Few realize that behind Mikhail Gorbachevs 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 Gorbachevs 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 hes reviled as the man who brought down the Soviet empirethe architect of perestroika and the godfather of glasnost, who, some say, was the puppetmaster manipulating Gorbachevs 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 Gorbachevs 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 Yakovlevs 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 Yakovlevs family and dozens of his friends, as well as never-before-disclosed archival research material, The Soviet Ambassador recounts Yakovlevs tortuous evolution from Stalins acolyte to Stalinisms nemesis, from faithful member of the Communist Party to liberal democrat engineering the same Partys collapse. With profound implications for diplomacy in a conflict-driven age, Yakovlevs 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.From the Hardcover edition.
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