Aleksandr Nikolayevich Yakovlev

Gorbachev’s nominee was Aleksandr Yakovlev, who became secretary for propaganda and overseer of the media. His task was to expand glasnost (“openness”) and protect creative writers and journalists against Ligachev’s ire. Gorbachev managed to make Yakovlev a full member of the Politburo by June 1987. He was a…

According to Yakovlev, one of the architects of perestroika and its main theorist, the revolution from above reached a critical point at the 19th Party Conference in June 1988. There Gorbachev was presented with a stark choice: to advance and transform perestroika into a “genuinely popular democratic…

Aleksandr Yakovlev, one of the principal architects of Gorbachev’s reform program, quit the CPSU on August 16, 1991, declaring that a “Stalinist group within the party leadership was preparing a party and state coup.” In fact, rumours of an imminent coup had been rife throughout…