An insider witness to the collapse of reform
He recalled that his task had “extended the history of the Soviet state by one day.”
Andrei Grachev was a specialist in international affairs and a journalist who worked on the international meaning and domestic politics of Soviet reform. After the August 1991 coup, he became Mikhail Gorbachev’s aide and final presidential press secretary, observing at close range both negotiations to preserve the Union and the disintegration of its state institutions. His memoirs and deposited personal papers document the tension between perestroika’s promise of democratic renewal and the acceleration of the Union’s collapse.
Career Timeline
- 1964–1966Referent, Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR
- 1966–1973Soviet representative at the Budapest editorial office of Youth of the World
- 1973First deputy chairman, Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR
- 1973–1978Referent, CPSU Central Committee International Department
- 1978–1989CPSU Central Committee Department of Foreign Political Propaganda
- 1989–1991Deputy head, CPSU Central Committee International Department
- 1991Aide and press secretary to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
- 1992–현재Journalist, political commentator and author