View source for Alexander Yakovlev

{{short description|Soviet politician and diplomat (1923–2005)}}
{{For|other individuals with the same name|Alexander Yakovlev (disambiguation)}}
{{Family name hatnote|Nikolayevich|Yakovlev|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2022}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Alexander Yakovlev
| native_name         = {{nobold|Александр Яковлев}}
| native_name_lang    = ru
| image               = Александр Яковлев (cropped).jpg
| caption             = 
| imagesize           =
| office2             = Head of the [[Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
| term_start2         = 5 July 1985
| term_end2           = March 1986
| predecessor2        = 
| successor2          = [[Yuri Sklyarov]]
| office4             = Full member of the [[27th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
| term_start4         = 26 June 1987
| term_end4           = 14 July 1990
| office5             = Member of the [[27th Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
| term_start5         = 6 March 1986
| term_end5           = 14 July 1990
| office6             = [[Soviet Union Ambassador to Canada]]
| premier6            = [[Alexei Kosygin]]<br />[[Nikolai Tikhonov]]
| term_start6         = 1 June 1973
| term_end6           = 29 October 1983
| predecessor6        = {{Interlanguage link|Boris Miroshnichenko|ru|Мирошниченко, Борис Пантелеймонович}}
| successor6          = [[Aleksei A. Rodionov]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1923|12|2|df=y}}
| birth_place         = Korolyovo, [[Yaroslavl Oblast]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]]<br><small>(now Russia)</small>
| death_date          = {{death date and age|2005|10|18|1923|12|2|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Moscow]], [[Russia]]
| nationality         = [[Russian people|Russian]]
| party               = [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (1944–1991)<br />[[Russian Party of Social Democracy]] (1995–2002)
| signature           = Signature of Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev.png
| preceded2           = Vladimir Stepakov
| branch              = [[Soviet Navy]]
| serviceyears        = 1941–1943
| battles             = {{tree list}}
* [[World War II]]
** [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]]
*** [[Siege of Leningrad]]
{{tree list/end}}
| allegiance          = {{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}
}}

'''Alexander Nikolayevich Yakovlev''' ({{langx|ru|Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Я́ковлев}}; 2 December 1923 – 18 October 2005) was a [[Soviet]] and [[Russia|Russian]] politician, diplomat, and historian. A member of the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] and [[Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Secretariat]] of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] throughout the 1980s, he was termed the "godfather of glasnost",<ref name="Chief Ideologue">{{cite news |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051018.wyakov1018/BNStory/International/ |location=Toronto |work=The Globe and Mail |title=Alexander Yakovlev, 81 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051020010403/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051018.wyakov1018/BNStory/International/ |archive-date=2005-10-20 |access-date=24 May 2013}}</ref> and was the intellectual force behind [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s reform programme of [[glasnost]] and [[perestroika]].

Born into a rural family, Yakovlev served as a platoon commander of a marine brigade during [[World War II]], and became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union following the war. During the rule of [[Nikita Khrushchev]], he became a member of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee of the CPSU]], before resigning to study abroad as part of the [[Fulbright Program|Fulbright Programme]], returning in 1960. Under [[Leonid Brezhnev]], he became Deputy Head of [[Agitprop]] and was placed in charge of a group on creating the [[1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union]]. He was later demoted to ambassador to Canada, in response to his public opposition to ethnic nationalism within the Soviet Union.

In the early 1980s, Yakovlev returned to the Soviet Union, and became a prominent supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev's proposed reforms. In response to his perceived importance in the reforms, he came under attack from hardliners such as [[Alexander Lebed]] and [[Gennady Zyuganov]], eventually resigning two days prior to the [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt]]. During the coup attempt, Yakovlev was a supporter of pro-democratic forces, and later became a supporter of [[Boris Yeltsin]] before turning against his successor, [[Vladimir Putin]], in response to democratic backsliding which occurred during Putin's presidency.

