Propaganda-trained culture minister who executed glasnost-era cultural liberalization
In June 1989, the USSR Supreme Soviet reviewed Premier Ryzhkov's proposed cabinet and rejected Zakharov's renomination as culture minister. For the first time in decades, the rubber-stamp legislature told a sitting minister he was unqualified and sent him packing.
Trained as an economist, he rose through the Leningrad party organization's propaganda and agitation apparatus to reach Moscow, where Gorbachev appointed him Minister of Culture in 1986. His tenure oversaw a decisive shift in Soviet cultural policy: the publication of previously banned books, the relaxation of film censorship, and expanded autonomy for artistic creation. He personally mediated the acrimonious split of the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1989 the newly empowered Supreme Soviet rejected his renomination, the first major case of the legislature exercising real confirmation power over a sitting minister. After leaving office, he served as deputy premier of the Russian republic and later wrote memoirs judging the Gorbachev era a 'reign of missed opportunities.'
Career Timeline
- 1957–1973Lecturer in political economy at Tomsk and Leningrad institutes; doctorate in economics (1973)
- 1973–1983Head of Propaganda and Agitation Department, then Secretary of Leningrad Oblast Committee, overseeing culture, science, and education
- 1983–1986First Deputy Chief of CC Propaganda Department → Second Secretary of Moscow City Committee under Boris Yeltsin
- 1986–1989Minister of Culture of the USSR, lifting bans on books, easing censorship, and granting theatres autonomy during glasnost
- 1989–1990Deputy Chairman of the RSFSR Council of Ministers