The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 Donated by A S Chernyaev to The National Security Archive Translated by Svetlana Savranskaya http www nsarchive org The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org January 4 1984 Yesterday I returned from Pushkino where I spent my vacation which turned out to be not quite successful Yesterday Brutents called He was talking about Ponomarev’s activity who demands plans initiatives that he ragged on me and Veber that we had not submitted a plan of “work with social democrats” we submit those to him three or four times a year and they all languish in his box In other words B N is in his element This is no longer a style it is an illness A senile illness of limitless empty busy work On January 17 he turns 79 January 8 1984 On Friday January 6 I went back to work However Ponomarev was not interested in me Javad 1 and I discussed various things inviting Kinnock to the USSR McClennon’s request for a visit finally with a delegation concerns to ensure an appropriate level for him because he has not met with our general secretary since 1967 the Australian problems then Clancy and what to do with him because formally he is a “nobody ” and what to do with that party as such and with its leader Saimon who fell in with “revisionism ” whom we stopped paying the Irish problems—on January 10 O’Riordan is coming and we will have to explain our ties with the recently emerged workers’ party Zhilin is true to his style Nobody has seen him at work during my vacation Brutents sat with me for more than an hour We discussed why Ponomarev does not like Veber our best consultant and a decent person I proposed a suggestion that B N is cringing about Veber's name not because he himself is an “anti-semite” he is not but because others from outside and above could think badly of Ponomarev because he keeps «some kind of Veber» in the CC apparatus For B N somebody's opinion and especially an influential one is more substantive than any truth and elementary interests of the cause Karen doubted that “concept ” We talked again and again about prospects i e about the place of the International Department in today’s politics in Andropov’s era And laughed at ourselves again as long as B N keeps his position nothing serious will be done Of course there are some objective causes of our helplessness the object of our work is either helpless itself or not “manageable” from Moscow But even in this situation one could be doing something useful and interesting if not for Ponomarev’s style if not for the traditions which smother everything that is living modern if not for the cynical pragmatism that he imposes exclusively in the name of appearing “practically useful” for his bosses More and more there was a feeling that they just tolerated him because there is no platform a 1 Head of the British sector of the International Department 1 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org new concept of our relations with revolutionary forces in comparison with which Ponomarev’s style would look obviously useless And after all nobody has time for it I talked with Kozlov a Department consultant It turns out that B N charged him with systematizing preliminary materials for the CPSU Program Lesha has an impression that at the present moment and it has to be presented to the Commission—to Andropov—in March already this the Program is just a collection of articles and drafts as a rule not very fitting to become part of a party document of a historic predestination Everything is ruled by today's routine nobody looks at how events would develop further—either outside of the country or inside That is why there is nothing interesting there nothing really programmatic And it is altogether laughable to entrust this task to Ponomarev who is completely devoid of any theoretical sense or any smallest taste for theory He simply does not understand what it is For him what is theoretical just sounds louder “prettier ” word declamation and attractive as propaganda I am curious why did Ponomarev never make me part of the Program business and things like that for example of the draft of the Constitution It is probably because he does not consider me just like Veber a person with theoretical thinking And it’s true I am “idiosyncratic” in my attitude to theory as Ponomarev and others like him understand it On Sunday the 6th during the day I visited the exhibition of young artists of the Moscow Artistic Association at “Manezh ” Very weak copy-like work But what is especially vexing—I do not understand why in the world did they become artists what do they want for the country for the people where are their higher aspirations directed And even in the manner the method of painting one cannot discern any kind of a new direction Pathetic And this probably reflects our “human condition ” January 15 1984 All kinds of small business at work And from the 11th the editorial commission at Voprosy Istorii Questions of History Nothing special although I spoke several times After all even there in a very democratic collective and a decent one at that in 15 years nobody turned anybody in did not accuse of revisionism although we often and sharply disagreed and our opinions diverged diametrically And so—even in our very decent editorial commission the pretentious dilettantism is rising to the top in this case the illiterate but very ideological blabbering by Gaponenko about the article by Yu Afanasiev appealing to the “new science of history” in France I gave my review of Fomin’s article in which he is trying to prove that in 1968 there was a pro-Fascist conspiracy in England a state coup headed by Lord Mountbatten I “crushed’ this graphomaniac nonsense But how about that An accepted prominent professor considers it possible to seriously propose to publish nonsense For a 50-ruble honorarium To multiply publications In order not to be forgotten as an author For a sensation What manners Here it is the same as everywhere 2 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org January 19 1984 Zagladin told me how in the middle all kinds of routine business Ponomarev suddenly says to him “I was digging through old papers and discovered a curious memo from you from 1968 ” And showed him Turns out that during a meeting at the Cerny-on-Tissa he B N ordered Zagladin to write an unpleasant only for him analysis—what would happen with the ICM International Communist Movement if we send troops to Czechoslovakia Vadim did that Ponomarev after having read it said “Well well I will save this opinion of yours And I am sure that in a couple of years you will be ashamed to read it ” So now he found that paper and having reminded the author about it said “You were right Vadim Valentinovich ” … and put the paper back into the safe Today I was at Kutsenkov’s at the new apartment next to Mayakovsky square It is a general’s apartment you can ride a motorcycle around it I envied his deep immersion in his work the castes in India and the chief editor of Eastern Studies journal We had a drink And we hugged each other’s souls Generally speaking I do not have a good male friend except for him This is solid this is warm this is without complexes and this is not limited just to the “ideological-political” kinship as I have with Brutents Here it is all together complete male closeness and trust Eidelman gave me his last book about Karamzin He believes that he studied under me at Moscow State in the early 1950s It looks like they are launching a campaign against him Literaturka has already cursed him twice What could this mean It is time to start preparing for the report to the party meeting on the results of the CC Plenum I was entrusted with it And I have neither energy nor inspiration to create as far as our work is concerned And overall the indifference to work is growing I wake up in the morning thinking in disgust that I have to go there again for the whole day Such a state has never lasted so long before It is the age … and the “strategic” tiredness But mainly—a loss of an objective goal of hard work While Ponomarev is at the helm everything is senseless and in vain Today we discussed this topic at Zagladin’s for two hours me and Brutents However Vadim solves all his problems easily by constructing a blueprint of the next report on the ICM for the Lenin School Karen told us about yesterday’s meeting between Chernenko Ponomarev and Wilner General secretary of the Communist party of Israel That smart provincial Jew was trying to explain to our guys in Russian that you cannot fight Zionism in this way by equating it with Fascism it is stupid harmful hopeless and confusing for everybody It seemed that Chernenko had already “got it ” but B N pushed back However the mechanism has been put to work already Today I read the PB decision about creating in addition to the all-Union anti-Zionist committee similar committees in the republics and in big cities Nothing to be done here the irrational force inoculated by Stalin in 19481949 is in action 3 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org I bought a new publication by A Platonov This is the first time I read his literary criticism essays did not even know about them including the one about Pushkin After Dostoyevsky his word about Pushkin is the only truly original and modern one—massive Pushkin studies notwithstanding—about our great genius—immortal for the entire Soviet epoch January 22 1984 Story by Krupin “A Family Scene” in Literaturnaya Gazeta from January 18 Aside from the depth and brilliance I was struck by the legalization of extra-marital love and community—as the most important thing in the relationships of modern Soviet men and women I wasted my Saturday preparing a report for the party meeting on the results of the December Plenum I thought up various things sounds interesting for myself but how will it be received Besides other things it depends on how I present it January 26 1984 Yesterday I took part in a meeting at the Kremlin between “our parliamentarians” Ponomarev and others and the leader of the Liberal party of England successor of Lloyd George David Steel Other participants were Chakovsky Ruben from the Supreme Soviet Zamyatin and General Chervov Steel was accompanied by a Lord leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords and four other people They came to gain political capital for the future elections And yet they could not resist getting into angry polemic on the same old things Afghanistan why one can buy Pravda in London but one cannot buy The Times in Moscow and so on and so fourth And in general they would like to break the wall of “misunderstanding ” the ideological barrier that is an obstacle to “normal” communication on the condition that we accept the rules of parliamentary discussion And before that—agitated clashes with B N in the course of preparing “talking points” for him for the introductory speech for the Englishmen He made me speak about the anti-war movement I was concise and polite They did not listen to the General with his missiles numbers and Chakovsky’s swaggering blubber was met with irony and chuckles And along the way he snubbed Ponomarev when the latter tried to interrupt his fountain I heard that at the reception at the British Embassy Ruben who was our top guy there made a 50-minute toast of an absolutely cretin nature The Englishmen were shocked Oh God where did they get such idiots as heads of the two chambers of our Supreme Soviet—Shitikov and that Ruben 4 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Yesterday I made a presentation at the department party meeting on the results of the December Plenum of the CC I was not quite satisfied myself it felt like I lost wind by the end of the presentation However today I received a pile of sincere appreciations and congratulations … February 1 1984 I am getting ready to go to Luxembourg Ponomarev could not care less he is torturing me with his electoral speech He wants it to be “impressive ” but nothing new meaning beyond Andropov-Gromyko He understands that I am sick and tired from all this When he was giving me his comments on the 30 pages already written and making sighs of dissatisfaction Brutents came in He waxed ironically why are you i e myself so gloomy B N commented “He is sick and tired of all this and he is running away to Luxembourg ” Yesterday in Zagladin’s company I went to the Efros theater Napoleon I with Ulyanov This is something But all in all—just a spectacle a demonstration of actors’ skills Zero for the mind Yakovleva Josephina is repulsive physically The moral of this fable is – it is primitive February 10 1984 At two thirty they announced that Andropov died yesterday at 16 50 Awful Our poor Russia But did the Andropov era come to an end B N even while in the hospital went to the Kremlin and the CC several times—it means they already decided … Whom Would they have enough responsibility before the country enough Lenin’s party sense to appoint Gorbachev If Chernenko—then the era will end quickly and overall … I am sick A powerful flu I got sick in Luxembourg the morning after the congress of the Luxembourg communist party I had to work there while completely sick the threehour meeting with the Social Democrats chairman of the party Krins leaders of the parliamentary faction Berg the final meeting on the results of the congress with Rene Urbani at the CC as he later joked at dinner I “informed him about the congress ” Several political dinners and suppers with members of the new Politburo At the congress proper out of 11 delegations of communist parties I was the only one who was given the floor I have never in my entire life experienced such ovations on the occasion of my appearance at the podium … Addressed to the CPSU of course But it was quite demonstrative and meaningful The final dinner General Secretary Rene Urbani was magnificent His wife Jacquelyn works in the administration of the Central Committee of the Luxembourg Communist Party The beauty Marianna member of the Politburo and his lover practically openly Rene’s second wife Francois Hoffman member of the Politburo and deputy of the main editor of the Zeitung with Russian language Lucien former correspondent of their 5 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org newspaper in Moscow Also with us were the Armenian ambassador Udamyan Kamo Babievich and the first secretary Vorobiev Roman Fedorovich Everybody was really eager to speak their heart out on international affairs on the ICM and especially on their neighbors the French They cursed Marchais without mincing words for lack of decency opportunism anti-Sovietism and just for stupidity They are especially aggravated because they always used to pray to the big French brother but now not only he embarrasses himself he also spoils everything for them the ruling circles and social democrats cite Rene as a model for the French—he they say supports the CPSU—an even bigger chief brother—and at the same time cooperates with “us ” I am happy with myself I conducted this whole affair at the proper level And it looks like they the Luxembourgers really needed it They needed a delegation that knows them can step in their shoes understands problems that concern them is ready to discuss them in a comradely fashion and not just respond with bureaucratic declarations based on papers prepared beforehand still in Moscow drafts of statements “on various issues ” But there are few of us in the CC who can do it this way with this kind of Communists … As far as Luxembourg is concerned it is probably just Zagladin and myself… For them substance is more