==Early life and education==
The first child of five, Yakovlev was born to a peasant family in a small village called Korolyovo, on the [[Volga River]], near [[Yaroslavl]]. He had four sisters, two of whom died in infancy. His father, Nikolai Alekseyevich Yakovlev, only attended school for four years, and his mother, Agafiya Mikhailovna, for three months. Yakovlev was sickly in childhood and suffered from [[Mycobacterial cervical lymphadenitis|scrofula]]. His father served in the Red Cavalry during the [[Russian Civil War]] and was a devoted communist; he became the first chairman of a local collective farm. Their house was set ablaze while he was seven, and the family moved to [[Krasnye Tkachi]].

=== World War II service ===
Yakovlev graduated from secondary school days before [[Operation Barbarossa|Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union]]. He was drafted into the [[Soviet Navy]] in November 1941, with brief training, and became part of the {{Ill|Marine Corps of the Soviet Union|lt=Soviet Marine Corps|ru|Морская пехота СССР}}. He served as a platoon commander of the {{Ill|6th Marine Brigade of the Baltic Fleet|ru|6-я бригада морской пехоты Балтийского флота}}, on the [[Volkhov Front]] during the [[Siege of Leningrad]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Yakovlev |first=Aleksandr |title=Кто есть кто в мировой политике |publisher=Politizdat |year=1990 |isbn=5250005136 |pages=550 |language=ru |trans-title=Who's Who in World Politics}}</ref> On 6 August 1942, he was leading 30 [[Chuvash people|Chuvash]] soldiers and was ordered to charge German positions in Vinyagolovo near [[Leningrad]] and was badly wounded.<ref name=":1" /> He was hospitalised until February 1943, and was subsequently demobilised.<ref name=":0" /> He became a member of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] in 1944. At this time he regarded the Communist Party as "life's truth", and affirmed he was totally loyal and faithful to Soviet Union, and he was an ardent admirer of [[Joseph Stalin]].

=== Stalin and Khrushchev periods ===
In September 1945, he resumed education at the {{Interlanguage link|Yaroslavl Pedagogical Institute|ru|Ярославский государственный педагогический университет имени К. Д. Ушинского}} to study history. On September 8, 1945, he married Nina Ivanovna Smirnova. He graduated the same year and went to Moscow to attend the Higher Party School. In November 1946, he was appointed the instructor of the Department of Propaganda and Agitation in Yaroslavl, a post he held for a year and a half. Shortly after this, he had his first doubts about the regime, when he was shocked to see train after train carrying Soviet ex-prisoners-of-war being sent to labour camps. At the [[Yaroslavl railway station|Vspolye train station]], he saw weeping women and was dismayed at how they were treated. This memory troubled him deeply and never left him.

In March 1953, shortly after Stalin's death, he was assigned to the party's Central Committee as an instructor in the department of schools. On 25 February 1956, [[Khrushchev]]'s [[Secret Speech]] became the most traumatic event in Yakovlev's early Moscow life; he listened to the speech from a balcony in the Grand Kremlin Palace. After the [[20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|20th Party Congress]], Yakovlev lost his previous enthusiasm for communism and led a double life. He wanted to turn to the original sources on Communism—[[Karl Marx|Marx]], [[Friedrich Engels|Engels]], [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], German philosophers, French and Italian socialists and British economists. He asked to leave the Central Committee to enroll in the Academy of Social Sciences of the Central Committee. While twice refused, he was finally allowed to study there for two years and became convinced that [[Marxism-Leninism]] was hollow, impractical, and inhumane, as well as a prognostic fraud. This healed his internal political conflict following the 20th Party Congress. He began to agree with Khrushchev.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}}

