he had a well-known financial and human resource. Brezhnev dreamed of getting rid of Shelepin, but there was no formal opportunity for him to do this.
And so, on the eve of his visit to London, Brezhnev asks Alexander Yakovlev to provide him with a certain favor. Although earlier, during the visits of Soviet leaders, it was quiet and quiet. Thus, Yakovlev managed to provoke an international scandal, Shelepin was removed from the Politburo of the Central Committee and deprived of his post in the trade unions. Brezhnev eliminated his longtime rival, whom he called only Iron Shurik.
In fact, the memorable conversation between Andropov and Brezhnev, during which the KGB chairman tore up the memo, took place after Shelepin’s resignation. The day before, a rare scandal at that time occurred at the Soviet embassy in Canada: 17 employees were simultaneously expelled for activities incompatible with the status of a diplomat. And at the Politburo, Andropov made another attempt to expose Yakovlev, first by removing him from his post as not being able to do his job. But the “gray eminence” of the party, Mikhail Suslov, unexpectedly stood up for the ambassador to Canada: “But the KGB did not appoint Comrade Yakovlev as ambassador,” he told Andropov. By the way, until the end of his days, the ardent anti-Soviet Yakovlev considered Mikhail Suslov, a communist to the core, an ideal state leader, which he admitted more than once.
But, as it turns out, the removal of Shelepin with the help of the British Foreign Ministry was by no means Yakovlev’s only secret mission. For example, none other than the future “architect of perestroika” provided, as they would now put it, “positive PR” for the removal of Nikita Khrushchev from the highest government post. Carrying out a personal order from Brezhnev, Yakovlev informed a number of Western ambassadors that Khrushchev was allegedly going to remove the provision on voluntary withdrawal from the Union of Republics from the USSR Constitution. He presented the then annexation of the Karelo-Finnish SSR to the Russian Federation as the beginning of the “centralization” of the Union. Meanwhile, in the West, already at that time they were planning to collapse the Soviet Union through the withdrawal of the union republics from it. So the sudden removal of the “centralizer” Khrushchev did not cause unnecessary foreign resonance.
Perhaps it is premature to assess the role of Alexander Yakovlev in modern history - thousands of pages of secret archives are waiting in the wings. Today one thing can be said: the role of the “architect of perestroika” in Soviet history was not at all as clear as both Alexander Yakovlev’s enemies and his supporters imagine it to be.
Born on December 2, 1923 in the village of Korolev, Yaroslavl region, into a poor peasant family. Father - Yakovlev Nikolai Alekseevich, mother - Yakovleva Agafya Mikhailovna (nee Lyapushkina). During the Great Patriotic War he fought on the Volkhov Front, where he commanded a platoon as part of the 6th Separate Marine Brigade (1941–1943), and was seriously wounded. In 1943 he joined the CPSU. In 1946 he graduated from the history department of the Yaroslavl State Pedagogical Institute named after. K.D. Ushinsky. In parallel with his studies, he headed the department of military physical training. For a year he studied in Moscow at the Higher Party School under the CPSU Central Committee. From 1948 he worked for the newspaper “Severny Rabochiy”, from 1950 to 1953 – head of the Department of Schools and Higher Educational Institutions of the Yaroslavl Regional Committee of the CPSU.
From 1953 to 1956 - instructor in the apparatus of the CPSU Central Committee. After the 20th Congress of the CPSU, he attended graduate school at the Academy of Social Sciences under the CPSU Central Committee. In 1958–1959 Trained at Columbia University (USA). Then again at work in the CPSU Central Committee - instructor, head of the sector, from 1965 - deputy head of the propaganda department, from 1969 to 1973. for four years he served as acting head of the department.
In 1960 he defended his candidate's dissertation and in 1967 his doctoral dissertation on the historiography of US foreign policy doctrines.
In November 1972, he published an article “Against Anti-Historicism” in Literaturnaya Gazeta, which contained criticism of nationalism and caused a wide public outcry. In 1973, he was sent as the USSR Ambassador to Canada, where he stayed for 10 years. In 1983, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Gorbachev, after his trip to Canada, insisted on his return to Moscow. From 1983 to 1985 he worked as director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1984 he was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In the summer of 1985, he was appointed head of the propaganda department of the CPSU Central Committee. In 1986, he was elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee, secretary of the Central Committee, and was responsible for issues of ideology, information and culture. At the January (1987) plenum of the CPSU Central Committee he was elected a candidate member of the Politburo, at the June (1987) plenum - a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Since September 1987, member of the Politburo Commission, and since October 1988, chairman of the Politburo Commission of the Central Committee for additional study of materials related to the repressions of the 1930s–1940s and early 1950s.
In March 1988, the newspaper “Soviet Russia” signed by Nina Andreeva published a letter “I cannot give up principles,” which was perceived by wide circles of the public as a signal for the restoration of Stalinism. By decision of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, Yakovlev organized the preparation of an editorial in the newspaper Pravda (published on April 5, 1988), which confirmed the CPSU's policy of perestroika.
