A Man of Parts
Yakovlev, finally, was a major force in many of Mikhail Gorbachev's foreign policies, including the policy of nonintervention in Eastern Europe. He stuck to his belief in democracy even when in the 1990s it became unfashionable once again. In the coup against Gorbachev, Yakovlev poured scorn on the putschists at a time when their chance of victory was still real, as the Times of London said. In the coup against Boris Yeltsin, he made his way through the barricades and joined Yeltsin's defenders in the White House. Yet when the coup against Gorbachev failed, he didn't hesitate to break with him for abandoning the most crucial component of the reform program and bringing into his inner circle the hard-liners and plotters, including the KGB's Vladimir Kriuchkov. Later, when Russian political culture again grew less democratic under Vladimir Putin, Yakovlev criticized the creeping authoritarianism of the Russian president.
No one today in Russia fills Yakovlev's shoes. No one has his stature, his intellect, his passion for democracy, and his willingness to examine the darker side of Russia's modern history.
An inspiring commitment to human values shone through this man, whom I met on virtually every one of my 20-odd visits to the Soviet Union in the 1980s and 1990s. It was an honor to work with him on the Internet publication of the archives of the secret police so that they could never again be suppressed. His leadership, and his life, will serve forever as a marker for those who believe that Russia can be a greater country and provide a better life for its citizens as a democratic state.
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