=== Studies at Columbia University ===
Beginning in 1958, he was chosen as a exchange student at [[Columbia University]] in the United States for one year, as part of the [[Fulbright Program|Fulbright Programme]].<ref name="Keller 1989, pp.30-33">Keller, Bill. "Moscow's other Mastermind: Aleksandr Yakovlev", ''New York Times Magazine'', February 19, 1989, pp.30-33, 40-43. {{ISSN|0362-4331}}.</ref> Of the seventeen Soviet students, fourteen were selected by the KGB. Yakovlev and three others, including [[Oleg Kalugin]], went to Columbia. All other students besides Yakovlev were members of the KGB. He intensively studied the English language, Roosevelt and the New Deal, drawing connections between the United States at that time and the Soviet Union. At the end, in May 1959, the Soviet visitors were taken on a thirty-day tour of the United States, during which he stayed with families from [[Vermont]], [[Chicago]] and [[Iowa]]. However, his year in America did little to assuage his anti-Americanism because of the greed, racism, and other things that he witnessed. Yakovlev returned to the Central Committee to work on ideology and propaganda, and published several anti-American books. He defended a dissertation dealing with the historiography of US foreign policy, and received the degree of [[Candidate of Sciences]], the equivalent of a doctorate, in July 1960.

== Early political career and exile ==
In July 1965, he was appointed the first deputy head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU by [[Leonid Brezhnev]]. In August 1968, Yakovlev was sent to Prague as the representative of Central Committee, and witnessed [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|the entry of tanks into the city]]. He later spoke out against removing [[Alexander Dubček]]. That same year, he was placed in command of a group charged with drafting a [[1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union|new constitution]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Конституция (Основной Закон) Союза Советских Социалистических Республик 1977 г. |trans-title=Constitution (Basic Law) of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics, 1977 |url=http://museumreforms.ru/node/13918 |access-date=21 July 2022 |website=P. A. Stolypin Museum of the Russian History of Reforms |language=ru}}</ref> Yakovlev served as editor of several party publications and rose to the key position of head of the CPSU's Department of Ideology and Propaganda from 1969 to 1973. In January 1970, he visited the United States again, meeting then-Governor of California [[Ronald Reagan]], diplomat [[Henry Kissinger]], and actress [[Jane Fonda]], who warned him that Moscow "did not appreciate the full danger of American militarism". This trip, again, failed to change his unfavourable impression of the United States.

=== Exile to Canada ===
In 1972, he took a bold stand by publishing the article entitled "Against Antihistoricism"<ref>Александр Яковлев [http://left.ru/2005/15/yakovlev132.phtml?print Против антиисторизма] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151205235105/http://left.ru/2005/15/yakovlev132.phtml?print |date=2015-12-05 }} - Литературная газета», 15 ноября 1972 г</ref> in ''[[Literaturnaya Gazeta]],'' critical of Russian nationalism, and nationalism in the Soviet Union in general. As a result, he was removed from his position. Given the choice of a diplomatic post as a form of exile, he chose to be the [[List of ambassadors of Russia to Canada|ambassador to Canada]], remaining at that post for a decade.<ref name="Keller 1989, pp.30-33" /> He arrived in Canada in July 1973. During this time, he and [[Prime Minister of Canada|Canadian Prime Minister]] [[Pierre Trudeau]] became close friends. Trudeau's second son, [[Alexandre Trudeau]], was named after Yakovlev.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Taber |first=Jane |date=4 January 2007 |title=Le nouveau Trudeau: Little PET weighs in at 7 pounds 4 ounces |work=[[The Globe and Mail]] |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/le-nouveau-trudeau-little-pet-weighs-in-at-7-pounds-4-ounces/article1077684/ |access-date=21 July 2022}}</ref>

From 16 to 23 May 1983, Yakovlev accompanied [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], who at the time was the Soviet official in charge of agriculture, on his tour of Canada. The purpose of the visit was to tour Canadian farms and agricultural institutions, in the hopes of taking lessons that could be applied in the Soviet Union. However, the two also renewed their earlier friendship and, tentatively at first, began to discuss the prospect of liberalisation in the Soviet Union.