important than ranks although the ranks would please them too Other fraternal delegations were at the level of Politburo CC members February 12 1984 I am still sick I am ashamed—there is such a whirlwind at work now Visitors are coming from everywhere Reagan is the only one who is not coming And look at Thatcher—not only she is coming herself she is also bringing all leaders of the opposition parties Of course Kohl Trudo and the like In short a massive peaceful gesture toward us I don’t think this is completely insincere—they are mainly religious people and by tradition they treat death funerals and the memory of the deceased very seriously Will we be able to respond to this gesture in the name of peace in a proper way Or will our “class” suspiciousness our disparaging attitude to “their” customs and rules of the game and mainly the needs of the military-bureaucratic complex meaning GromykoUstinov personally take the upper hand In many years I have not heard so much serious music on the radio as I heard yesterday in one day I was especially struck by Gluck for flute with orchestra—so wonderfully played by a young woman flutist I hadn’t heard previously To sum up we expected a lot from Andropov And not in vain If he had another year or two he would have achieved something But … And now I am sitting and waiting who will replace him and how it will work However formally everything will be the same as was started under him But in our country so much depends on personal traits on the way of thinking and the moods the sympathies and antipathies of the leader In this transition it will have a much greater impact than for example in the “change of leader” 6 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org after Lenin after Stalin and after Khrushchev Brezhnev created the tradition of “personal power ” After him for example Andropov’s personal authority as the country’s sole leader was never put in slightest doubt if one does not count the fears of some intelligentsia and some excessively “well-informed” nomenclature members regarding Chernenko’s claims … I am convinced that there were no such claims It will be the same this time too whomever they elect—the next day they will obey him unquestioningly And already in a week or two along with the “decisions of the subsequent Plenums ” we will be implementing the “directives of comrade … ” And still I am not yet losing the hope that they will elect rather already “elected”—at the PB—tomorrow at the Plenum is just the approval Gorbachev I got the hint—Javad informed me that during a conference at Zagladin’s he got a call from Gorbachev’s office and was asked to come at a certain time for some business It is possible that it is about “the word” from the Masoleum maybe about some speech at the Plenum tomorrow … Both of which if that is true are very hopeful February 14 1984 The miracle did not happen They elected Chernenko I went to the Plenum although I am still sick and it looks like it is serious The Plenum is again for some reason in the Sverdlov Hall Which means you have to arrive an hour and a half in advance to claim a seat The provincial elite has already filled half the room And everything went as always they kissed they exchanged loud greetings they shared the “news”—about the snow the weather the harvest prospects— in a word it was “party talk” of people who felt themselves masters of life And in all this polyphony I did not hear Andropov’s name mentioned even once or any mention of the “event ” By half past ten the hall was already full Only some loners who came late were wondering around in search of where to settle among them were the former head of administration Pavlov who was no longer entitled to his “own” seat and the General Secretary’s former assistants Tsukanov Golikov and the like In about 20 minutes the room fell silent The waiting began Tension was rising with every minute as if the atmosphere was filling up with electricity Five minutes before 11 candidate Politburo members and secretaries filed in through the side entrance as usual and as usual Ponomarev was leading the way the eternal first among the seconds This time however they did not briskly greet those seated close did not extend their arms to them in a democratic impulse to meld with the Central Committee rank-and-file Tension reached its culmination All eyes and necks were turned to the left-side door behind the stage—the entrance to the Presidium—“who will be the first ” 7 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Right at 11 Chernenko’s head appeared in the door frame Behind him were Tikhonov Gromyko Ustinov Gorbachev and others The room reacted with silence Nobody got up as it happened last time when as I remember Andropov came in at the Plenum after Brezhnev’s death The Presidium was seated Gorbachev next to Chernenko Nothing is clear yet … Chernenko got up and bending low over a paper laying on the table started quickly saying some words about the deceased in a quiet asthmatic voice Then—that the absolute majority was present and we could open the meeting Then—that the agenda only had one issue—about electing General Secretary There were no objections or amendments He gave the floor to Tikhonov Tikhonov came down to the podium and started a lengthy speech about the deceased and the party’s tasks—to continue what was started under him Tension did not subside The lack of clarity persisted And then finally he pronounced the Politburo discussed … they entrusted me to propose … for the consideration of the Plenum the candidacy of Chernenko … Several seconds passed before the tension “discharged” in the form of weak formal very short applause I remember the explosion of ovations that erupted at the November 1982 Plenum when the same Chernenko proposed to elect Andropov General secretary And alas I am not the only one who remembers that Disappointment instantly pierced the room and dampened the atmosphere even more Tikhonov continued to characterize the candidate Chernenko instantly became an indefatigable fighter a prominent statesman and other things—almost everything that in recent days were the indispensable attributes of the deceased Tikhonov left without applause I was looking at the members of the Presidium and I seemed to see embarrassment in their faces As if they were feeling remorse for failing the expectations of the Plenum members the party masses and of the people as a whole Because no matter who you talked to in the recent days Gorbachev was on everybody’s mind And they did not want to they thought with disgust that Chernenko would be the one Then Gorbachev got up and conducted the vote Unanimous Then he gave the floor to the “General Secretary of the Central Committee” … His speech was tedious boring and long In general it was all the right things—because he repeated the same formulas words tasks and ideas that emerged under Andropov Nothing of his own other than the pattering manner of reading and distorting phrases from time to time 8 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org He was greeted and seen off coolly although people stood up in the end because members of the Presidium Tikhonov and Gromyko led the way I think that it was precisely these persons and maybe Ustinov who “in a preliminary fashion” decided this question before presenting it to the Politburo That’s how it is Nobody can say anything bad about him except maybe some members of intelligentsia who feed on the rumors and conjectures that on his instructions the publishing houses suppress manuscripts and ban new plays Nobody ever cites any facts I think that he has not treated anybody especially badly on his own initiative My interaction with him was minimal—we traveled to Denmark together in 1976 for the party congress He was modest democratic lenient in a comradely way But at that time he had not yet been tested by the temptation of power We interacted rarely when I had to speak at the Secretariat I remember visiting him with Zagladin pleading for an order for B N for his 75th birthday He treats me evenly but without this attitude like “I know you ” But again all this does not mean anything People are disappointed for a different reason … We watched the funeral on TV for two hours The factory sirens are especially impressive They no longer film our leadership like this … when they lowered him into the grave Others around him do not feel it appropriate to show off And so—what is the disappointment all about It is because any mediocrity whom fate accidentally carried to the front stage can occupy the top position in our great state In this case Brezhnev was the fate He got to like Chernenko back in Moldavia and then dragged him along to the Central Committee apparatus to the position of deputy head of Propaganda department then to the apparatus of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in the beginning of the 1960s then to the General Department of the Central Committee He made him his closest confidant and demonstrated it in every which way in his vulgar-nepotistic style of leadership of the state and the party In five years he promoted him from deputy department head to a Politburo member and the second person in the party And after that the logic of “stability” and “continuity” kicked in not even mentioning the levers of power and friendship But even Brezhnev preparing to pass on the reins of power understood that Chernenko his favorite and his political lackey should not be made the First and so he “pushed up” Andropov just in time The disappointment because this man mediocre and squalid in his intellectual capacity poorly educated and devoid of any cultural basis a minor party bureaucrat in his habits and “work experience ” apparatchik in the worst sense of this word also does not have 9 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org anything to distinguish him personally—as just a citizen He did not even fight in the war as did all more or less decent people of his generation And also because this particular person rose to the leadership of this country at the moment when a deep chasm emerged in its history when so many hopes emerged when confidence emerged even though still very unsteady that now things would develop along the path of justice and that vice would be finally banished to the underground and would not be allowed to triumph so brazenly over our ideals and over truth as people understand it Of course even without personal participation in any case without personal contribution the cart put together under Andropov can continue moving forward But … alas there is not yet sufficient momentum for it to move along for a long time without pushing and a good thrust And for this one needs the authority not just of the position and the power The authority of intellect and the “mystery” that it this intellect is capable of something Andropov possessed that Yesterday many of those who came for the funeral demanded to see me But after the Plenum and especially after I went to the Hall of Columns together with the entire Plenum and then walking back to the Old Square I got all frozen and felt that my temperature spiked again—so I refused to meet with anybody except for McClennan who really pleaded to see me on a sensitive matter I suspected what matter it was That’s what it turned out to be I went with Javad and Lagutin to the hotel on Dmitrova Street Gordon talked long and with embarrassment about the conflict between the Politburo and The Morning Star about which we know better than he does And the essence of his complaint although he kept repeating that it was their internal affair was that Moscow took the side of the newspaper which speaks against the party leadership in this conflict … I listened and played the fool—I don’t know anything maybe it is just a technical issue maybe the paper and the “International Book” distributed advance payment for subscriptions for the year instead of the regular quarterly ones directly without the knowledge of the Central Committee I posed two “naïve” questions—what is the political nature of the disagreements between The Morning Star and the party leadership And another—what should we do now— stop the purchase of the printed copies On the first question he treaded water for a long time knowing whose cat ate the meat the Executive Committee of the CPB demands that the paper publish anti-Soviet materials on Poland Afghanistan and human rights but the main editor Chater refuses to do it McClennan naturally did not want to admit any of that But on the second question—oh what are you talking about keep buying it of course 10 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Thus our hour-and-a-half chatter did not result in anything However it is clear that if this becomes publicly known we would have to shift the blame on the initiative of “Interbook ” which by the way acted lawfully following all the rules of commerce Yesterday Ponomarev summoned me Zhilin and Menshikov regarding the text of his forthcoming speech to the voters It was postponed due to Andropov’s death As always B N ’s small-grained ideas that he presents as important political phenomena This time two of them deserve attention 1 Are we going to react to the peace gestures by the “imperialists” who came to pay their respects to Andropov Take Thatcher for example who brought with her all the opposition leaders i e assembled a national team Of course we could just emphasize this fact as one more victory of our policies and react to this gesture as to a new act of hypocrisy as an effort to create an appearance that everything is fine the “Pershings” notwithstanding and peace is ensured and only “your” obstinacy undermines dialogue But would that be wise Apart from the fact that not everything in this gesture is pharisaic They are religious people and take these things seriously Because certainly there was an element of sincerity there This is approximately the tirade that I produced and added that the entire prepared text was focused on exposing imperialism Meanwhile the world public is expecting a constructive approach from us now B N wrinkled his brow “Come on Anatoly Sergeyevich they all are hard-headed politicos So should we change our policies now because of their gesture They are not changing theirs Ok maybe we should strengthen “the constructive element ” he said addressing Menshikov But in general leave it as is including the “teaching about failures” of Reagan’s policies—vulgar demagoguery which by the way I personally executed on paper following his directives for the earlier draft 2 More substantively Menshikov raised the issue of how to phrase it that the meeting with voters takes place “on these days when …” and so on B N wrinkled his brow again “On these days … The speech will not be tomorrow but in a week he called somewhere to make sure By that time it will be quite appropriate However I don’t know about the others We should find out from Yermonsky another one of our consultants who was part of the group at the Gorky dacha preparing a speech for Chernenko what they think about this Well I think maybe we shouldn’t To the contrary we should quote comrade Chernenko of course say that the party will continue the line of the XXVI Congress Quote Lenin twice Did you notice that in his speech at the Plenum comrade Chernenko referred to Lenin quoted his words and not just once But I think we shouldn’t talk about Andropov Well maybe prepare a paragraph just in case but do not put it in the draft yet ” Menshikov however exhibited persistence He says “but Boris Nikolayevich the people now want to know more than anything else if bribe-takers and