One of the main architects of perestroika, Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev died on Tuesday. He was 81. Born in the village of Korolevo near Yaroslavl in 1923, Yakovlev was of the first generation reared under the Soviet system, and ironically, was instrumental in bringing its collapse. Like so many of his generation, he fought in the Great Patriotic War at 18 years old, where he sustained disabling wounds in 1943 fighting near Leningrad. He joined the Communist Party in 1944 and his Party membership gave him the opportunity to earn a doctorate in history from the Academy of Social Sciences in Moscow. Like so many ambitious Party members of his generation, Yakovlev was quickly shot up the State apparatus. When Khrushchev gave his “secret speech” denouncing Stalin’s cult of personality in 1956, he was a member of the Central Committee. In 1958 he studied at Columbia University as part of an exchange program. In 1965, he joined the Party’s propaganda department. Eight years later he became an ambassador to Canada.
It was then he met Mikhail Gorbachev, another young rising star in the Communist apparatus. They formed comradeship which would lead to the institution of the most sweeping reforms the Soviet Union had known since Stalin’s Revolution in the 1930s. However, while Stalin’s revolution entrenched Communist hegemony over Russian social, political, economic, and cultural life, Yakovlev and Gorbachev’s “revolution,” which was encapsulated in the terms “perestroika” (reconstruction) and “glasnost” (openness), unlocked the remaining vestiges of Stalin that more moderate reformers like Khrushchev failed to undo. At the time, they had no desire for their reforms to become revolution; perestroika was an attempt to save the Soviet Union, not destroy it. But history got the better of both men. Their policies took on a logic of their own, and like so many other times in history, the men’s firm grip on its reigns slipped their grasp.
The question now is how Yakovlev be remembered. His death brings another opportunity for Russians to continue to revaluate perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union, a process which began earlier this year with the 20th anniversary of the reforms. I was in Russia then, and it was interesting to see interviews and discussions with Gorbachev and Yakovlev dominate the television. For many Russians who lived through those changes, there was a deep ambivalence to the anniversary. The television images of long lines and Gorbachev’s insane ban on alcohol brought back mixed memories of a simpler and predictable time. It was also interesting to see the family I was staying with try to explain life under the Soviet Union to their 18 year old daughter. It was difficult for them to convey the complexity of life then, and how it wasn’t so easy to completely praise or condemn it. In the end, Gorbachev, who for the last 15 years has been reviled by many Russians, got a more favorable assessment from the family. Without Yakovlev and Gorbachev, they wouldn’t be living as they do now. A life they view as much freer and open to opportunity for their daughter, though without the guarantees of security.
The place of Alexander Yakovlev will continue to plague Russian’s historical and national consciousness. His memory will continue to spark controversy as will the question of whether he was a traitor to the system that created him or a patriot because he dared to fix it. When asked to evaluate how Yakovlev felt about his demon/savoir status, Gorbachev told Kommersant, “He was hated by a lot of people who were trying to accuse him of betrayal because he was persistent. But he was a real man who was fighting and warring for the country. He was a real patriot—not like those who just like to talk.”
how can one get a copy of “The CIA’s Secret War”….(Alexander Yakovlev may or may not be the title).
Novosti Press Agency Publication Huse, Moscow, 1983
Thanks
Charlotte
how can one get a copy of “The CIA’s Secret War”….(Alexander Yakovlev may or may not be the title).
Novosti Press Agency Publication House, Moscow, 1983
Thanks
Charlotte
It was difficult for them to convey the complexity of life then, and how it wasn’t so easy to completely praise or condemn it.
I’ve had this conversation before with middle-aged Russians. Originally it was surprising, now I’m used to it.
Maybe it is making excuses for a system that many outsiders would quickly condemn as inexcusable. However, I think it is simply seeing Soviet life as what it was – not completely terrible, even for all of its tragic faults. You can’t expect people to live in a completely repressive system, without rebellion. And only a fool would try to defend Western society as paradise.
I wrote about the documentary “The Moscow Tower” by Pavel Louguine (frenchified spelling) a little over a year ago. A revealing quote from that film that stuck with me:
“The brilliance of Stalin is that he understood – that the grateful or happy should never be without fear – and the fearful should always having something for which to be grateful.”
I don’t think it is surprising at all that people socialized in a given society view it as normative. After all, even when they are rebelling against the society or some aspect of it, they generally do so in the name of its values.
(For instance, when that bastard upstart Spartacus
staged his slave rebellion — before its being justly put down by the might of Roman arms for the greater glory of the Empire — he was not rebelling against the institution of slavery.)
Anyway, the Western notion of the attitude former Soviet people “should” have to the Soviet Union is not really based on the actual Soviet Union, but on its image in Western popular culture — which is impossibly ignorant — and the role that the “defeat of communism” plays in the teleology of the reigning ideology.
“And only a fool would try to defend Western society as paradise.”
That reminds me. There is a nice quote by Limonov (someone I in general don’t give a damn about, except for some of his fiction) about Yakovlev. I don’t remember it verbatim, but it goes something like “Yakovlev experienced the West through the window of a Cadillac. I experienced it on welfare.”
I wish I could find the original quote.
Experience the East through monitor
http://busconductor.livejournal.com/122548.html
First person I met in US (outside official contacts) asked me very strange question – “How could I come to CCCP to live there?”
“Well…just buy a ticket. But why do you want to go there?”
“Because here I have no future. For the guys like me – from poor families etc….”
It happened in some department stores – don’t remember the name of the chain (West Coast).
I didn’t know who was surprised more – I or my US partners that decided to show me “regular western life”
))
Also recently met with the guy from US who met first live Russian (me) in his life. After some beer and exchange of opinions he came to conclusion that US propaganda was better than Soviet.
“I or my US partners that decided to show me “regular western life””
What was that? Happy people shopping in malls? Did they take you to the slum?
I didn’t know who was surprised more – I or my US partners that decided to show me “regular western life”
))
My in-laws biggest surprise while here was that the McDonald’s restaurants were almost empty.
I would never have taken them to one, but they insisted on seeing how they compared to the Russia variety. We actually had to go to two McD’s because the first one we visited was filthy, despite a recently renovated interior.
“I or my US partners that decided to show me “regular western life””
What was that? Happy people shopping in malls?
How did you know?
)))
Were you that guy?
Drive-in, Russian style
http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/7434/driveinya6.jpg
“Were you that guy?
)))”
I had to go down a whole new career path when the Cold War ended. Damn that Gorbachev. No more showing Soviets around posh stores and neighborhoods and claiming that that’s how average Americans live.
One time I took a wrong turn and accidentally led my charges into Southeast LA. Almost lost my job over that little mix-up.
Drive-in, Russian style
They look like typical Vermonters to me!
Q: What’s slow, green, and goes backwards?
A: Vermont.
Q: What’s fast, green and red, and goes in circles?
A: Vermont in a blender.
which was encapsulated in the terms “perestroika” (reconstruction) and “glasnost” (openness),
I don’t know who started on this perestroika meaning restructuring. The two most common pre-Gorby usages of the word did not come from строить, but from строй (either military or in music) – redeployment and retuning.
Openness is not a very good translation of гласность either, since it has the extra meaning of “open” society. Gorbachev’s гласность was one way only – the government was going to tell subjects more. So it was more of heralding…
And that is consistent with Gorbachev’s initial goal – he never intended for any of this to happen. He only intended to redeploy socialism more efficiently and maybe re-tune it and make party a bit less secretive