In an interview years later, Yakovlev recalled:
<blockquote>At first we kind of sniffed around each other and our conversations didn't touch on serious issues. And then, verily, history plays tricks on one, we had a lot of time together as guests of then Liberal Minister of Agriculture [[Eugene Whelan]] in Canada who, himself, was too late for the reception because he was stuck with some striking farmers somewhere. So we took a long walk on that Minister's farm and, as it often happens, both of us suddenly were just kind of flooded and let go. I somehow, for some reason, threw caution to the wind and started telling him about what I considered to be utter stupidities in the area of foreign affairs, especially about those [[SS-20]] missiles that were being stationed in Europe and a lot of other things. And he did the same thing. We were completely frank. He frankly talked about the problems in the internal situation in Russia. He was saying that under these conditions, the conditions of dictatorship and absence of freedom, the country would simply perish. So it was at that time, during our three-hour conversation, almost as if our heads were knocked together, that we poured it all out and during that three-hour conversation we actually came to agreement on all our main points.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Shaping Russia's Transformation: A Leader of Perestroika Looks Back - Interview with Aleksandr Yakovlev|url = http://conversations.berkeley.edu/content/alexander-yakovlev|publisher = Institute of International Studies at the University of California, Berkeley|date = November 21, 1996|access-date = February 21, 2013}}</ref></blockquote>

=== Return to the Soviet Union ===
Two weeks after the visit, as a result of Gorbachev's interventions, Yakovlev was recalled from Canada by [[Yuri Andropov]] and became Director of the [[Institute of World Economy and International Relations]] of the [[Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union]] in Moscow on 16 August 1983; he was succeeded by his friend [[Yevgeny Primakov]] (himself later Prime Minister of Russia) in 1985.

==Perestroika==
[[Image:Bush and Gorbachev at the Malta summit in 1989.gif|thumb|right|[[Mikhail Gorbachev]] and Yakovlev opposite United States President [[George H. W. Bush]] on board the [[SS Maxim Gorkiy|SS ''Maxim Gorkiy'']] at the 1989 [[Malta Summit]].]]
When Gorbachev became [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] in 1985, Yakovlev became a senior advisor, helping to shape [[Foreign relations of the Soviet Union|Soviet foreign policy]] by advocating Soviet non-intervention in Eastern Europe, and accompanying Gorbachev on his five summit meetings with President of the United States [[Ronald Reagan]]. In the summer of 1985, Yakovlev became head of the propaganda department of the CPSU Central Committee. Domestically, he argued in favour of the reform programmes that became known as [[glasnost]] (openness) and [[perestroika]] (restructuring) and played a key role in executing those policies.

{{quote|After the [[20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|XX Congress]], in an ultra-narrow circle of our closest friends and associates, we often discussed the problems of democratization of the country and society. We chose a simple - like a sledgehammer - method of propagating the "ideas" of late [[Lenin]]. A group of true, not imaginary reformers developed (of course, orally) the following plan: to strike with the authority of Lenin at [[Stalin]], at [[Stalinism]]. And then, if successful, - to strike with [[Georgi Plekhanov|Plekhanov]] and [[Social Democracy]] - at Lenin, and then – with liberalism and "moral socialism" - at revolutionarism in general...
The Soviet totalitarian regime could be destroyed only through glasnost and totalitarian party discipline, while hiding behind the interests of improving socialism. [...] Looking back, I can proudly say that a clever, but very simple tactic - the mechanisms of totalitarianism against the system of totalitarianism – has worked.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://agitclub.ru/gorby/ussr/blackbook1.htm|title=ЧЕРНАЯ КНИГА КОММУНИЗМА|website=agitclub.ru|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104135633/http://agitclub.ru/gorby/ussr/blackbook1.htm|archive-date=2020-11-04}}</ref>|source=Yakovlev, in the introduction to "[[Black Book of Communism]]"}}