thieves will 11 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org continue to be put in jail or to the contrary they would be released now … It is in this sense that I was asking whether we should mention Andropov’s name and the need to continue what was started …” B N “Well of course of course In this sense we should say firmly that the party would conduct its principal line on ensuring order But we don’t have to mention Andropov here ” That’s how it is And I don’t understand—is there already such a little norm Or maybe it is Ponomarev’s personal jealous dislike of Andropov Can it be that he will again be fired up with hope that something will drop into his hands under Chernenko But no he again in cynicism and full disregard of opinions and feelings of his “interlocutors” we are dog shit for him has shown his absolute immorality in full colors For him there is nothing sacred In order to be at the level of the demands of the modern international politics one must rise above not only class prejudices but also above one’s ideological stereotypes which grip one even stronger when the class opponent is not “immediately in front of one’s face ” This is all about how to react to Thatcher’s appearance in Moscow with all her entourage at this moment But to be “able” to do it—one needs a significant level of general culture or which supplants it an ability to think independently Andropov possessed both to some extent although he was also tied by his “experience” of work for the KGB and by his Komsomol past And here emerges the question in the speeches—yesterday at the Plenum and today from the Mausoleum—mentions of imperialists of aggressive adventurists—are those the creations of assistants consultants groups—who draft the speeches—who no matter what they think in their hearts feel obliged to repeat the clichés so that nobody would accuse them of revisionism or are those the result of specific directives More likely—the former And the speaker accepted them because that is how it is always done because it is seen as allegiance to “Marxism-Leninism ” And naturally his colleagues especially those from the Central Committee departments where the draft was circulated for review did not dare to utter a word about the expediency of such statements at this moment Therefore in this situation the cliché writing by the apparatus could become policy itself to a much greater degree than it was under Brezhnev and Andropov February 15 1984 I’m feeling the transition to the new stage only at an emotional level There are no new materials except that “assistant of the general secretary cde Alexandrov” attended Chernenko’s meeting with Bush Thatcher Kohl and so on just as always 12 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org And just now Sasha Veber called and informed me about our new failure the Politburo returned our draft letter from the Central Committee to social democrats regarding Stockholm negotiations on confidence-building measures It contains angry smashing comments must be from the Foreign Ministry but he says it has two signatures must be somebody else could it be Chebrikov B N hurried us with the letter he needed it sooner as he always does to demonstrate activity and to show off to his own bosses And the draft got there on the day of Andropov’s death This alone would be sufficient to turn it down not even mentioning Ponomarev’s toys which he inserted into it like the idea of organizing manifestation and collecting petitions around Stockholm and in Stockholm itself … And that is at a time when ministers already left Stockholm and only experts remained who mainly count how many troops participate in the maneuvers and so on They are technical people and could not care less about all these public appeals they do not have the authority to change anything in the directives from their capitals So in other words we flopped And for a good reason I have not seen that letter I left for Luxembourg just in time But it feels unpleasant anyway—for Zagladin for Veber especially so since had I been in the office the letter would have been most likely the same although I would have tried obviously to coordinate it with the Foreign Ministry beforehand “in working order” as I did with a similar letter for the Communist parties And it went through And again—all to the same point—our B N does not work any longer he needs to step down before they ask him out Thing are moving in that direction—even such a ritual thing which was always done by our Department —notices for the media about the comings and goings of foreign delegations—was re-oriented to Zamyatin’s Department B N was not even invited to shake hands with representatives from fraternal and revolutionary-democratic parties who came to express their condolences in St George’s Hall even though they constituted more than two-thirds of all delegations It is to no avail that he hopes looking at yesterday’s transcript that he will be “treated better” under Chernenko No His prestige and now even technological usefulness are disappearing irreversibly right in front of our eyes I am reading “Energy” by Gladkov I did not read it when it came out The sign of the epoch but not great literature especially in comparison with Anna Karenina which I pulled from my shelf yesterday when I had nothing to do and leafed through several chapters a mystery a wonder of language I am reading Lenin This one is always overwhelming in any mood even when you disagree with him even where he is obviously outdated you still unwillingly submit to his exorbitant intellectual power February 18 1984 13 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Yesterday I spent almost the entire day at work I read through transcripts of Chernenko’s meetings with leaders including Bush Kohl and Thatcher Very calm tone not quarrelsome without any special pragmatism about our “positions ” and for the Americans and especially for the Madam he found some warm words at the very end of the conversation must mean beyond the prepared talking points —about friendship between our peoples and governments that it was time to stop engaging in confrontation that if things start improving with England this meeting could become a very important event in the history of our relations and so on Thatcher was at her best trying to impress and it seems that she had achieved her goal Ambassador Popov who was present at the conversation said on the phone that if not for the table separating them she might have just jumped into Konstantin Ustinovich’s arms This is good He is in general a soft person And such moments could become significant indeed In this sense I really tried as much as I could to “soften” the “class character” of B N ’s speech to the voters I don’t know if that would work … I wrote a letter to him at the hospital advising him not to ask for trouble going against Gromyko and Ustinov who clearly do not want our interference in the Stockholm affairs which is why they reacted so rudely and sharply to our first version of the letter to social democrats Vadim Zagladin did not agree with me that we should not submit a second version of the letter to just pretend that nothing happened He cited Gorbachev who thinks that the letter was needed I don’t know how it will all end All foreigners have already left Only Gus Hall is still here … and Vassallo Communist party of Malta to whom I will go in an hour to celebrate his 60th at the hotel February 20 1984 I was reading Regan’s letter to Chernenko Mitterrand’s letter to Chernenko his conversation with Trudo the “window of opportunity” that will be shut in June when the presidential campaign heats up With the Western leaders Chernenko is soft polite hopeful But with “our own” meeting with Warsaw Pact leaders conversation with Castro he says nothing has changed and “we will hold our line ” Judging from Reagan’s meeting with journalists already after Bush’s return it is clear that they USA will not change anything in their military program This is true But that is not the problem The problem is whether we will always build our policy in fear of this program and in pursuit of a balance in response to it Here is the root of the entire problem—because we could render a decisive defeat of the “Crusade” not by our military program but by our food energy consumer goods and similar programs 14 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org And so on B N is still in the hospital He wanted me to come there for his meeting with Gus Hall But I got out of it It is very boring to talk as a threesome especially with Gus Hall Although it is my duty Nonetheless I enjoyed talking with McClennan and on Saturday—with Vassala and Azius I was developing our “anti-Crusade” strategy in front of them And I was curious myself But did not want to talk to Gus Hall I read Granin’s novella “The Trace is Still Visible” in Novy Mir Impressive … It is proper now to write like this about the war Precisely like this—not in a pretentious way Or like Kondratiev It is honest and talented February 24 1984 A hidden atmosphere of indeterminacy at the Department and around Ponomarev He stayed in the hospital before his trip to the voters received Hall Howe and somebody else there only attended the Secretariat and the Politburo meetings Was not interested in the business of the Department Called me only once to “agree” that we should not ask for trouble with the letter to social democrats before we find out the “final” opinion of Gorbachev and Ustinov I just saw him at the Secretariat he was pale not quite himself and so on It looks like he is feeling that some decisive moment is approaching Zagladin with Zhilin spent the entire week with the voters—in southern Turkmenistan near Kushka on the border with Afghanistan He is confidently waiting for his hour Newspapers and TV are carrying speeches of members candidate members and Secretaries of the Central Committee to the voters It looks like they have not agreed among themselves Some speeches mention both Andropov and Chernenko as “prominent” and so on Others barely mention Andropov’s death and do not give any characteristics including even the talkative Shevardnadze Some present Chernenko like Brezhnev at the end of his life Others—in a very reserved way—in the tone of the February Plenum However the mass media praises him to the fullest … They did not even need a warm-up Even now still—a stream of congratulations Plenums in the republics and districts are taking place “In the light of the decisions of the February Plenum of the CC following the statements and conclusion of the speech of the General Secretary of the CC CPSU comrade Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko ” Rank-and-file authors workers civil servants quote him left and right in their interviews to TV and radio as well as members of the Politburo and Secretaries of the CC in their speeches to the voters And one sees already his greetings to factories and districts for fulfilling the plan or on occasion of successful completion of something important In short his confirmation in the position of absolute leader was accomplished with cosmic speed 15 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org However his presence as a political figure is not yet felt in the apparatus though I did read his response to Reagan today There is nothing new in substance compared to similar letters from Andropov but the tone is more polite softer and more constructive and there are no mentions of concrete “in your face” slams—like Grenada the Middle East and other Reagan’s “creations ” In other words the hand is extended in a velvet glove for now And he never once mentioned the formula return to the state of affairs of mid-December last year regarding the missiles then we can talk But the press and Gromyko said it from the Masoleum The guys in the Department were especially struck by the rudeness aggressiveness and militancy of Ustinov’s article in Pravda on the occasion of the Red Army Day It is in stark disharmony with what the General Secretary said at the Plenum and even more so with what and how he was saying in his conversations with Western leaders The article was as usual sent around the PB including to B N to prepare comments Balmashnov asked me again as usual I highlighted the especially militarist passages wrote a memo to Ponomarev in the above-mentioned tone—that it differs from the Plenum But he did not even care to pick up the phone to pass at least one of my criticisms along to the author And the article was published in its virgin form What is this Division of labor or maybe the General Secretary and his assistants do not yet feel firmly in the saddle to be able to correct the people who made the General Secretary general secretary On Tuesday I was at the Secretariat Gorbachev was conducting it and he will be conducting it in the future He led it in his own style lively intelligently actively and business-like with assessments conclusions and so on And confidently Especially impressive was the discussion of the issue of price increases on basic consumer goods for children and medications On behalf of the All-Union Labor Unions Biryukova poured the “goods” out on the Secretariat table and started yelling at the ministers They were trying to fight back and even accused her of “sensationalism ” but Gorbachev slammed them so hard that they crawled back to their seats like spanked mutts This was a real party Soviet conversation with bureaucrats And yet they are fools not because they are stupid and evil but because they are the products of the customs that were installed and encouraged for decades Today in the Conservatory—Brukner’s Fifth Symphony Rozhdestvensky—a conductor in the role of enlightened educator of times past His speech before the production— magnificent And the performance itself And the beauty of a violinist in front of him … She will always stay in my memory together with Brukner I have not experienced such thorough delight in this hall for a long time It was as unexpected as hearing the Gluck concert for flute and orchestra for the first time on TV A pretty woman was playing the solo But that was a linear experience and this one was polyphonic and “difficult ” 16 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org March 4 1984 Today is the election to the Supreme Soviet and on Friday I was at the Kremlin Palace listened to Chernenko The meeting itself—is our customary ritual the regimented and formal nature of which does not irritate anybody except dissidents and excessively refined intelligentsia Our people are too practical and lazy to be longing for selfmotivated democracy—it is easier and habitual to grumble at the bosses that this is not right and that is not right and that there is a mess here and so on And thus—electoral meetings just like elections themselves are official celebrations during which everybody does what everybody and everywhere is supposed to do what is always done on such occasions And the speeches at the Kremlin—by a secretary of the Kuibyshev regional committee a locksmith a woman researcher a woman teacher director of a plant However in the speech of the candidate representative who had to present his biography there was an obvious inconvenience as a compensation for the fact that Chernenko did not fight in the war the orator emphasized that Chernenko joined the Red Army as volunteer in 1930 and served at the border “Comrades do you know how much courage it requires to guard the border ” and so on Of course the speeches were prepared at the regional committee but if that had to be so they should not have included such cheap passages which