At the XIX All-Union Party Conference (1988), a Commission was created to prepare a resolution on glasnost, headed by A.N. Yakovlev, who presented a document that consolidated the gains of perestroika in the field of freedom of speech. At the September (1988) plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, the responsibilities of the secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee were redistributed, and Yakovlev became chairman of the CPSU Central Committee Commission on International Politics.
In the spring of 1989 A.N. Yakovlev was elected People's Deputy of the USSR from the CPSU. At the Second Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR in December 1989, he made a report on the consequences of the signing in 1939 of the Non-Aggression Treaty between the USSR and Germany (“Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact”) and the secret protocols to it. The congress adopted a resolution recognizing the existence of secret protocols to the pact and condemning their signing.
From March 1990 to January 1991, member of the USSR Presidential Council. The day after his appointment to this post, he submitted a letter of resignation from the governing bodies of the CPSU Central Committee, but until the 28th Party Congress he continued to serve as Secretary of the Central Committee and member of the Politburo.
In 1984 he was elected a corresponding member, in 1990 - a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
After the dissolution of the Presidential Council, he was appointed to the post of senior adviser to the President of the USSR. Resigned from this post on July 27, 1991.
July 2, 1991, together with A.I. Volsky, N.Ya. Petrakov, G.Kh. Popov, A.A. Sobchak, I.S. Silaev, S.S. Shatalin, E.A. Shevardnadze, A.V. Rutskoy Yakovlev signed an appeal to create the Movement of Democratic Reforms (DDR), and then joined its Political Council.
On August 15, 1991, the Central Control Commission of the CPSU recommended that Yakovlev be expelled from the ranks of the CPSU for speeches and actions aimed at splitting the party. On August 16, 1991, Yakovlev announced his resignation from the party.
On August 20, 1991, he spoke at a rally near the Moscow City Council building in support of the legitimate government, against the rebellion of the State Emergency Committee. At the end of September 1991, he was appointed adviser on special assignments and member of the Political Advisory Council under the President of the USSR.
In mid-December 1991, at the Founding Congress of the Democratic Reform Movement, he was elected one of the co-chairs of the DDR.
At the end of December 1991, he was present at the transfer of power from the President of the USSR M.S. Gorbachev to the President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin.
Since January 1992, he served as vice-president of the Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Science Research (Gorbachev Foundation).
At the end of 1992, he was appointed chairman of the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for the rehabilitation of victims of political repression. The former commission under the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, which was also headed by Yakovlev, was limited in its activities to the study of political processes of the 1930–1950s. This time, the entire period of Soviet power was subject to investigation into the circumstances and policies of repression. During the work of the Politburo Commission of the Central Committee and the Commission under the President of Russia, more than four million citizens - victims of political repression - were rehabilitated.
At the same time, during 1993–1995, in accordance with the decree of the President of Russia, A.N. Yakovlev headed the Federal Television and Radio Broadcasting Service and the State Television and Radio Company Ostankino.
Yakovlev was given the titles of “architect of perestroika” and “father of glasnost”. From the very beginning of perestroika, Alexander Nikolaevich became the main target of chauvinist and Stalinist forces. Former KGB chairman, organizer of the 1991 rebellion V.A. Kryuchkov accused him of having connections with Western intelligence services. At Yakovlev's request, this accusation was investigated by the Prosecutor General's Office, which established that Kryuchkov's allegations were groundless.
In addition to working on the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for the rehabilitation of victims of political repression, Yakovlev was chairman of the Public Council of the newspaper “Culture”, honorary chairman of the Board of Directors of Public Russian Television (ORT) and co-chairman of the Congress of the Russian Intelligentsia. He headed the International Foundation for Democracy (Alexander N. Yakovlev Foundation), the International Foundation for Charity and Health and the Leonardo Club (Russia).
In 1995 he organized the Russian Party of Social Democracy (RPSD).
In 1996, he made an appeal to the Russian and world public about the need to try Bolshevism and investigate Lenin-Stalin crimes.
Yakovlev is the author of 25 books translated into English, Chinese, Latvian, German, Spanish, French, Czech, Japanese and other languages. After the start of perestroika, he published such books as “Realism - the land of perestroika”, “The agony of reading existence”, “Preface. Collapse. Afterword”, “Bitter Chalice”, “By Relics and Oils”, “Comprehension”, “Sev of the Cross”, memoirs “Pool of Memory”, “Twilight” as well as dozens of articles and hundreds of interviews. Under his editorship, a multi-volume publication “Russia. XX century Documents”, in which previously unknown documents of Soviet history were published for the first time.
A.N. Yakovlev was a member of the Moscow Writers' Union, was awarded an honorary doctorate from Durham and Exeter Universities (UK), Soka University (Japan), and was awarded an honorary Silver Medal from Charles University in Prague for scientific achievements.
A.N. Yakovlev was awarded the Order of the October Revolution, the Red Banner, the Red Star, the Patriotic War, 1st degree, Friendship of Peoples, “For Services to the Fatherland”, 2nd degree, three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh, 3rd degree , Grand Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit (Germany), Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Polish Republic, Order of Gediminas (Republic of Lithuania), Order of Three Crosses (Republic of Latvia), Order of Terra Mariana (Republic of Estonia) , Order of Bolivar (Venezuela), as well as many medals.