In 1987, the Russian neo-Nazi organization [[Pamyat]] sent a letter entitled "Stop Yakovlev!" to the plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, labelling Yakovlev as a Jew and the main instigator of a course of action that would lead to the 'capitulation before the [[imperialist]]s'.<ref>[http://old.nasledie.ru/oborg/2_18/0009/01.htm «Остановите Яковлева!» Листовка—обращение Координационного Совета Патриотического Движения «Память» к Пленуму Центрального Комитета Коммунистической Партии Советского Союза]</ref>

For decades, it was the official policy of the Soviet Union to deny the existence of the secret protocol to the [[Nazi–Soviet Pact]]. At the behest of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yakovlev headed a commission investigating the existence of such a protocol. In December 1989 Yakovlev concluded that the protocol had existed and revealed his findings to the Soviet Parliament. As a result, the first multi-party elected [[Congress of Soviets]] since 1918 "passed the declaration admitting the existence of the secret protocols, condemning and denouncing them".<ref>Jerzy W. Borejsza, Klaus Ziemer, Magdalena Hułas. ''Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes in Europe'', p. 521. Berghahn Books, 2006.</ref>

== Downfall and later life ==
He was promoted to the [[Politburo]] in 1987, but by 1990 he had become the focus of attacks by hardliner communists in the party opposed to liberalisation. At the [[28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] in July 1990, a cynical [[Alexander Lebed]] caused uproar when he asked Yakovlev: "Alexander Nikolayevich... How many faces have you got?" An embarrassed Yakovlev consulted his colleagues and continued on with the proceedings, but resigned from the Politburo the day after the congress concluded.<ref>Times Wire Services. "Six Quitting the Politburo: Exits Laid to Lessening of Party's Role". 3 July 1990.</ref><ref>{{cite episode |title=General in Exile |series=Assignment |credits=[[Tom Carver]] |network=BBC2 |airdate=1996-11-16 |minutes=45 }}</ref> As the communists opposed to liberalisation gained strength, his position became more tenuous; [[Architect amidst the Ruins|fiercely attacked]] by his former protégé [[Gennady Zyuganov]] in May 1991, he resigned from the CPSU two days before the [[August Coup]] in 1991. During the coup, Yakovlev joined the democratic opposition against it. Following the failed coup attempt, Yakovlev blamed Gorbachev for having been naïve in bringing the plotters into his inner circle, saying Gorbachev was "guilty of forming a team of traitors. Why did he surround himself with people capable of treason?"<ref>[http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?en/press/alexander-yakovlev-81.2773.htm  globeandmail.com] by Vladimir Isachenkov. Retrieved 2005-10-18</ref>

In his book ''Inside the Stalin Archives'' (2008), Jonathan Brent relates that in 1991, when there were Lithuanian crowds [[January Events (Lithuania)|demonstrating for independence]] from the Soviet Union, Gorbachev consulted Yakovlev about the wisdom of an armed repression against them. Gorbachev asked, "Should we shoot?" Yakovlev answered that, "if a single Soviet soldier fired a single bullet on the unarmed crowds, Soviet power would be over." Despite Yakovlev's warnings, the Soviet Union proceeded to [[January Events (Lithuania)|invade Lithuania]] following its declaration of independence, and the Soviet Union collapsed seven months later.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Walker |first=Martin |date=23 January 2003 |title=Paper Trail |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/books/review/Walker-t.html |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>[[Image:Vladimir Putin 2 November 2000-4.jpg|thumb|Yakovlev, as the head of the Commission on the Rehabilitation of Soviet Repression Victims, meets President [[Vladimir Putin]]]]Yakovlev led [[Boris Yeltsin]]'s commission for the rehabilitation of victims of Soviet political repression.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Obituary: A. Yakovlev, champion of Soviet change, 81 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2005-10-18 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/18/world/europe/obituary-a-yakovlev-champion-of-soviet-change-81.html |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> In the years following the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], Yakovlev wrote and lectured extensively on history, politics and economics. He acted as the leader of the [[Russian Party of Social Democracy]], which in the mid-1990s fused into the United Democrats, a pro-reform alliance that was later reorganised into the [[Union of Right Forces]]. In 2002, acting as head of the Presidential Committee for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression, he was present at the announcement of the release of a CD detailing names and short biographies of the victims of Soviet purges. In his later life, he founded and led the International Democracy Foundation. He advocated taking responsibility for the past crimes of communism and was critical of President [[Vladimir Putin]]'s restrictions on democracy.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Feifer |first=Gregory |date=7 November 2002 |title=Russia: Rights Group Marks Bolshevik Anniversary With Catalog Of Soviet Repressions |work=Center for Defense Information |url=http://www.cdi.org/russia/230-2-pr.cfm |url-status=dead |access-date=12 October 2004 |archive-date=15 October 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041015173334/http://cdi.org/russia/230-2-pr.cfm }}</ref> 