only instigate unnecessary questions and popular irony Ultimately it is not about electing the most deserving person on the basis of their past achievements it is about having a person who would ensure the correct the only necessary and possible policy for the country And in this sense Chernenko’s electoral speech is both serious and substantive—by the strictest account I don’t know what part of it was from him personally and what belonged to assistants and drafters—and he agreed But the speech has been delivered And this is a political promise to the people at the start of his administration It is not quickly forgotten—like for instance Malenkov’s presentation way back to the session of the Supreme Soviet in 1953 or Khrushchev’s speech at the XX Congress Most importantly everything that was started by Andropov has been adopted here People who directly drafted that speech told me that in it just like in the speech at the February Plenum they used practically everything that was prepared for Andropov according to his ideas and under his supervision when he was at the hospital There is another important thing—the speeches of other Politburo members candidates and CC secretaries have never had so much individual character before with a common basic line And this is not just in regards to how they expressed their attitude to the deceased and not about the terms they used to characterize the General Secretary For example not everybody called him “prominent” and so on But these speeches differed significantly from one another even in their approaches manner accents on various socio-economic political and ideological problems Of course in our country collegiality temporarily comes to the fore every time during the change of the “regime ” 17 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org However this time it presented itself with the background of an unconditional formal and established from the first days in very concrete terms “positional” authority of the First leader And as paradoxical as it is precisely here is a possibility that collegiality could become a real factor of politics … especially because Chernenko himself following Andropov seems to be absolutely sincerely in favor of “separation” between the party and the state powers And it is a vital necessity if we are serious … March 5 1984 A pile of ciphered cables Kissinger’s analysis USA - NATO crisis and how to resolve it Trukhanovsky Igor Savolsky from the Hungarian sector —an article by a Hungarian academician Shimansky My assessment turned out to be right We gathered at Zagladin’s talked about how and whether we will put together the book History of Revolutions and how Zagladin and I will join the 8-volume European History Reminiscences about my “historical” past We have ideas about how to make it all pretty but we will not have energy and time Discussed with Bogdanov Arbatov’s deputy retired colonel Sokolov and Kolikov their upcoming trip to Warsaw for the “Action of the Moment”—a closed seminar about American policy toward socialist countries I was trying to calm down Bogdanov’s extremism although he knows everything about America 100 times better than me Sokolov and I put together a table of initiatives by our well-wishers in Western Europe— from non-governmental forces Good intentions but they don’t fit the Gromyko-Ustinov policy So I set out to recapture the “zone of dialog” on the societal plane from them Otherwise we will be left with Chandra alone once again March 10 1984 Before the holidays Ponomarev engaged me in the business of the CPSU Program for the first time He sent me to read what Arbatov wrote about contemporary capitalism He talked about it in an interesting way when he walked with me in Barvikha and talked about Andropov’s embraces But the text did not work out Bureaucratic inexpressive style patchy even with some absurdities like when he talks about ReganismThatcherism as a reactionary utopia of return to the free-traderism on the XIX century I wrote to Ponomarev that a Western reader would not recognize “this kind” of capitalism and he lives “in it ” And overall you don’t deal with the program issues like this they selected bosses for the working groups when for the first draft of the program they should have chosen just one talented person for each of the sections—like Ambartsumov or Galkin—and given them the freedom of risk For such things Lenin “sat down” not candidates of sciences but people like Bukharin and Kuusinen gave them two weeks and then made corrections By the way Chernenko noted the flatness and inexpressiveness of the language used in party documents during his meeting with heads 18 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org of departments and deputies … No wonder they are written by bureaucrats with the background of the Higher Party School as a rule … or edited by the same people March 11 1984 I brought it upon myself with my comments on Arbatov’s draft for the Program B N made me write additions and corrections And that would not be bad even interesting The trouble is that he likes that Arbatov’s version Although Arbatov himself having given B N the draft called me and in his soldierly crass manner “apologized” for the fact that B N liked his draft It meant it was a shitty draft And he did it in such a way because you cannot write anything decent in such a short time—something that you would be willing to defend and so to get it off his hands he adopted as much as possible from Ponomarev’s old Program and in fact that’s the only thing he Ponomarev needed That’s why he liked it And I am again an asshole idealist I was counting on getting Ponomarev interested in the “communist-manifesto” Marx-Engels approach to portraying contemporary capitalism here so to say are the wonders of technological achievements and so on—on the one hand and the deeply flawed society—on the other This indeed could have been done beautifully but not with Arbatov’s even his hands and certainly not under the leadership of comrade Ponomarev Chernenko demands “expressive language” in the party documents One would think— where if not in the Party Program should we show an example of such language But for this one would need culture which unfortunately those who were given this assignment do not possess … And it could be done beautifully And would not even require so much space I am still doing “insertions” and “proposals ” which would help remove stupidity mistakes reduce the level of demagoguery but they would not change the main thing at least in the section on capitalism this will be a tedious “textbook ” which will make students nauseous and in which a Western reader will never recognize the society in which they live Disgusting March 13 1984 Riding in the car The driver pointing to the icy road says ---We drive the old Volgas to Zavidovo ---Why do you go there again ---Of course we do … ---And before this ---Before this Andropov ordered to put all that business on hold Rangers were all dismissed others – some were sent into retirement others simply kicked out parasites … ---And now what 19 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org ---Now everything is back as it was Chernenko goes there to hunt He started doing it there back with Lyonya And now he just resumed everything … Hunting boar red deer deer game That’s how it is March 17 1984 One Polish newspaper after publishing a pretty objectivist article about Chernenko’s speech to the voters then published without any commentary three reactions to it by Western journalists and writers The middle one belongs to an author F Novotny a West German journalist most likely of the Czech origin “There are fewer and fewer colorful birds in politics The time of grey mice is coming In fact it has already come ” Work proceeds as routine B N is trying hard to adjust to the new General Secretary and endures stabs from the Foreign Ministry maybe not even aimed specifically at him but out of disregard simple “forgetfulness” that such a figure as Ponomarev still exists However it seems like he B N started to wait for the next Plenum again Galaktion Tabidze All my life I read about him encountered in various books about him but alas never read him myself until now And now finally read him … a mixture of Tsvetaeva Pasternak and Tikhonov … But alas Translations … They are probably optimal but still there is no immediate sensation of “genius ” Novella Matveyeva Two new volumes She writes as other stars of the 1950 and 60s about the elder of time and her own “departure ” just as Dez’ka as Vinokurov as dozens of “them” … In my capacity as member of the editorial board of the journal Kommunist I read many articles slated for discussion at the editorial board and even more of those already published they are not in my domain and I will not bear responsibility for them And so the journal under Kosolapov is quite brave sufficiently smart and intelligent and in its economic sphere—very business-like sharply critical in the philosophical sphere— bears a great imprint of tastes of the main editor—a philosopher himself However I have grave doubts that those from the top party and state leadership who are supposed to know the central theoretical journal of the Central Committee ever read it Ponomarev who claims to be “the theorist of our party ” never even looks at the table of contents And in general he probably does not read anything other than the ciphered cables and the passages from TASS reports highlighted by his secretaries Although unfortunately he reads the texts of his speeches before delivering them and articles before submitting them for publication March 18 1984 20 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org The Day of the Paris Commune For me this “jubilee” is mainly connected to the associations about how many thoughts and creativity I gave to Ponomarev for his presentations and articles on this occasion on big anniversary dates All this already became part of his published works and now even in his full compilation of writings the first volume of which was just published Of course in the Ponomarevian edited version “We multiply nonsense by numbers Little thoughts were flying like bees multiplying countless ” This is from G Tabidze I am in the same state now March 19 1984 Gromyko disregarded us again forgetting completely that the plan of action in connection with the U S presidential campaign should be submitted taking into consideration the planned events of the CC International Department Zagladin and I received John Kenneth Galbraith An impressive most intelligent old man of high breed He behaved in a very careful and maximally sensitive way He reminded us of the Churchill rule “not to criticize your own government when abroad and to never tire to expose it when at home ” March 21 1984 Today we were composing Chernenko’s response to the Socialist International regarding U S -Soviet missile business We composed our version and Foreign Ministry—their own We sent it back and forth “in working order” twice to each other Tried to suck up to Gromyko so that he would not push us aside again B N was only interested in one thing—to have time to put his signature on it he is leaving on vacation tomorrow he even proposed to put his signature on a blank page so that “you attach it somehow” later It is important that his participation is seen when the text is submitted to the top Little games around politics March 22 1984 B N departed for Crimea on vacation He wanted to do it after the Plenum but Chernenko let him go now implying along the way that they could do without him for the preparation for the Plenum and for the session of the Supreme Soviet Zagladin is leaving for Austria tomorrow and therefore I will have to be the one to present the entire pile of anti-American plans for the period of presidential campaign to the Central Committee Evening I am reading the Frossar book about Pope Vojtyla Article in Literaturnaya Gazeta about all contemporary English writers I should make a note of it and then try to 21 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org get some of them It complains that many of those writers —and Literaturka only reviews the most significant of them—cross the line into pornography This is laughable “There” it is a reality without which there can be no realism in art I should reinstitute Tarle’s habit of reading a couple of pages of Hertzen every day March 25 1984 On Friday since I am left here to stand in for both Ponomarev and Zagladin I attended the session of the Politburo Commission on propaganda and counter-propaganda abroad Gromyko was appointed as head of it This is an unprecedented case in the history of the CPSU—where a Central Committee Commission is headed by a Minister and not by a CC Secretary He spoke alone for about two and a half hours out of more than three hours It turns out he loves to talk My suspicions that he is a person dangerous for his country have been confirmed He was talking about how to present issues of nuclear arms control during negotiations The essence of his numerous approaches and hints is—harsh confrontation and not a iota away from the set formula no negotiations until you remove the missiles from Europe This means that either there will be no negotiations at all and the race will spin out with an accelerated force to the detriment to all our sociopolitical hopes for the improvement of the socialist society or as it had already happened under Gromyko we will retreat only in conditions that are worse for us let’s say when there will be 600 missiles deployed not 20 or 40 For us the International Department it is a complete dead end Because we are not allowed to even “talk” with the non-governmental anti-missile forces to “have discussions” with anybody regarding their ideas Because what kind of discussion there could be if you are sitting and repeating the above-mentioned formula Therefore we should forget about them on our “turf ” and they will develop mainly in the anti-Soviet direction from now on because in the eyes of the masses it is precisely us who are blocking negotiations and do not want to even hear anybody else’s considerations I hinted to Gromyko about our various commentators who “allow” and create impressions that “there are also other points of view in Moscow ” that “we are not fully confident some people in any case in the correctness of our own policy ” and so on Gromyko made a practically open reprimand to Ponomarev he said that the meeting between Chernenko and Fogel went right But that the delegation which “later listened to his ideas about freezing nuclear forces at the status of today i e taking into account the already deployed missiles and renewing negotiations did not give an appropriate answer The insolence of this statement is even greater because it was uttered on the next day after the Politburo approved “work of the delegation headed by Ponomarev ” He rode roughshod over “such relations” with social democrats in general saying “we called them so to say comrades ” “engaged in fraternizing ” “let them confuse us ” 22 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org “create illusions”… And apparently Fogel stated to Chernenko directly that “they the social democrats belong to a different social system ” i e to which one —to the capitalist one This is how it is And all our efforts are smeared … “Class against call ” And the only argument in politics is the missiles And the same in diplomacy And any kind of interference with this line is to be banned In short one could quite clearly see the concept of uselessness of the International Department as well as the communist