Wife - Nina Ivanovna Yakovleva (née Smirnova), two children - Natalia and Anatoly, six granddaughters and grandchildren (Natalia, Alexandra, Peter, Sergey, Polina, Nikolay), three great-grandchildren (Anna, Ksenia, Nadezhda).
Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev died on October 18, 2005 in Moscow, and was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery.
18/10/2010
Soviet and Russian public and political figure, one of the ideologists of perestroika in the USSR Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev born on December 2, 1923 in the village of Korolevo, Yaroslavl region, into a poor peasant family.
He graduated from a seven-year school in his village and a secondary school in the village of Krasnye Tkachi. The end of school coincided with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Taking into account his secondary education, Alexander Yakovlev was sent to a 3-month commander course at the Leningrad Rifle and Machine Gun School in the city of Glazov (Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic). After graduation, Lieutenant Yakovlev was sent to the Volkhov Front.
In 1941-1943. he fought on the Volkhov Front, where he commanded a platoon as part of the 6th Separate Marine Brigade. After being seriously wounded, he returned home disabled.
In 1946 he graduated from the history department of the Yaroslavl State Pedagogical Institute named after. K.D. Ushinsky. In parallel with his studies, he headed the department of military physical training. Graduated from the Higher Party School under the CPSU Central Committee.
Since 1948, Alexander Yakovlev worked for the newspaper Severny Rabochiy.
From 1950 to 1953 he was the head of the Department of Schools and Higher Educational Institutions of the Yaroslavl Regional Committee of the CPSU.
Since 1953, Alexander Yakovlev worked in the apparatus of the CPSU Central Committee. From 1953 to 1956 he was an instructor in the apparatus of the CPSU Central Committee.
He studied at the graduate school of the Academy of Social Sciences under the CPSU Central Committee. In 1958-1959 interned at Columbia University (USA), after which he continued to work at the Central Committee of the CPSU as an instructor, head of the sector, from 1965 - deputy head of the propaganda department, from 1969 to 1973 he served as head of the department.
In 1960, he defended his candidate's dissertation, and in 1967, his doctoral dissertation on the historiography of US foreign policy doctrines.
In November 1972, the Literaturnaya Gazeta published an article by Alexander Yakovlev “Against anti-historicism,” in which he criticized the ideology of national patriots.
In 1973, he was removed from work in the party apparatus and sent as the USSR Ambassador to Canada, where he worked for 10 years.
Perestroika gave Yakovlev the opportunity to return to active political activity in his homeland. In 1983, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev insisted on his return to Moscow.
From 1983 to 1985, Alexander Yakovlev worked as director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1984, he was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In the summer of 1985, he was appointed head of the propaganda department of the CPSU Central Committee.
In 1986, elected member of the CPSU Central Committee, secretary of the Central Committee; was responsible for issues of ideology, information and culture.
At the January (1987) plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, Yakovlev was elected as a candidate member of the Politburo, and at the June (1987) plenum - a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. From September 1987 he was a member of the Politburo Commission, and from October 1988 - Chairman of the Politburo Commission of the Central Committee for additional study of materials related to the repressions of 1930-1940. and early 1950s
In 1988, at the XIX All-Union Party Conference, a Commission was created to prepare a resolution on glasnost, headed by Alexander Yakovlev, which presented a document that consolidated the gains of perestroika in the field of freedom of speech. At the September (1988) plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, the responsibilities of the secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee were redistributed, and Yakovlev became chairman of the CPSU Central Committee Commission on International Politics.
In the spring of 1989, Yakovlev was elected People's Deputy of the USSR from the CPSU.
From March 1990 to January 1991, he was a member of the USSR Presidential Council. The day after his appointment to this post, he submitted a letter of resignation from the governing bodies of the CPSU Central Committee, but until the 28th Party Congress he continued to serve as Secretary of the Central Committee and member of the Politburo.
In 1984, Alexander Yakovlev was elected a corresponding member, and in 1990, a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
After the dissolution of the Presidential Council, he was appointed to the post of senior adviser to the President of the USSR. Resigned from this post on July 27, 1991.
July 2, 1991, together with Alexander Volsky, Nikolai Petrakov, Gavriil Popov, Anatoly Sobchak, Ivan Silaev, Stanislav Shatalin, Eduard Shevardnadze, Alexander Rutsky Alexander Yakovlev signed an appeal to create the Movement of Democratic Reforms (DDR), and then joined its Political Council.
On August 15, 1991, the Central Control Commission of the CPSU recommended that Yakovlev be expelled from the ranks of the CPSU for speeches and actions aimed at splitting the party. On August 16, 1991, Yakovlev announced his resignation from the party.
On August 20, 1991, he spoke at a rally near the Moscow City Council building in support of the legitimate government, against the rebellion of the State Emergency Committee. At the end of September 1991, he was appointed adviser on special assignments and member of the Political Advisory Council under the President of the USSR.
In mid-December 1991, at the Founding Congress of the Movement of Democratic Reforms, Alexander Yakovlev was elected one of the co-chairs of the Movement.