In 2000, he publicly alleged that Swedish diplomat [[Raoul Wallenberg]], who became famous for his role in saving thousands of [[History of the Jews in Hungary|Hungarian Jews]] from the [[Holocaust]], was shot and killed in Soviet secret police headquarters in 1947.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Calamur |first=Krishnadev |date=28 May 2012 |title=Russia Denies It's Hiding Details Of Holocaust Hero Raoul Wallenberg's Fate |work=[[National Public Radio]] |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/05/28/153886497/russia-denies-its-hiding-details-of-holocaust-hero-raoul-wallenbergs-fate |access-date=21 July 2022}}</ref> He was called "God's commie" in a 2002 article for investigating crimes of the Soviet state.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Pryce-Jones, David |year=2002|title=God's Commie: The ongoing achievement of Alexander Yakovlev |journal=National Review|volume=54|issue=24|pages=24&ndash;26}}</ref>

==Honours and awards==
* [[Order of Merit for the Fatherland]], 2nd class
* [[Order of the October Revolution]]
* [[Order of the Red Banner]]
* [[Order of the Patriotic War]], 1st class
* [[Order of the Red Banner of Labour]], three times
* [[Order of Friendship of Peoples]]
* [[Order of the Red Star]]
* {{Interlanguage link|Order of Venerable Sergius of Radonezh|ru|Орден Преподобного Сергия Радонежского}}, 3rd class ([[Russian Orthodox Church]], 1997)
* Great Officers Cross of the [[Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
* Commander of the [[Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland]]
* Commander of the [[Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas]] (Lithuania)
* Knight Grand Cross of the [[Order of the Three Stars]] (Latvia)
* Grand Cross of the [[Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana]] (Estonia)
* Collar of the [[Order of the Liberator]] (Venezuela)

==Publications==
* Alexander N. Yakovlev and Abel G. Aganbegyan, ''Perestroika, 1989'', Scribner (1989), trade paperback, {{ISBN|0-684-19117-2}}
* Alexander Yakovlev, ''USSR the Decisive Years'', First Glance Books (1991), hardcover, {{ISBN|1-55013-410-8}}
* Alexander Yakovlev, translated by [[Catherine A. Fitzpatrick]], ''The Fate of Marxism in Russia'', Yale University Press (1993), hardcover, {{ISBN|0-300-05365-7}}; trade paperback, Lightning Source, UK, Ltd. (17 November 2004) {{ISBN|0-300-10540-1}}
* Alexander N. Yakovlev, foreword by Paul Hollander, translated by Anthony Austin, ''Century of Violence in Soviet Russia'', Yale University Press (2002), hardcover, 254 pages, {{ISBN|0-300-08760-8}}; trade paperback, Yale University Press (2002), 272 pages, {{ISBN|0-300-10322-0}}
* A. N. Yakovlev, Горькая чаша (''Bitter Cup''), Yaroslavl, 1994.
* A. N. Yakovlev, Сумерки (''Time of Darkness'' - lit. ''"Dusk"''), Moscow, 2003, 688 pages, {{ISBN|5-85646-097-9}}
* Alexander N. Yakovlev, ''Digging Out: How Russia Liberated Itself from the Soviet Union'', Encounter Books (December 1, 2004), hardcover, 375 pages, {{ISBN|1-59403-055-3}}

