I was both impressed and disappointed by "The Soviet Ambassador."
On the one hand, Christopher Shulgan has written a well-timed
biography about an under-analyzed figure of the late Soviet era in
Aleksandr Yakovlev. However, on the other hand, the background
context that Shulgan provides is incomplete and therefore the
result is an oversimplified analysis.
The book is roughly divided into three parts; the events
surrounding the putsch in 1991; Yakovlev's childhood and rise
through the Communist Party; and finally his years as the USSR's
Ambassador to Canada. All the parts regarding Yakovlev's biography
are very well done, well-researched and well-written. Yakovlev's
service during the Great Patriotic War, his short time at Columbia
university, and the many years in Canada during the Trudeau years.
Most interesting were Yakovlev's intimate relationships with the
many government and corporate representatives including a
McDonald's executive whose ambitious plan to start a franchise in
Moscow with the help of Yakovlev. Clearly, as Shulgan shows,
Yakovlev was deeply influenced by his time in Canada, his ideas for
Perestroika and Glasnost directly reflected.
Some of the historical context for the events surrounding the 1991
putsch attempt, the rise of Gorbachev and the development of
Perestroika and Glastnost are incomplete and oversimplified. For
example, the biggest mistake the KGB made during the 1991 putsch
was that they didn't arrest Yeltsin right away and allowed him to
rally his supporters. That is why the soldiers decided to obey
Yeltsin instead of the KGB, something that Shulgan omits from his
narrative. In Shulgan's discussion on Khrushchev, he fails to point
out the main reason why he was ousted: Khrushchev tried to
implement term limits which angered many senior apparatchik. This,
and not the Cuban missile crisis, Novocharkassk, or the failed
Virgin Land Campaigns was the result of his downfall.
In his epilogue discussing the Gorbachev years, Shulgan implies
that Perestroika and Glasnost were Gorbachev's plan from the first
day he came to office. That is simply not the case, Gorbachev was
very puritanical in his approach from the beginning. It was only
when his orthodox approach failed, mostly due to the collapse of
oil prices in the mid-80's when he announced the reforms.
In doing so, Shulgan falls into the trap of most who hold Gorbachev
in such high regard. Perestroika was doomed to fail from the start,
when you consider that the CPSU was paradoxically both the
initiator and the object of Perestroika. As Stephen Kotkin shows in
"Armageddon Averted," Gorbachev's vision was simply too idealistic
to be implemented in reality. Yakovlev observed Canada's free
elections, open and transparent democracy, but didn't realize that
it was the existence of liberal institutions which allowed for it
to work, that which the USSR did not have.
Despite some of the contextual issues, I still think "The Soviet
Ambassador" is a good book. Viewing Canada from a different
perspective is interesting in itself, and therefore worth reading
if just for all the great insight into Yakovlev's years in Canada
and looking past some of the flawed background analysis.