At the end of December 1991, he was present at the transfer of power from USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev to the President of Russia Boris Yeltsin .
Since January 1992, he served as vice-president of the Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Science Research (Gorbachev Foundation).
At the end of 1992, Alexander Yakovlev was appointed chairman of the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for the rehabilitation of victims of political repression.
At the same time, during 1993-1995, in accordance with the decree of the President of Russia, Yakovlev headed the Federal Television and Radio Broadcasting Service and the State Television and Radio Company Ostankino.
He was also chairman of the Public Council of the newspaper "Culture", honorary chairman of the Board of Directors of Public Russian Television (ORT) and co-chairman of the Congress of the Russian Intelligentsia. He headed the International Foundation "Democracy" (Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev Foundation), the International Foundation for Charity and Health and the Leonardo Club (Russia).
In 1995, he organized the Russian Party of Social Democracy (RPSD).
Alexander Yakovlev received the titles of “architect of perestroika” and “father of glasnost”.
Yakovlev is the author of 25 books, translated into many languages of the world. After the start of perestroika, he published the books “Realism - the land of perestroika”, “The agony of reading existence”, “Preface. Collapse. Afterword”, “The Bitter Cup”, “By relics and oils”, “Comprehension”, “Seven of the Cross”, memoirs “ Pensieve", "Twilight", etc.
Under his editorship, a multi-volume publication “Russia. XX Century. Documents” was published, in which previously unknown documents of Soviet history were published for the first time.
Alexander Yakovlev was a member of the Moscow Writers' Union, was an honorary doctor of the Durham and Exeter Universities (Great Britain), and Soka University (Japan). For his scientific merits he was awarded an honorary Silver Medal from Charles University in Prague.
Awarded the Order of the October Revolution, the Red Banner, the Red Star, the Patriotic War 1st degree, Friendship of Peoples, "For Services to the Fatherland" 2nd degree, three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh 3rd degree, Grand Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit (Germany), Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Polish Republic, Order of Gediminas (Republic of Lithuania), Order of Three Crosses (Republic of Latvia), Order of Terra Mariana (Republic of Estonia), Order of Bolivar (Venezuela), as well as many medals.
Wife - Nina Ivanovna Yakovleva (née Smirnova), two children - Natalia and Anatoly.
Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev died on October 18, 2005 in Moscow, and was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery.
| Senior Advisor President of the USSR |
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| January 1991 - July 29, 1991 | ||
Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev(December 2, Korolevo village, Yaroslavl province - October 18, Moscow) - Soviet and Russian political figure, publicist, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of the main ideologists, “architects” of perestroika.
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✪ Alexander Friedman, great scientist (narrated by Professor Vadim Yakovlev)
After graduating from college on February 2, 1942, Lieutenant Yakovlev was enlisted in the active army. Served as a platoon commander on the Volkhov Front as part of the 6th Marine Brigade. In August 1942, he was seriously wounded and evacuated to the rear for treatment. Until February 1943 he was in the hospital, after which he was demobilized due to illness.
From 1946, for two years, Yakovlev worked as an instructor in the propaganda and agitation department of the Yaroslavl Regional Committee of the CPSU, then, until 1950, as a member of the editorial board of the regional newspaper “Severny Rabochiy”. In 1950, he was appointed deputy head of the propaganda and agitation department of the Yaroslavl regional party committee, and the following year - head of the schools and universities department of the same regional party committee.
In 1953, Yakovlev was transferred to Moscow. From March 1953 to 1956, he worked as an instructor of the CPSU Central Committee - in the schools department; in the department of science, schools and universities.
In 1956-1959, Yakovlev was sent to the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, where he studied graduate school at the department of international communist and labor movement. From 1958 to 1959 he trained at Columbia University (USA). During the internship, Yakovlev was in the same group with KGB officer Oleg Kalugin, A. Yakovlev’s scientific supervisor in the USA was one of the prominent political scientists and the author of the concept of political pluralism, David Truman, among the lecturers Yakovlev singled out the author of the doctrine of containing communism and at the same time a critic of US foreign policy J.F. Kennan, as well as a participant in the Potstdam Conference, director of the Russian Institute, one of the ideologists of the Cold War, Philip E. Mosely.
In 1967, he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic: “US Political Science and the Basic Foreign Policy Doctrines of American Imperialism (A Critical Analysis of Post-War Political Literature on the Problems of War, Peace and International Relations 1945-1966).”
He was at the origins of the organization of the second program of the All-Union radio station “Mayak”, which began broadcasting in 1964. In August 1968, he was sent to Prague, where, as a representative of the Central Committee, he observed the situation during the entry of troops of the Warsaw Pact countries into Czechoslovakia. Returning to Moscow a week later, in a conversation with L. I. Brezhnev, he spoke out against the removal of A. Dubcek.
In the late 1960s - early 1970s, he advocated the development of sociology as a science in the USSR, in particular, he supported the activities of Yu. A. Levada, B. A. Grushin and T. I. Zaslavskaya.
In 1971-1976 he was a member of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU.