==See also==
*[[Joseph S. Nye, Jr.]], former dean of [[Harvard Kennedy School]] considers Yakovlev's story a prime example of the importance of soft power in resolving international conflicts, such as, in Yakovlev's case, the [[Cold War]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Joseph Nye Testifies Before Congress on U.S. Security Strategy Post-9/11 |date=6 November 2007 |publisher=John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University |url=http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/testimonies/joseph-nye-testifies-before-congress-on-u.s.-security-strategy-post-9-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705145823/http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/testimonies/joseph-nye-testifies-before-congress-on-u.s.-security-strategy-post-9-11 |archive-date=5 July 2008 |url-status = live}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Christopher Shulgan, ''The Soviet Ambassador: The Making of the Radical Behind Perestroika'', McClelland and Stewart (June 10, 2008), Hardcover, {{ISBN|978-0-7710-7996-2}} (0-7710-7996-6), 288 pages.
*Richard Pipes, ''Alexander Yakovlev: The Man Whose Ideas Delivered Russia from Communism'', NIU Press,  2017, {{ISBN|978-0-87580-748-5}} 151 pages.
* Alexander Ostrovsky, [https://ru.bookshome.net/book/3299571/e53580 Кто поставил Горбачёва? (Who put Gorbachev?)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807112401/https://ru.bookshome.net/book/3299571/e53580 |date=7 August 2022}} — М.: Алгоритм-Эксмо, 2010. — 544 с. ISBN 978-5-699-40627-2.
* Alexander Ostrovsky, [https://ru.bookshome.net/book/1137525/d94429 Глупость или измена? Расследование гибели СССР. (Stupidity or treason? Investigation of the death of the USSR)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830215714/https://ru.bookshome.net/book/1137525/d94429 |date=30 August 2022}} М.: Форум, Крымский мост-9Д, 2011. — 864 с. ISBN 978-5-89747-068-6.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev}}
*http://www.alexanderyakovlev.org Alexander Yakovlev foundation website
*http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Elberg/Yakovlev/yak-con0.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090826072359/http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Elberg/Yakovlev/yak-con0.html |date=26 August 2009 }} Interview with Alexander Yakovlev
*http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Elberg/Yakovlev/yak-elb1.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070210002515/http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Elberg/Yakovlev/yak-elb1.html |date=10 February 2007 }} Full text of a 1993 lecture by Yakovlev
*http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/international/europe/19yakovlev.html Obituary in ''The New York Times''
*http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4353766.stm BBC: Perestroika architect dies at 81
*https://www.theguardian.com/russia/article/0,2763,1595945,00.html Alexander Yakovlev
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303211742/http://thebradbrooksshow.com/guests/past-guests/9-june-29-2008-chris-shulgan-the-soviet-ambassador Interview with Christopher Shulgan, author of ''The Soviet Ambassador'', June 29, 2008]
*http://www.thecommentary.ca/ontheline/20080630a.html Audio interview with Christopher Shulgan re: ''The Soviet Ambassador'', June 2008

{{27th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yakovlev, Alexander Nikolaevich}}
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:2005 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Yaroslavsky District, Yaroslavl Oblast]]
[[Category:Members of the Central Auditing Commission of the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Members of the Central Committee of the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Members of the Secretariat of the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Members of the Politburo of the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Russian Party of Social Democracy politicians]]
[[Category:Eleventh convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities]]
[[Category:Members of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to Canada]]
[[Category:Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Perestroika]]
[[Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland]]
[[Category:Commander's Crosses of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 2nd Class]]
[[Category:Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery]]
[[Category:Russian communists]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Head of Propaganda Department of CPSU CC]]
[[Category:Soviet reformers]]