The Soviet Ambassador: The Making Of The Radical Behind Perestroika

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.