In November 1972, he published his famous article in Literaturnaya Gazeta "Against anti-historicism", in which he spoke out against nationalism (including in literary magazines). The article exacerbated the already existing contradictions among the intelligentsia: between the “Westerners” and the “soilers.” In connection with criticism of the article by M.A. Sholokhov and after a corresponding discussion of the issue at the Secretariat and in the Politburo of the Central Committee, in 1973 Yakovlev was removed from work in the party apparatus and sent as ambassador to Canada, where he stayed for 10 years. During his years in Canada, he became friends with the country's Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Trudeau called his sons the Russian names Misha and Sasha as a sign of love for Russian culture.
Yakovlev's candidacy was proposed by M. S. Gorbachev, "who became closely acquainted with him during the preparation of his visit to Canada on May 17-24, 1983." With the support of the then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Yu. V. Andropov, K. U. Chernenko and A. A. Gromyko, also with the assistance of P. N. Fedoseev, A. M. Alexandrov and G. A. Arbatov in May 1983 appointed director of IMEMO (an alternative candidate was S. M. Menshikov).
During the period of Yakovlev’s leadership (1983-1985), the institute sent a note to the CPSU Central Committee on the advisability of creating enterprises in the USSR with the participation of foreign capital, and a note to the State Planning Committee of the USSR about the impending economic crisis and the deepening lag of the USSR from developed Western countries.
In the summer of 1985, Yakovlev became head of the propaganda department of the CPSU Central Committee. In 1986, he was elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee and became Secretary of the Central Committee, who, together with E.K. Ligachev, oversaw issues of ideology, information and culture. He advocated the full development of relations with Western countries, as well as with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East (in particular, with Israel).
He contributed to the publication in the USSR of works by Nabokov, Solzhenitsyn, Rybakov, Pristavkin, Dudintsev, and the release of about 30 previously banned films. Initiator of the decision of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (May 1988) to publish previously banned works of Russian philosophers on the basis of the Pravda publishing house and the journal Questions of Philosophy.
He contributed to the restoration of relations between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church, the return of the Optina Hermitage to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Tolga Monastery, for which he was awarded the Church Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh.
In 1987, he took an active part in the purge of Soviet generals in the “Rust case”, and contributed to the appointment of Dmitry Yazov to the post of Minister of Defense. He recommended appointing V.A. Kryuchkov as chairman of the KGB, with whom he had been closely acquainted since the time they worked together in the 60s in the CPSU Central Committee.
At the XIX All-Union Conference of the CPSU he headed the commission that prepared the resolution “On Glasnost”. In August 1988, he visited the Latvian SSR, where he approved the activities of local authorities and informal organizations. At the September (1988) Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, he was entrusted with overseeing the foreign policy of the USSR from the CPSU Central Committee.
Since October 1988 - Chairman of the Politburo Commission of the Central Committee for additional study of materials related to the repressions of the 1930s-1940s and early 1950s.
Prosecutor General of the USSR (1988-1990) Alexander Sukharev:
I knew Yakovlev when he was Deputy General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for Ideology, and was involved in the rehabilitation of people who suffered from Stalinist repressions. I had the real numbers of these repressions. Yakovlev asked to help him. I warned him that one must be extremely careful with this number of people repressed for political matters. I had great doubts about the number of political prisoners and those repressed for political reasons during the leadership of our country by Stalin.
This figure should have been three times lower than what was announced under Gorbachev. This was especially true for Kazakhstan, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. At the beginning of the 1930s, horse theft was widespread in those regions and, in general, there were many cases of theft of state property. Those convicted under these charges ended up in prison, and were later counted “en masse” among political prisoners. I told Yakovlev: since they ended up in camps under criminal conditions and long before the political purges of 1937-1938, they cannot be considered victims of political repression. I convinced Yakovlev that in general it was impossible to count everyone in a row as victims of repression, including those who ended up in camps for “domestic violence” or criminality. After all, then historical conclusions will be incorrect. In response to my comments, he told me: “Let’s do all the things, no matter how many there are, at least three million, political, all together, why should we sort them out with you?” The rudest thing is that 11% of his list of victims of Stalinist repressions had nothing to do with those convicted on political charges. And at this point we parted with him, and I was left with an extremely negative opinion about him.
In 1989 he was elected people's deputy of the USSR. At the Second Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR in December 1989, Yakovlev made a report on the consequences of the signing of the Non-Aggression Treaty between the USSR and Germany in 1939 (the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact”) and the secret protocols to it. The congress adopted a resolution (after a second vote) that for the first time recognized the existence of secret protocols to the pact (the originals were found only in the fall of 1992) and condemned their signing.
He called for a trial of the Bolshevik regime and sharply opposed anti-Semitism, considering it a shameful phenomenon for Russia. He was criticized by the nationalist and communist press, who accused him of Russophobia and treason. In February 1993, he was accused by ex-KGB Chairman V.A. Kryuchkov of “unauthorized contacts” with foreign intelligence, but after a special investigation conducted by the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Foreign Intelligence Service, these data were not confirmed. The head of the illegal intelligence of the USSR, Yu. I. Drozdov, does not confirm that A. N. Yakovlev was on the list of agents of influence of the West, transferred to M. S. Gorbachev, by the head of the KGB V. A. Kryuchkov.