movement and all kinds of public movements of the “new type ” B N called I told him all about it He got upset Threatened to go to Chernenko But … he will not do it because he knows that he will not find support but will only create greater suspicions that he wants to carry out some kind of “his own” policy Yesterday on Saturday I had to go to work Ligachev asked for help in drafting the international sections in Tikhonov’s speech which he will deliver after being reelected as Prime Minister at the Session of the Supreme Soviet More about the Gromyko commission Afanasiev academician and Pravda editor popped up first in the discussion And I was convinced once again that he is a lightweight political jockey to his own detriment and just simply not an intelligent person In the evening I went to a Isaak Brodsky event at the Academy of Arts Many people His 77-year old daughter wonders around the rooms trying all she could to attract attention Got enriched And it was unexpected Although I knew Brodsky from my childhood—his Lenin art and several paintings in the Tretyakov Gallery and from illustrations but a holistic impression about him as a portraitist and a landscape painter— I got for the first time He captures seasons air and space masterfully like nobody else I can think of and so impressively And portraits—both personal and political—Frunze Budenny Voroshilov and Comintern members inspire a tornado of associations and thoughts I am reading Zalygin After the Storm The concept is not without an implicit design But in the quantity and sharpness of political and ideological suggestions and the time period is the same Doctor Zhivago looks like an incubator chicken in comparison We drove Pasternak into the grave for Zhivago but we are praising Zalygin to the skies—for the mastery and for the depth of perception and for the scale April 4 1984 In the morning looking into my desk I stumbled upon little school notebooks of 1930 kind—my diaries of 1938-1940—the years of my pre-war study in the university I read some the impression is overwhelming—some kind of a different life in a completely 23 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org different era But however this is my life my pre-history from which I stepped into the war and into today with very long empty and senseless gaps that took years By the way some events of 1939 connected with my school friends took place right here next to my house where I live now I read the new issue of Paris Match—an article about Chernenko which starts with a Bismark quote He allegedly called Napoleon III an “unknown nobody ” And on and on in the same spirit The “voices ” of course not just supply this kind of quotes but create or maintain the atmosphere around him First of all they say he is temporary also sick just like his predecessor Secondly his is grey and ordinary Thirdly he did not inspire enthusiasm but created some suspicions about some relaxation for the “formers” under Brezhnev April 8 1984 B N send back the section of the Program about capitalism from the South He called says he did a lot of work “himself ” Made it as fitting for the Program I looked at it he combined mine and Yakovlev’s versions and stuffed in a lot of things from the old Program Therefore again what resulted is a mish-mash This is a symbiosis of ignorance and a bureaucrat’s desire to please—to make the right guess so that the new bosses like it He could not care less about theory as well as whether it correlates with realities He also asked me to read through the “report ” which he on behalf of the working group will read at the Program commission about the progress and the state of affairs However he has already sent it to Chernenko Absolutely non-working text prepared by Pyshkov a propaganda speech which any modern person would be simply embarrassed to read before his “colleagues” in the Politburo As if it is written for propagandists of a regional committee rank Apparently there were no problems at all in the process of work of the working group and there are no problems at all in the preparation of the Program about which they should have consulted with Politburo members asked their opinion where to go with it And the main thing is missing in the Program—the goal In 1961 Nikita formulated unrealistic goals But they sounded inspirationally And maybe it was possible not to achieve them but to move closer to them if we started the movement right … Maybe then the October 1964 Plenum would not have been needed But this is a special question And now we are “blowing on the water” … And overall—there is no goal of any kind in the Program only means to “raise ” “increase ” “perfect ” “strengthen” and so on In other words this is what people read in the papers every day There is not even a listing of new questions and those which should properly be in the new edition of the Program neither on socialism nor on capitalism 24 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org And by the way we the party cadres have both the understanding of the new problems the new situation as well as the ability to present them Just take the Zagladin article in No 4 of IMEMO journal An excellent article one can transfer whole paragraphs from it straight to the Program But B N will not allow anything like that due to a whole number of reasons among them alas his inability to understand them his theoretical ossification and his narrowly propaganda-clad mindset Chernenko makes statements responds to foreigners’ requests and publishes responses to Pravda questions practically every week April 10 1984 I am going to the Plenum And in the meantime B N came back from the South I gave him my opinion about his report for the Program Commission saying that for the first time the Program of the CPSU is “without an ideal ” only means of “moving forward ” but to what goal I hinted about the Bernstein formula Secondly the non-working nature of the text grandiloquence and newspaper phraseology as if written for an audience to be addressed from the podium It does not even list new problems let alone describing them “in new terms ” It does not even mention the new concrete programs which were already approved the food program the energy program The memo was quite cheeky He had to be angry but I did not notice that And when we talked about the Program—he kept talking about one thing only—about the section on the crisis of capitalism which I had to “straighten out” again to get it into some literary form after Sokolov’s editing on whom B N wanted to test whether anything was left from Menshikov’s crazy concepts Then I worked with guys on a report—for him again—for a speech to editors of communist newspapers—we are gathering them again on May 3-4 And he will be lecturing them again I am living in an almost unbearable anticipation of something as if something is about to happen with me any time now or something must happen at the Kremlin heights or in the bowels of our blessed Ponomarev’s agency or in my “social relations” with people who surround me … I don’t know … Maybe it is a more global foreboding maybe something will suddenly change in the world and it will all turn completely differently Although where would anything come from … Maybe in our spiritual culture in our Soviet culture there will be some kind of breakthrough—either forward or backward Both of outcomes are objectively possible In short after Andropov the atmosphere of timelessness and stagnation came back April 14 1984 B N has pulled me completely into his Program business And it is not going well 25 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org The Plenum has passed There was the session of the Supreme Soviet Applause and glorification like under Brezhnev but now they sound and look even more hypocritical and disgusting His speech was good and correct and the Zimyanin report on schools— as well But the discussion with the exception of President Alexandrov who plays the role of a highly intelligent Shchukar —just an empty ritual The words and the intentions are right one tends to believe them If they became deeds they indeed could change our life in a crucial way However having seen the “kitchen ” and observing the vulgar repeated many times now already worn out reverence before the bosses—one gets overwhelmed not just by doubts but by anguish If a person needs “this ” and if he and his circle believe that “it has to be so” for governing and the “correct course of affairs ” then it is very unlikely that the words would ever become deeds Naturally this is due to the absence of culture and therefore of “imagination” as well Not because of cynicism and evil intentions But culture means style and the style— Lenin—we need the style above all now April 17 1984 Yesterday I had a major even scandalous conversation with Ponomarev After another one of his scenes On Friday I gave him the report for the editors of communist parties newspapers—another “event” that he himself thought up in place as he himself keeps repeating of the International Conference of communist and workers’ parties to which nobody agrees in order to teach communists once again what they should be doing how they should expose the American imperialism and praise the Soviet Union And so he greeted me with the words it is terrible so bad hopeless I don’t know what to do with it incredibly weak does not even closely compare with the report I did and a similar Conference in November and so on and so forth I exploded just tell me what is bad and how to make it good and it will be done It seems that we never failed you in 25 years But why do you have to humiliate demean and trash the work of people who are not so stupid who did it for you did it sincerely without slacking giving you all their knowledge and skills Ultimately I bear responsibility for this text I wrote many of the things that you just now cursed and the overall design and all the editing belongs to me Therefore I take it all personally And I am not a boy not a schoolboy in a month I will turn 63 and I am sick and tired from listening to all these lectures As far as I know not a single other CC Secretary allows himself this kind of behavior with the people who write for him But even you yourself do not allow yourself to talk like this to Zagladin for example Is that because he is able to go to the upper doors I wouldn’t want to think so And so on in this scandalous and generally rude spirit However he “shrunk” why are you offended I am judging objectively I am convinced that this will not work You cannot complain about my treatment of you most 26 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org likely a hint that thanks to him I am candidate CC member and have the Order of Lenin and also the little boars that he sends me for holidays from his hunts and which mainly got to rot on the balcony That kind of conversation after which I wanted again to spit at everything and retire it feels disgusting to go to work He is a nobody after all Even judging by this fact He calls me this morning “I dictated some things for the report They are typing it now will bring it to you look at it and use what you consider useful ” They are bringing it—21 pages of article text a copy from a paper of clearly not our format Guys figure out immediately that it is from Pravda And when they started to read it there was a note on p 9 in ellipses clarifying a term—an author’s initials “Yu Zh ” i e Yuri Zhukov Who does he think we are me the consultants if he thinks that we would not even dare to “guess ” that he Ponomarev is incapable to dictate even a paragraph in this style in one evening and of the text with citations to German and American newspapers to various books etc He did not even read this text And things like this—in his almost 80 in the position of Secretary of the CC and candidate Politburo member Our poor party which keeps this kind of vainglorious pigmies in its leadership and for so many years April 30 1984 From April 19 through 26 we were at Gorky’s dacha Nostalgia Sense of belonging to something stable although long passed Gorky and my own comparatively speaking youth I got there for the first time in 1967 And the others felt about the same I was not the only one with these feelings There were ten of us Of that number 3 or 4 people were actually working We put together what Ponomarev needed in a quite collegial way He liked it from the first presentation i e he already considered it to have been created by himself because otherwise it is always weak In the evenings we watched movies “Rain in an Empty City ” “Lethargy ” “Kindergarten ” “Interrogation ” and especially “Scarecrow” with Pugacheva’s daughter in the main role—I experienced a real shock from the last one and got scared for my grandson who will enter approximately the same setting—today’s school All these movies are genuine art artifacts of our times—gloomy and so far hopeless Chernenko summoned the Program commission and said a very smart wise speech it is a great strength of his that he listens to smart advisers and accepts their advice and probably in contrast to Ponomarev does not try to teach them how to hold the pen in their hands trusts their intelligence knowledge skills his party sense and good intentions towards the country 27 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org And our Ponomarev according to Arbatov Zagladin Brutents who were present at the commission looked strange and awkward Even by the fact alone that he presented the draft text of the Program having worked everyone to death for that even before the main baker expressed his views about how he was going to bake and what kind of pie And he even further aggravated the absurdity of his situation by saying everything that was prepared for him by Pyshkov and Zagladin and I were unable to break i e essentially a co-report for Chernenko’s speech with the positions that even though did not directly “diverge ” but sounded pathetic in comparison to what was said in the speech It turned out both pretentious and pitiful and inappropriate But at least he was shown his place if before that he was the headmaster of the working group for the entire text not the domestic part is assigned to Gorbachev and the international – is split half and half between Ponomarev and Rusakov Two working groups were created domestic—Kosolapov Stukalin Pechenev foreign—Alexandrov Zagladin Rakhmanin Five more people will be added to the above And they will have to submit their separate drafts by October Arbatov got a wind that he was pushed out and ran to Gorbachev begged to be added to the domestic group Having come back from Gorky dacha we continue to smooth out the text for B N – by the 4th editors of communist newspapers will get here A curious episode—Alexandrov sent most numerous comments and corrections with a snide little note for B N and called me ahead of time Almost all of his deletions happen to be in the parts and paragraphs that were forced on us by Ponomarev or send to him as “his own” dictations belonging to all kinds of “Zhukovs” and “Khavinsons ” I especially enjoyed the fact that he made fun of and deleted all biting and dashing words and expressions – Ponomarev’s favorite toys by which he judges the “theoretical” level of a text … comments on the margins “we should be more dignified not fall down to the level of cheap propaganda” But for our guy—it is all like water from the goose although apparently he is willing to “listen ” On April 29 we had an extraordinary Secretariat Nothing special Again I was admiring Gorbachev he is lively with quick reaction and at the same time one can see that he had been