My Six Years with Gorbachev

Even though it was less than two decades ago, the rise and fall of Mikhail Gorbachev is far enough removed from our consciousness that this memoir by the Soviet leader's last chief foreign policy aide reads like a history from another planet. Chernyaev provides a blow-by-blow account of the high politics and diplomacy of the Gorbachev years, from Gorbachev's ascension as Soviet leader in March 1985 to his resignation in December of 1991. Little new interpretive ground is broken here; Chernyaev takes the conventional line that Gorbachev was more successful in foreign policy than in domestic matters and was too slow in realizing that his policies had made the Soviet Union irrelevant. The only real fireworks come in the book's afterword, where Chernyaev takes two recent Western authors to task for recently writing that Gorbachev was responsible for the failed putsch that attempted to remove him from power in September 1991. The most enlightening part of the book comes in its early sections, where the author describes how Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika didn't come out of an ideological vacuum, but stemmed from a long-simmering movement among intellectuals and diplomats toward reforming the Soviet system. Chernyaev's frankness is appealing: while still loyal to his former boss, he is not afraid to discuss their differences, such as his unhappiness with Gorbachev's reaction to Soviet tanks rolling into Lithuania in January 1991. Those fascinated by the Soviet Union and the Cold War will learn from the behind-the-scenes machinations that Chernyaev describes. (Oct.)