He headed the International Foundation "Democracy" (Alexander N. Yakovlev Foundation), in which he prepared volumes of historical documents for publication, the International Foundation for Charity and Health and the Leonardo Club (Russia). In January 2004 he became a member of the “Committee 2008: Free Choice”. On April 28, 2005, he joined the supervisory board of the public organization “Open Russia”. On February 22, 2005, he signed an open letter calling on the international human rights community to recognize the former head and co-owner of YUKOS as a political prisoner.
Died October 18, 2005. The civil memorial service took place on October 21 in the building of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was buried at the Troekurovsky Cemetery in Moscow.
Gorbachev could drown any question in words, putting them together correctly. And he did it masterfully. But after the conversation there was nothing to remember, and this is especially valued in international negotiations. He skillfully hid his real thoughts and intentions behind a verbal fence. It is impossible to reach his soul. Sometimes it seemed to me that he himself was afraid to look inside himself, for fear of learning something about himself that he himself did not yet know or did not want to know.
Critics cite various negative assessments of Yakovlev, accusing him of betraying the Soviet Motherland, deliberately weakening and collapsing the Soviet system and the CPSU. The former chairman of the KGB of the USSR Vladimir Kryuchkov in his book “Personal Business” (1994) wrote:
“I have never heard a warm word from Yakovlev about the Motherland, I have never noticed that he was proud of anything, for example, our victory in the Great Patriotic War. This especially amazed me, because he himself was a participant in the war and was seriously wounded. Apparently, the desire to destroy, debunk everything and everyone took precedence over justice, the most natural human feelings, over basic decency towards the Motherland and one’s own people.” And yet, I have never heard a single kind word from him about the Russian people. And the very concept of “people” never existed for him at all.
Responding to accusations of “anti-patriotism,” Yakovlev, in particular, said in an interview with Novye Izvestia on April 8, 2004, entitled “No need to shout about love for the Motherland”: “Patriotism does not require noise. This, if you like, is to a certain extent an intimate matter for everyone. Loving your country means seeing its shortcomings and trying to convince society not to do what it shouldn’t do.” Yakovlev himself defined the period 1985-1991 as social transformations aimed at liberating social forces for new historical creativity.
In 2001, Yakovlev, recalling his activities, admitted: “In the early stages of perestroika, we had to partially lie, be hypocritical, dissemble - there was no other way. We had to - and this is the specificity of the restructuring of the totalitarian system - to break the totalitarian communist party."
In the introductory article to the publication of the “Black Book of Communism” in Russian, Yakovlev spoke about this period:
...I studied a lot and meticulously the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, Mao and other “classics” of Marxism, the founders of a new religion - the religion of hatred, revenge and atheism.<…>A long time ago, more than 40 years ago, I realized that Marxism-Leninism is not science, but journalism - cannibalistic and Samoyedic. Since I lived and worked in the highest “orbits” of the regime, including the highest one - in the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee under Gorbachev - I was well aware that all these theories and plans were nonsense, and most importantly, what the regime was based on - This is the nomenklatura apparatus, personnel, people, figures. The figures were different: smart, stupid, just fools. But everyone was cynic. Every single one of them, including me. They publicly prayed to false idols, the ritual was sacred, and they kept their true beliefs to themselves.
After the 20th Congress, in a very narrow circle of our closest friends and like-minded people, we often discussed the problems of democratization of the country and society. They chose a method as simple as a sledgehammer to propagate the “ideas” of the late Lenin.<…>A group of true, and not imaginary, reformers developed (orally, of course) the following plan: to use the authority of Lenin to strike at Stalin, at Stalinism. And then, if successful, Plekhanov and social democracy will attack Lenin, liberalism and “moral socialism” will attack revolutionism in general.<…>
The Soviet totalitarian regime could only be destroyed through glasnost and totalitarian party discipline, while hiding behind the interests of improving socialism.<…>Looking back, I can proudly say that the cunning but very simple tactic - the mechanisms of totalitarianism against the system of totalitarianism - worked.
In 2003, Yakovlev said that back in 1985 he proposed a plan for changes in the country to Gorbachev, but Gorbachev replied that it was “too early.” According to Yakovlev, Gorbachev did not yet think that “it was time to end the Soviet system.” Yakovlev also noted that he had to overcome strong resistance from part of the party apparatus and
To benefit the matter, it was necessary to retreat and dissemble. I myself am a sinner - I have lied more than once. He talked about the “renewal of socialism,” but he himself knew where things were going.
Author of more than 25 books translated into English, Japanese, French, Chinese, German, Spanish and other languages, including:
After the start of perestroika, Yakovlev published the books “Realism - the Land of Perestroika”, “The Pain of Reading Being”, “Preface. Collapse. Afterword", "Bitter Cup. Bolshevism and the Reformation in Russia”, “By relics and oils”, “Comprehension”, “Sev of the Cross”, political memoirs “Pool of Memory. From Stolypin to Putin", "Twilight", as well as dozens of articles. They contain the author's interpretation of the Soviet experience, analysis of the theoretical and practical aspects of democratic transformations in Russia. Executive editor of the collection “Russia and the USA: diplomatic relations, 1900-1917. Documents" (1999). Under his editorship, a multi-volume publication “Russia. XX century Documentation".