preparing competent confident precise capable of grasping the very essence of an issue distinguish chatter from business find solutions point to practical measures straighten out and even threaten when things are hopeless He is cheerful and with internal strength In other words we have our “succession ” And the General Secretary visited factory “Scythe and Hammer ” TV and newspapers are full of it The speech once again was good But it hurts one to watch how it went He is gasping for breath asthma and with no thoughts of his own interaction is 28 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org strained ritual artificially cheerful—one can see it even on the screen They have impressive workers there Lenin-like intelligent but in their shoes I would not have been able to resist internal irony regarding this regular “profane mass ” But the speech was correct May 3 1984 Today we were polishing materials for tomorrow’s conference of editors of communist newspapers Over 80 of them arrived from all parts of the world B N is still adding and correcting trying to please and not to make a misstep He wants to say something softer about China in connection with Reagan’s visit but Rakhmanin does not allow it he curses him but still does it “according to Rakhmanin ” All the while he says words like “state interest ” which “that one” doesn’t want to either understand or accept and keeps insisting on his own pulling toward the left And if that is so—you are Secretary of the Central Committee after all—rein Rakhmanin in if he is harming the state May 6 1984 Yesterday the meeting of communist and revolutionary-democratic press finished its work—an ersatz Conference of communist and workers’ parties But all in all it seems like those who came found it useful and even interesting They miss interaction Everybody is happy I had to work for all the deputies because Zagladin is at the Program dacha Karen is in the hospital and the rest of them even when they showed up only walked around especially Shaposhnikov—he demonstrated his closeness to Ponomarev and all kinds of bossy habits Afanasiev Pravda editor is tongue-tied but also artless for some reason people say he mispronounces names of people as well as parties and newspapers in a terrible way It is a striking fact for an Academician at the level of a peasant in front of a TV camera In the end there was a reception I walked around from one group to another and said all kinds of nice words a Hungarian a person from Luxemburg a Dutch all Latin Americans as a group a Japanese socialist and others And during the day I met with Chater The Morning Star The games are going on May 9 1984 The Victory Day We walked around town with my war buddy Kolya Kharlamov We walked up to the Novodevichii Monastery but they did not let us in He got sour and we returned to Kropotkinskaya started drinking and trading rumors He knows a lot about the General Secretary worked under him for 15 years when he was head of the General Department of the CC as Kolka puts it he could kick General Secretary’s door open The main thing he remembers—this is not your Suslov for him personal and family issues are at the forefront And that he should be buried behind the Masoleum in the end 29 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org The illness General Secretary’s is minor Asthma a complication after a pneumonia in 1974-75 No other health problems When he was a secretary in Penza he was known to the entire district as a drunkard and womanizer Vainglorious There is a reason that he drives around the city with a pomp the kind of which even Brezhnev did not allow himself and the number of boys around the CC has increased ten times And almost in the same words as Ponomarev yesterday he gets the taste of meetings with foreigners … These days he is receiving the King of Spain And Zagladin bragged to me that they had tried a new form of memo—just noting issues on a card … Without any kind of text or any kind of invented turns of phrase It worked They even showed it on TV they are sitting with the King in chairs some distance from each other not across a bureaucratic table In such a pose one would not read from a memo staring at a piece of paper God bless them if that’s true Andropov could do it well He is smart and cunning For now he is cautious but later he would restrain even Gromyko I liked that He will be making his own policy After dinner I went for a walk around Moscow Light rain was coming on and off I walked all the way to the Red Square passing by the Alexander Garden “A sociological observation ” the character of celebration is changing There was a line to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier stretching all the way to the Borovitsky Gate many were with flowers and almost exclusively young people in any case—not veterans Same thing in the Red Square—only one in a hundred was with decorations orders Of course by this time of the day veterans having had too much to drink were already at home in bed Although before even last year one did not see so many people in the streets who were not the war participants What would that mean I don’t think that this reflects the rise of a “patriotic conscience” and appreciation among the new generations More likely it is the appeal of an unofficial celebration—the fact of the celebration itself especially as compared to the overly bureaucratized and overly organized May 1 and November 7 which the generations who did not experience either the revolutionary enthusiasm of the 1920s-30s or the postwar unity in hunger and destruction do not feel an emotional connection to And the apparent reason is sentimental—remembering the war dead and “passed’ in general But even this authentic one would think atmosphere is spoiled by the “authorities’ fear” of the people In the Red Square itself and in all streets and squares adjacent to it there are battalions if not regiments of the interior troops Our people of course are accustomed to this and apparently don’t pay any attention to those columns next to the History Museum next to GUM across from the Mausoleum next to St Basil’s in the Sverdlov Square and other places—ready on a short order to swarm and “repair public order ” But one should even if for a second think about it—what an embarrassment What a humiliation for a Soviet man The sense of propriety about which Chernenko spoke many times already on various occasions is completely missing here How come they don’t understand that an appearance of some idiot-dissident with an anti-Soviet poster is less damaging that this kind of massive and insolent in its transparence disrespect for the people No The logic of “order” about which Marx wrote in his “18th of Brumer” is a terrible thing It is above all reasonable arguments 30 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Routine at work Zagladin is sitting at Serebryanny Bor and together with others drafting chapters for the CPSU Program By the way B N decisively struck out my attempt to include the thought that the conference of editors of fraternal parties is in fact a mini-conference of representatives of those parties—this is how the majority of participants see it anyway—in the CC memo on the results of the conference He is afraid that they at the top would suspect that he harbors some ambitions But when he was congratulating the Department on the occasion of the coming Victory Day and expressing his gratitude for the excellent organization and conduct of the above-named meeting in his assessment of the conference’s importance B N said the exact phrases written by me which he had struck out of the memo This is how my “c’est la vie” is June 2 1984 For some reason I did not write for a long time And the volume of daily information is such that even yesterday’s information gets pushed out let alone information from two or three weeks ago The main impression they showed it on TV today —is the TASS statement regarding the Washington Declaration on NATO anniversary—35 years of the NATO Council It has been a long time since NATO bowels produced such peaceful written document towards us and generally towards the “East ” But TASS on behalf of our leadership gave a lashing even to that document Now it is clear to the whole world that we chose the course to frighten others and that we believe that our firmness and uncompromising stance would lead to a dissolution of NATO as well as a recall of the “Pershings” and the “cruises” from Europe as well as Reagan’s failure to be reelected and to acceptance of all our initiatives for Stockholm Vienna on SALT and INF at last But nothing like that will happen In any case arms race was is and will continue in any conditions Nothing is changing in this sense However in the eyes of bigger and bigger part of world public we the USSR look like those who sabotage the “cause of peace ” And not only in the West not only in China and Romania but also in Hungary and in the GDR in the eyes of many communists But apparently Gromyko could not care less about it B N has thought up another conference of Secretaries of Central Committees of the socialist countries on international issues there is already a CC decision and the Czechs agreed to hold it in Prague Once again in order to coordinate the ideological and propagandist support for the foreign policy of the socialist commonwealth In reality such conferences have long ago turned into demonstrations of formal solidarity with us … without any practical consequences Each country conducts its own foreign 31 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org propaganda in accordance to its own plans regarding relations with the West or with China Maybe just the Czechs follow us in everything … In the current situation it is especially hard to find arguments in support of continuation of a “firm” course But I will have to the consultants under my supervision have already started to draft them for Ponomarev’s presentation at that conference From May 28-30 I was in Hungary they have been asking me to come for consultations on all these and other issues for half a year already Old friends Gyula Horn—now head of a department when I met him in 1960 he was a foreign ministry translator Mathias Sures—Secretary of the CC and when I met him 15 years ago he was an instructor “carried suitcases for Ponomarev ” Kadar received me too His referent Nadya said about it “It is all much simpler here ” And truly can one even imagine that some “analog” of me some Lazslo Kovac would show up in our Department for consultations and would be received by Chernenko The Hungarians are under suspicion and the more so with every month Horn and Sures especially so In the above-mentioned times of our acquaintance he was an instructor on the USSR—and a pro-Soviet from head to toe And today he stated regarding the South Korean plane in the presence of a dozen of journalists “What kind of fool gave an order to shoot at a civilian plane and kill almost 300 people at once ” Andropov personally contacted Kadar about this episode However Kadar “took him under protection ” Sures published a huge article in their Kommunist which also caused a stormy indignation on the part of Rusakov and others Rakhmanin was ordered to do a lashing—the article by O Borisov in Voprosy Istorii KPSS Issues of the CPSU History And Novoe Vremya New Times reprinted an article from Rude Pravo where the Czechs blasted that article practically openly The essence of Sures’ article was about defending the right of the “smaller socialist countries” to think speak and even act independently—of course for the benefit of socialism and in the spirit of internationalism They put into doubt our right of monopolistic interpretation of that In the day and a half of consultations we talked to our hearts content about all of the world politics They wanted to be original and independent in everything Because of that they often fell into dilettantism said naïve things I objected in a polite way insisted on some issues—did not agree Behind the originalities there was always the reality economic interests connections with the West and unwillingness to look like a satellite Theoretically they substantiated this by several theses --poor Soviet-American relations do not automatically mean poor relations between other socialist countries and the West --each of them has its own opportunities to fight for “common goals ” 32 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org --each socialist country possesses some specific features and it can have and has specific interests in international politics They said openly that they were fully supportive of the GDR actions in relations with the FRG accelerated flirting which became even more intense after December 1983— deployment of the missiles The main impression—they invited me as an old “smart” friend who could understand the necessity and the inevitability of self-sufficiency and independence of Hungary which at the same time “will never go over to the West will not break up with the Soviet Union which will be always true to internationalism ” In this connection there were also direct reproaches how disrespectfully and un-comradely we acted when we did not consult or inform or agreed beforehand about refusing to participate in the Olympics “Could there have been any doubt—Gyula was saying—that we would show solidarity regardless of whether we liked it or not But how could one show one’s disrespect to their friends so rudely to confront them with a fait accompli To leave them looking like fools in front of their own people and athletes ” Even before Hungary B N and Zagladin gave me the draft of the international section of the Program “for comments ” Its only strength is its brevity only 30 pages But for the most part it is not a Program of a Leninist party for a new century and millennium Meanwhile the intellectual potential of the best of our scholarly personnel makes it possible to make it appropriate to the occasion Chernenko’s programmatic speech as well as his other presentations on the domestic issues for example the one to the military Komsomol members —politically allows one to write courageously and deeply But … apparat conditionalities and procedural steps do not allow one to fly high June 3 1984 I forgot to mention that on May 20 I was at the Central House of Writers at David Samoilov Dez’ka ’s poetry reading He read a lot of new things He is a big poet But revealed in response to a written question that he reads little prose “because of technical reasons”—because he is semi-blind And it is not just about prose—his information is limited And it is noticeable a poetic generalization which is characteristic of him in general grows into an abstract “philosophic” one with strong intimations of his own end It is done at a very high level but is too divorced from the surrounding reality I am reading I Gerasimov’s novel “Joy of Life” Znamya Nos 4-5-6 It feels like one of those works that form the new great Russian literature During the day I remembered Hungary wants to be independent within the framework of the commonwealth and the same time they do not have any prejudice against the Union of socialist states they don’t have doubts in the correctness of the moral and political value of internationalism either Our attitude to that can be seen from the reaction to Sures’ article and in how the “responsible” comrades purse their lips when they hear about any kind of reforms and other “originalities” two candidates for 33 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org elections elections of directors getting rid of district committees real discussions at