Description:
Drawing on his own diary as well as secret documents and transcripts of high-level meetings, Anatoly Chernyaev recounts the drama that swept the Soviet Union between 1985 and 1991. As Gorbachev's chief foreign policy aide for most of that period, he played a central role in efforts to halt the arms race, discard a confrontational ideology, and open his country to the world. And as Gorbachev's confidant on many domestic issues as well, Chernyaev offers rare insights into the struggle over glasnost, the growth of separatism, and the rise of Boris Yeltsin. While admiring of perestroika's founder, Chernyaev is frank in faulting Gorbachev for his hesitancy in economic reforms, for his delay in decentralizing Union-republic ties, and above all for his misplaced faith in the reformability of the Communist Party. Altogether this book is essential reading for those interested in the Cold War's end, the USSR's collapse, and especially the role played by ideas, ambitions, and key personalities in these momentous events.
Brief description: Anatoly S. Chernyaev is Senior Fellow at the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow. Before becoming Gorbachev's senior foreign policy aide in 1986, he served for twenty years in the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, rising from Assistant to Deputy to Head.
Review Quotes:
"Of the many memoirs produced by Gorbachev and those around him, this one rings truest and says the most--partly because Chernyaev quotes at length from his original notes and internal memoranda, and partly because the author's integrity and frankness emerge from the text itself. Still deeply loyal to Gorbachev, he nonetheless manages to stand outside their relationship and judge him candidly, with stunning insight. Apart from the invaluable detail that the author adds on key events, his account seems to capture Gorbachev as a leader better than any other."
--Robert Legvold Foreign Affairs