Member of the Communist Party from 1944 to August 1991, member and secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (1986-1990), member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1987-1990). In 1995-2000 Chairman of the Russian Party of Social Democracy.
Born on December 2, 1923 in the village of Korolevo, Yaroslavl province (now Yaroslavl district, Yaroslavl region).
In 1938-1941 he studied at school in the village of Krasnye Tkachi.
Participant of the Great Patriotic War. He served as a private in an artillery unit, a cadet at a military rifle and machine gun school, and then as a platoon commander on the Volkhov Front as part of the 6th Marine Brigade. In August 1942 he was seriously wounded. He was in the hospital until February 1943, after which he was demobilized due to disability.
In 1946, Yakovlev graduated from the history department of the Yaroslavl Pedagogical Institute. K. D. Ushinsky. He worked for the Yaroslavl regional newspaper “Severny Rabochiy”. In the 1950s, after moving to Moscow, he was sent to the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, where he studied in graduate school in 1956-1959 at the department of international communist and labor movement. From 1958 to 1959 he trained at Columbia University (USA)
In 1960, he graduated from graduate school at the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, defended his thesis on the topic: “Criticism of American bourgeois literature on the issue of US foreign policy 1953-1957.” In 1967, he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic: “US Political Science and the Basic Foreign Policy Doctrines of American Imperialism (A Critical Analysis of Post-War Political Literature on the Problems of War, Peace and International Relations 1945-1966).” In 1969, Yakovlev was awarded the title of professor in the department of general history.
Since 1984, Yakovlev has been a corresponding member (Department of Economics, specialty “World Economy and International Relations”), and since 1990 a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the Russian Academy of Sciences) in the Department of World Economy and International Relations.. Honorary Doctor of Durham and Exeter Universities ( UK), Soka University (Japan), awarded an honorary Silver Medal from the University of Prague.
From 1946, for two years, Yakovlev worked as an instructor in the propaganda and agitation department of the Yaroslavl regional committee of the CPSU, then, until 1950, as a member of the editorial board of the regional newspaper Severny Rabochiy. In 1950, he was appointed deputy head of the propaganda and agitation department of the Yaroslavl regional party committee, and the following year - head of the schools and universities department of the same regional party committee. In 1953, Yakovlev was transferred to Moscow. From March 1953 to 1956, Yakovlev worked as an instructor of the CPSU Central Committee - in the schools department; in the department of science, schools and universities. From April 1960 to 1973, he again worked in the apparatus of the CPSU Central Committee (in the propaganda department of the Central Committee) - alternately as an instructor, head. sector, from July 1965 - first deputy head of the propaganda department of the CPSU Central Committee (the appointment was signed by Brezhnev), for the last four years he served as head of this department. At the same time (from 1966 to 1973) he was a member of the editorial board of the magazine “Communist”.
He was at the origins of organizing the second program of the All-Union Radio - Radio Station "Mayak", which began broadcasting in 1964. In August 1968, he was sent to Prague, where, as a representative of the Central Committee, he observed the situation during the entry of troops of the Warsaw Pact countries into Czechoslovakia. Returning to Moscow a week later, in a conversation with L. I. Brezhnev, he spoke out against the removal of A. Dubcek.
In the late 1960s - early 1970s. advocated the development of sociology as a science in the USSR, in particular, supported the activities of Yu. A. Levada, B. A. Grushin and T. I. Zaslavskaya.
In 1983, member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee M. S. Gorbachev visited Canada, renewed acquaintance with Yakovlev, and then insisted on his return to Moscow.
In 1984, Yakovlev was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In the summer of 1985 he became head of the propaganda department of the CPSU Central Committee. In 1986 he became a member of the CPSU Central Committee, secretary of the Central Committee in charge of issues of ideology, information and culture, at the June (1987) plenum - a member of the Politburo, in 1989 - a people's deputy of the USSR.
In 1982, Academician Inozemtsev (at that time director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations) died.
Yakovlev’s candidacy was proposed by M. S. Gorbachev, “who became closely acquainted with him during the preparation of his visit to Canada on May 17-24, 1983.” With the support of the then General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Yu. V. Andropov, K. U. Chernenko and A. A. Gromyko, also with the assistance of P. N. Fedoseev, A. M. Alexandrov and G. A. Arbatov in May 1983 appointed director of IMEMO.
From 1983 to 1985, Yakovlev served as director of the IMEMO Academy of Sciences of the USSR. During this period, the institute sent a note to the CPSU Central Committee on the advisability of creating enterprises in the USSR with the participation of foreign capital, and a note to the USSR State Planning Committee about the impending economic crisis and the deepening lag of the USSR from developed Western countries.