Plenums and Congresses let alone extensive economic and tourist ties with the West abundance of goods and so on But this is just a specific expression of our general line regarding our friends a mix of chauvinism with lack of culture and envy On Friday I read a huge telegram from Berlin from Kochemasov—he informs about “negatives” before the meeting between Honecker and Chernenko And the same repeating theme—openly not even trying to cover it up with the common principles—“How dare they want freedom They want to be independent ” And the word “independence” is used with quotation marks every time Before people alleged that Abrosimov exhibited this kind of Gauleitership And now the intelligent Kochemasov does the same … The problem apparently is not with the Ambassador June 4 1984 Today was military education Deputy Chief of General Staff Marshal Akhromeyev delivered a lecture “About the Character of Modern War” to the entire apparatus of the CC and showed two NATO-American documentary films about their armaments The Marshal described the international situation and our military doctrine as clearly as can be as well as how the Americans prepare for war In his conclusions he appealed to the audience—because many of the listeners were involved in defense issues And it sounded like a complaint that not everybody in the republics in the district committees in other civilian sectors of society does everything necessary in order to turn the country into a military camp He did not say these precise words but it was obvious that this is exactly how sees the ideal of the country’s life By the way he mentioned an intriguing number 430 000 draftees had to be rejected from service due to health And then the films They are shocking the missiles that can find their target themselves across hundreds and thousands kilometers aircraft carriers submarines tanks capable of everything cruise missiles which like in cartoons fly along canyons and are capable of hitting their 10-meter diameter target 2500km away Fantastic achievements of modern mind and skill And of course unthinkable expenses I was watching it and thinking but it means that we must spend just as much and even more for similar things And what is all this for To prepare a suicide of the humankind Some kind of insanity Forgetting where I was I wanted to jump up and ask the Marshal “And what if we just went ahead and destroyed all these weapons which are not worse and not less smart on our side And to say to the entire world we had enough that’s all full stop We regained normal vision and common sense What will happen Americans will go and conquer us at once ” But this is already non-Euclidian geometry That’s precisely when they will conclude that you in your capacity as deputy head of the International Department of the CC have lost your mind indeed 34 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Ponomarev got smashed again He “dictated” to Academician Velikhov—on the results of his trip to the United States—what proposals to make to the Central Committee press conference on militarization of space Supreme Soviet address to U S Congress invitation to Kennedy Velikhov followed orders in a disciplined way the President of the Academy of Sciences and the chief academic secretary signed the memo It arrived to the CC was distributed to PB members and Gromyko with Ustinov came in with a resolution—to reject B N naturally like everybody else put down his signature “in favor” i e to reject his own ideas His lowness … He told us himself how he was trying to “organize” a contact between Chernenko and Papaoannu general secretary AKZL CP of Cyprus Papaoannu kept asking him for several months to help him meet with Chernenko during the official visit of his party’s delegation to Moscow So he arrived But how to remind Chernenko about it B N went to Alexandrov He retorted cheekily you are a CC Secretary this is your issue a communist party delegation so you ask C onstantin U stinovich But B N did not dare to do it Instead he called Doroshina Chernenko’s stenographer who was the most trusted person under Brezhnev and offered her a “text inclusion” to put in the communique that Chernenko received Papaoanna but in reality—no deed to bother him Galya Doroshina did all exactly as told So it was done this way B N was very pleased how he pulled it off and he thought that everybody was pleased However I don’t think that the Cypriots were pleased they’ve been “had” as small boys This method was used under Brezhnev quite often but he was forgiven—everybody could see that he was already not quite in his mind It is a little early to put C U Chernenko in this situation Now B N proposed that I should do the same trick with the British with McClennan whom B N himself scheduled for June 19 But it will not pass like this with them I said so directly and will try to move the visit to the fall Arbatov came to visit He just returned from America and Canada spent an entire month there dozens of meetings discussions TV interviews speeches to the parliament members journalists and others “Who else could do it all like this but me ”—said Yurka without false modesty And in fact—who else Especially so because he disagrees with the policy which he defended so skillfully He got convinced that our hardheadedness and “firmness” on the missile issues are turning against us Reagan’s “peaceful” offensive is producing results we look more and more like people who sabotage negotiations dialog détente and so on That’s what the Hungarians were hinting about to me June 6 1984 B N gathered Rusakov Zamyatin Stukalin head of the CC Propaganda Department in his office to talk about the preparation for the conference of CC Secretaries from the socialist countries in Prague Myself Shakhnazarov Zhilin Antyasov consultant of the Department on the socialist countries were also there In the beginning there was his 35 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org customary tongue-tied talk about the aggravation of the situation the imperialism about Reagan’s peaceful offensive and so on But gradually the conversation shifted to the situation in those countries who would participate in the conference in the socialist countries Suddenly Rusakov with uncharacteristic sincerity stated that “things are not good with our friends ” Poland is beyond discussion the party is losing its positions with every day the ideological life is out of control completely Shakhnazarov interjected there is great discontent among the Czechs because of the deployment of our “response missiles ” although the leadership and the press stick to our lead in everything and support all our actions and statements firmly And the Germans—they don’t—Zamyatin added For example we come to an agreement on the issue of revanchism on China … But alas They agree say yes and then – not a single article on these issues they never even once published news “about Chinese provocations on the border with Vietnam ” Rusakov agreed and added that we are aware of the fact that the Vietnamese engaged in some secret negotiations with Sianuk and are against us criticizing him in our press B N “bravely” led the conversation we should not provoke the Chinese we should not create a second front we should stick to our line for improvement of relations Rusakov yes but we cannot pass by the “three conditions ” with which they harass us everywhere Stukalin started saying how bad it is with the Hungarians in terms of “ideological coordination ” In addition to also not writing anything critical about China or the United States it sounds like they are planning to publish 1984 by Orwell B N What what Stukalin Orwell … It is this book disgusting hard to imagine a worse anti-Soviet product … “How dare they publish an anti-Soviet book ”—B N reiterates with a surprised look showing that he cannot even imagine what it is and has never heard about it Rusakov starts explaining to him that it is something like a “social fiction ” it was written in 1948 the author is British and he is describing the future of humankind but really talking about the Soviet Union implying that the Stalinist communism is a threat to all It is quite a surprise that Rusakov showed that he was aware of the book while ours Ponomarev —to our embarrassment—did not even hear about the book 1984 Zamyatin added that the Hungarians released an 18-part TV series about the war where the Horti’s army in the Eastern front is shown as victim of the Russians’ cruelty The Ambassador protested the Hungarians put two comrades on the screen who criticized the film but on the next day they released the third episode and so on to the end Rusakov added about the difficulties of the economic situation especially the debts to the West But he said even our economists who went there to study this issue do not know what to suggest where to look for a solution 36 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Zamyatin turned back to the GDR for whom the “German-German” relations are the most important issue and they warmed them up by several degrees precisely in the last six months of the rapid freezing of Soviet-American relations of generally of the international situation So they talked about all this and came to the conclusion that all this should be taken into consideration at the conference but we should not fight Moreover I will add that the day before yesterday Chernenko was awarded with the Order of October Revolution for the “development of Rumanian-Soviet friendship ” Just the pinnacle of hypocrisy and cynicism The hallways growled the whole day … I can only imagine the rest of intelligentsia … And other friends from the socialist countries In Hungary they were telling me directly YOU bought Ceausescu for 2 million tons of oil per year after giving in to his blackmailing—he threatened to leave the Warsaw Treaty otherwise June 9 1984 I took work home the first draft of Ponomarev report for the conference of CC Secretaries in Prague but it feels disgusting to work on it By the way about Ponomarev Yesterday he called me in for a “comradely” conversation He complained about Zagladin again Look he says Zagladin published a “programmatic article” in Pravda and did not ask anybody did not even let me know I he says found myself in a foolish situation people ask me about it and I did not even have time to read it in the paper True the article is big on two half-pages and devoted to the international communist movement It is especially pretentious because all the main readers know that Zagladin is currently working on the draft of the CPSU Program In serious consideration it is plainly speaking empty I even don’t remember what’s in it I just remember that all real problems are skillfully avoided He told me about it and later bragged that Gorbachev congratulated him on the article However he did not show it to me before publication even though he told Ponomarev that he did And further— B N continues—I learned that he and Frolov had organized for themselves a nomination for a state award at MGIMO He is clearly eyeing the correspondent-membership if not aiming at becoming an Academician at once And moreover people are saying all kinds of things about him in this regard maybe he is aiming even higher did not say that he is aiming at his own position This is why no matter where you look which journal you open—you see Zagladin’s article that is true text is literally pouring out of him like ground beef from grinder it is even funny Take yesterday for example they bought in Moskovskie Novosti and there was his article now not about the international communist movement but “Economy and Politics ” Master of all trades And one more since I touched on this B N calls me to his office and says Bogolyubov head of the CC General Department called me and said—where is your oversight The entire village of Usovo is up in uproar with indignation Zagladin now married officially 37 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org to a 27-year old girl—she is young enough to be his daughter—walks with her all over the village without shame or awareness And when these newlyweds are not at the dacha his daughter throws orgies there Literally he says orgies What is going on I started to grumble something to explain and justify … Of course I—continues B N — and not a rigorist of some kind remembering Nekrasov’s story from 25 years ago I understand it happens people get divorced get together But this is his third wife already And this kind of chap with a belly walks with a pretty girl next to him as if it’s how it should be and the hell with everybody else … and writes programmatic articles aiming to become an Academician And he organized an apartment from the CC administration a party apartment instead of building a cooperative apartment with his multi-thousand honoraria and two salaries What’s going on Anatoly Sergeyevich There should be some rules of propriety I started to babble something again to the effect of his talents and how he has time for everything … Yes yes—B N interrupted me—he has time for everything because he takes it from work He does not do any work in the Department he is either abroad or at the party dacha Even when he is sitting here he is working for himself Everybody knows that Chernyaev sits in his office Ponomarev sits in his office But Zagladin is never there That’s why he writes And what happens at the dacha Take this section of the Program that they presented to me the other day There was work for maybe two evenings there because I did everything myself I edited everything and re-wrote everything He is telling me But they are sitting at the dacha for the second month now This is where he writes his articles and brochures on our account He poured it all at me for a long time and I felt sorry looking at him this was a member of the omnipotent leadership of the CPSU telling me all this But he is powerless to “touch” Zagladin He is scared to “raise a question about him” at the top because he knows that he would lose There they know Zagladin’s true value and at the same time despise him as a party member and as a person but they need him they need his talents and his agility Meanwhile they do not need Ponomarev for a long time now and cannot wait for the time when they can get rid of him Also it would be really awkward if he presents complaints against his first deputy I was also in an awkward situation I could not and did not want to agree with him regarding Zagladin although with the exception of his marriage to Zhanna I agreed with him Even less so could I propose any “services in fighting against him ” Ponomarev understood that and concluded the subject “Well all right I was just saying it because I wanted to share with you …” Instead of working on Ponomarev’s presentation I will again be reading Philosophical notebooks and Kant by Gulyga June 12 1984 38 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Berlinguer has died Zuyev’s sector did their best to put together exceptionally bureaucratically written texts of cables of condolences and the obituary naturally to please Ponomarev Bureaucratic and dry And this—at the time when entire Italy is shocked everybody—from the Fascists to the leftists—express their respect and admiration for this person who in his leadership and moral qualities is closest among all prominent people of his caliber to Lenin In the recent days Lunkov Ambassador sent one telegram after another literally begging us to “treat it with utter attention ” and to “express everything we can ” taking into consideration the emotional character of the Italians and their attitude to this kind of misfortune