Critics cite various negative assessments of Yakovlev, accusing him of betraying the “Soviet homeland”, deliberately weakening and collapsing the Soviet system and the CPSU. Ex-chairman of the KGB of the USSR Vladimir Kryuchkov in his book “Personal Business” (1994) wrote:
Responding to accusations of “anti-patriotism,” Yakovlev, in particular, said in an interview with Novye Izvestia on April 8, 2004, entitled “No need to shout about love for the Motherland”: “Patriotism does not require noise. This, if you like, is to a certain extent an intimate matter for everyone. Loving your country means seeing its shortcomings and trying to convince society not to do what it shouldn’t do.” Yakovlev himself defined the period 1985-1991 as a social reformation, which had the goal of liberating social forces for new historical creativity.
In 2001, Yakovlev, recalling his activities, admitted: “In the early stages of perestroika, we had to partially lie, be hypocritical, dissemble - there was no other way. We had to - and this is the specificity of the restructuring of the totalitarian system - to break the totalitarian communist party."
In the introductory article to the publication of The Black Book of Communism in Russian, Yakovlev spoke about this period:
In 2003, Yakovlev said that back in 1985 he proposed a plan for changes in the country to Gorbachev, but Gorbachev replied that it was “too early.” According to Yakovlev, Gorbachev did not yet think that “it was time to end the Soviet system.” Yakovlev also noted that he had to overcome strong resistance from part of the party apparatus and
In the summer of 1985, Yakovlev became head of the propaganda department of the CPSU Central Committee. In 1986, he became Secretary of the Central Committee, overseeing, together with E.K. Ligachev, issues of ideology, information and culture. He advocated the full development of relations with Western countries, as well as with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East (in particular, with Israel).
In 1989 he was elected people's deputy of the USSR. At the Second Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR in December 1989, Yakovlev made a report on the consequences of the signing of the Non-Aggression Treaty between the USSR and Germany in 1939 (the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact”) and the secret protocols to it. The congress adopted a resolution (after a second vote) that for the first time recognized the existence of secret protocols to the pact (the originals were found only in the fall of 1992) and condemned their signing.
On May 7, 1991, the newspaper “Soviet Russia” published an open letter “Architect at the Ruins” by Gennady Zyuganov, addressed to Yakovlev, which contained sharp criticism of the policies of Perestroika.
From March 1990 to January 1991 - member of the Presidential Council of the USSR. The day after his appointment to this post, he submitted an application to resign from the Politburo and resign from his duties as Secretary of the Central Committee. At the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU he refused to be nominated for the post of General Secretary. After the dissolution of the Presidential Council, he was appointed senior adviser to the President of the USSR. He resigned from this post on July 29, 1991, having disagreed with Gorbachev in the vision of the prospects of the Union (Yakovlev advocated a confederation). In July 1991, he created, together with E. A. Shevardnadze, an alternative to the CPSU, the Movement of Democratic Reforms (DDR). On August 16, 1991, he announced his resignation from the CPSU.
During the August 1991 putsch, he supported the Russian government and B. N. Yeltsin, who opposed the coup attempt organized by V. A. Kryuchkov and other members of the State Emergency Committee. At the end of September 1991, he was appointed State Advisor for Special Assignments and a member of the Political Advisory Council under the President of the USSR. In December 1991, at the Founding Congress of the Movement of Democratic Reforms (MDR), he publicly opposed the signing of the Belovezhskaya Accords.
After the collapse of the USSR, from January 1992 he served as vice president of the Gorbachev Foundation. At the end of 1992, he was appointed chairman of the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for the rehabilitation of victims of political repression and did a lot of work in this direction. In 1993-1995, he also headed the Federal Television and Radio Broadcasting Service and the State Television and Radio Company Ostankino. Since 1995, he has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of ORT. Since 1995, Chairman of the Russian Party of Social Democracy.
He called for a trial of the Bolshevik regime and sharply opposed anti-Semitism, considering it a shameful phenomenon for Russia. He was criticized by the nationalist and communist press, who accused him of Russophobia and treason. In February 1993, he was accused by ex-KGB Chairman V.A. Kryuchkov of “unauthorized contacts” with foreign intelligence, but after a special investigation conducted by the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Foreign Intelligence Service, all charges were dropped.
He headed the International Foundation "Democracy" (Alexander N. Yakovlev Foundation), in which he prepared volumes of historical documents for publication, the International Foundation for Charity and Health and the Leonardo Club (Russia). In January 2004 he became a member of the “Committee 2008: Free Choice”. On April 28, 2005 he joined the supervisory board of the public organization Open Russia. On February 22, 2005, he signed an open letter calling on the international human rights community to recognize the former head and co-owner of YUKOS as a political prisoner.
Died October 18, 2005. The civil memorial service took place on October 21 in the building of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was buried at Troekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.
After the start of perestroika, Yakovlev published the books “Realism - the Land of Perestroika”, “The Pain of Reading Being”, “Preface. Collapse. Afterword", "Bitter Cup. Bolshevism and the Reformation in Russia”, “By relics and oils”, “Comprehension”, “Sev of the Cross”, political memoirs “Pool of Memory. From Stolypin to Putin”, “Twilight” and dozens of articles. They contain the author's interpretation of the Soviet experience, analysis of the theoretical and practical aspects of democratic transformations in Russia. Executive editor of the collection “Russia and the USA: diplomatic relations, 1900-1917. Documents" (1999). Under his editorship, a multi-volume publication “Russia. XX century Documentation".