He wrote directly himself and quoting Cossuta that the fate of our relations with the Italian Communist Party ICP for many years in the future might depend on the way we react now … and saying that we have a chance to correct many of their views And nonetheless this kind of bureaucratese supplied by our Department I am convinced that if they presented a different text a warmer more human one it would have been approved too Nobody cares about the “ideological authenticity” of the ICP and Berlinguer in our top leadership except for Ponomarev Yesterday late at night an idea struck me—how to “fix the things” bypassing Ponomarev Today a CMEA summit is opening at the Kremlin All leaders of the socialist countries will gather together at one table Why couldn’t Chernenko when opening the session call on everybody to stand up and commemorate I call Zagladin at the dacha in Serebryanny Bor where they are working on the draft of the Program Nobody picks up a single telephone I call Zagladin’s car the driver tells me he is now on his way to pick him up there I ask him to call me urgently Zagladin calls me back in 20 minutes I explain my idea He comprehends In the morning Brutents who was also there tells me Zagladin immediately announced it to everybody and was “understood” by Alexandrov who promised to pass the idea on to Chernenko And finally just now watching “Vremya” on TV I learned that they did “commemorate ” Thank God—even if this way Along the way Karen told me one fascinating thing I started the conversation I don’t know I said whom will we send to the funeral I said Zuyev thinks we should send Ponomarev … He was the one who went to bury Longo And we should not send any “bigger” figure From here—responded Karen—they “let me know” i e from the dacha some person I don’t think it was Zagladin but from suggestion—Alexandrov that we should not do it The Italian communists truly hate B N and believe not without grounds that he is to blame for the bad relations between the ICP and the CPSU and Berliguer himself almost did not hide the fact that he despised him As a result Gorbachev was appointed to go to Italy accompanied by Zagladin From a conversation I had today in Ponomarev’s office I understood that the decision was made without his knowledge And that offended him … 39 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Along the way he shared with me his opinion regarding the CC ICP Statement on the passing of Berlinguer “A bad very bad document They collected everything negative in his work put it together and promise to follow it in the future Incurable ” Incurable is Ponomarev himself who still did not give up the idea to turn the ICP into the CPSU I started working on volume VIII of International Labor Movement It is well-written but all just running around the subject they avoid touching the essence of problems of labor and communist movement Just traditional history of countries not even parties June 14 1984 Today I was at the Italian Embassy at the procedure which was almost killed by Ponomarev—to express condolences regarding Berlinguer B N had been “corrected” again he dragged it out for the whole day to coordinate with the leadership hoping that the day of the funeral would pass and they would “cancel” altogether But they sent not only him but also Solomentsev and Kapitonov In the evening I was meeting with Gorbachev and Zagladin Gorbachev started to talk One could see that he was really impressed by the Italian openness he was received by the whole gang—the entire leadership of the ICP and by the two-million crowd at the wake “We should not abandon such a party And we should treat it properly ” Obviously a hint about Ponomarev Or “One knows a lot one way or another But when you see with your own eyes it is a very different thing ” In short I am very pleased that this smart very lively person and the hope of our party got in touch with this party And maybe he will inform Chernenko just like this and at the PB and maybe something will shift and start moving June 18 1984 Some information Brutents who came back from Serebryanny Bor where they finished the current state of drafting the international section of the CPSU Program was telling me They—meaning he Alexandrov Zagladin Bovin Blatov Yakovlev now IMEMO Director former ambassador to Canada former deputy head of the CC Propaganda Department former … The atmosphere—loosened tongues Alexandrov in front of other people calls Gromyko a dangerous senile the term “duocracy” is being used from time to time Gromyko Ustinov the policy of being tough with the United States is discussed briskly “we are working on Reagan’s reelection ” Speaking very disrespectfully about Chernenko and just the opposite—about Andropov—all the toasts during the last dinner at the dacha were toasts of remembrance “This one” does not socialize with anybody Even with his assistants They sign up to see him in the general line of 20-25 people and their turn almost never comes up Galya Doroshina 40 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Brezhnev’s dowry is in favor again—all papers are presented through her and one can push something through only through her as well I ask “Who is then writing all these beautiful texts for him There must be some group somewhere ” Nobody knows … Zamyatin’s people most likely Foreign Ministry people Economic situation is very bad But they speak about it only in presentations In reality the General Secretary is not interested in it although this information comes from a different source from agriculturalists with whom we saw Gorbachev off and when he came back at the airport—the situation is truly bad because of the May drought we will harvest only 150 million tons of wheat instead of 200 mln as in the plan It means that we will have to buy about 45 mln tons abroad As far as Brezhnev is concerned they lost any shame altogether his former assistants … They told this story L eonid I lyich loved to watch Seventeen Moments of Spring He watched it maybe twenty times One time when in the final episode Shtilitz is informed that he was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union Brezhnev turned to people in the room and asked “Did they present the award to him yet I would like to do it personally ” Ryabenko head of security apparently started to praise the main character of the movie—what a good person he is talented honest and the like Others chimed in “So what’s the problem ” said Brezhnev … And several days later he personally awarded … actor Tikhonov with the Hero Star and the Order of Lenin Precisely Hero of the Soviet Union This comes across as a joke in the manner of Schedrin … still it was only possible in Pavel’s time “Leutenant Kizhe” But this is a fact Alexandrov told the story Blatov immediately intervened and said “You Andrey Mikhailovich were not present at that moment And I was there myself—both at the movie and at the presentation of the award He L I genuinely decided that Tikhonov was real Shtirlitz” … About the work on the Program Brutents was telling me “Well we cleaned up shortened straightened it got rid of repetitions But to you I can say this is not any kind of Program It is more like material for the main report which could be delivered at the XXIV Congress and at the XXVI and at XXVII It is a political declaration about how we are going to behave It does not contain a serious analysis of the situation or any prognoses or forecasts on its basis The 1961 Program was more “programmatic” in this sense albeit erroneous ” I said “How can it be You were given a quite considerable leeway You had access to many truly serious and genuinely scientific books and articles written by real scientists who feel their responsibility It would be sufficient to read the IMEMO journal or even Communist not even mentioning the Working Class in the Modern World or the PPS Problems of Peace and Socialism Why wouldn’t you do a project on the “Hamburg rules” 41 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Come on what are you talking about—Karen objects--there are some serious scientific analyses on certain sections that’s true But in order to pull it all together into one joint product we need a political flight of thought and a political will Meanwhile we the working group cannot count on either one Our “readers ” there at the top do not possess one or the other And nobody wants to get smacked to be expelled with a tag that he was not able to fulfill an important party order We already consider it an achievement that we mentioned the “reserves of capitalism ” the high living standards in the West that socialism could find itself in a crisis situation and that it can contain contradictions Oh my God--I objected Today you can read about all this even in Pravda newspaper --In the paper yes Our “first readers” do not pay any attention to what’s there it would be proper to say that they are not shown those things to pay attention And here—they will notice We already saw some symptoms When Rakhmanin read it although he is a member of the working group but since he cannot write he does not stay at the dacha we send the written materials to him so when he read it he pleaded with us to delete “all this ” After Brutents Zagladin stopped by He looked at me in a gentle and aloof way I informed him about a couple of urgent tasks at work I asked him on behalf of Ponomarev to read through the draft of his report to the CC Secretaries of socialist countries Silence In order to continue the conversation I asked him about the Program … “All’s good we did some good work shortened it incorporated comments including yours too Now it looks quite decent I don’t know how Ponomarev will receive it this time ” And not a word about what Brutents told me In the end he told me some details about Gorbachev’s visit to Italy In the spirit of what Gorbachev was telling us at the airport One additional comment however was interesting when the CPSU delegation was walking through the crowd toward the Central Committee where the coffin was displayed thousands of Italians were chanting “Gorbachev Gorbachev Gorbachev CPSU-ICP CPSU-ICP ” And when he unexpectedly stepped out on the balcony of the CC building with Payetta to give an interview to a TV journalist the crowd erupted again “Viva Gorbachev ” And it lasted all the 10-15 minutes while he was standing on the balcony Arbatov who came to see me in the evening he is still waiting for an invitation to General Secretary added Gorbachev is now our most popular figure abroad Newspapers talk about him openly as a “crown prince ” as the most interesting person with a great future And this is very good—I said it both to Zagladin and to Arbatov There is hope for Russia once again 42 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org June 21 1984 I am working on Ponomarev’s report for the Conference of CC Secretaries of socialist countries By the way he is planning to present one more report—about the communist movement—at a closed session without the Romanians The trouble here is how to prepare it if he has his own point of view for example about ICP and the Finns apparently Gorbachev and Solomentsev who attended the Finnish congress have a different one Zagladin says that Chernenko “listened carefully” to Gorbachev who came from Italy from Berlinguer’s funeral with completely different from Ponomarev’s ideas about how we should act toward this “great party” Besides he contrary to Ponomarev insisted that CC CPSU should congratulate the Italians with the elections to the European Parliament And in addition we—me Zagladin and the consultants have our own view “the Hamburg” rules about the ICM—which is close to the Gorbachev Andropov one and contrary to Ponomarev’s political-instrumentalist point of view But the report is for Ponomarev and it will not be run by the Politburo Try to write something in this situation … Today I met with Simon general secretary of the Australian Socialist party He is the leader of the pro-Soviet sect For an hour and a half he doused my head with the “successes” and “achievements” of his Marxist-Leninist party and in conclusion left a letter with a request for money June 29 1984 Work entered the final round—preparations for the Prague Conference of CC Secretaries of socialist parties We are sculpting the report about ICM i e in essence about our current attitude to the FCP ICP CPI Finnish CP CPGB—The Morning Star and some others How to circumvent the sclerotic-Cominternish police-ideological Ponomarev’s approaches Recently he delivered a report to the Moscow party activists It was written for him by his consultant Rybakov B N was very disappointed with the text changed it along the way in particular he was especially angered by an objective assessment of the FCP which as a result of the “Europarliament” elections found itself in deep shit But for Ponomarev it is still better than the ICP which has won a stunning victory although with the aid of the “effect of Berlinguer’s death” as well Yesterday I was meeting Sures Secretary of the CC HSWP and Co He came to “present himself” to Ponomarev and Rusakov in his new position as a CC Secretary … We drafted 32 pages of memos for B N I am curious if he would spread them out on the table and would read them to Sures vis-à-vis – a “boy ” who recently worked as his 43 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org referent and carried his suitcases and who of course would present his positions without any papers I am tired Zagladin and Brutents are at the “theoretical” dacha again finalizing the draft Program B N gave my comments to Alexandrov I think without even giving them a close read And it sounds like they caused discontent there during the discussion or were simply ignored altogether In any case Karen is trying to avoid this subject on the phone not to offend me By the way he is turning 60 on July 4 Yesterday I was re-working the statement filling it with more or less beautiful assessments which were also correct All the departmental routine falls on me one again … However my main work is the two Ponomarev reports for Prague Franta Khlad and others came from Prague We handed them the drafts of conference documents which they will distribute as their own products to other participants Still we sat together discussed those drafts and changed some things Khlad proposed sensible corrections The situation with me prematurely informing Trukhanovsky the main editor of the journal Questions of History about awarding him the Order of October Revolution I heard it myself at the Secretariat where Gorbachev kept repeating it and the agenda also had this item But it is missing from the protocols of the Secretariat that came in yesterday What could that mean But he when I told him got nervous like a baby lost the ability of coherent speech This will be quite a blow and an embarrassment for me if the award does not come through i e if the Politburo does not confirm July 2 1984 A hard day For the nth time I redrafted Ponomarev report for Prague And the cyphered cables keep coming and TASS and the newspapers keep writing--and all kinds of initiatives keep coming up And not only the substance but also the nuances of the political-propagandist formulas and approaches turns of speech keep changing updating And he keeps striving to demonstrate his own personal participation in drafting of “his” speeches Today he gathered all the consultants and deputies and babbled some nonsense for an hour and a half Including the story about how five years ago he drove Berlinguer all around Crimea—which I heard at least for the fifth time— and tried to persuade him that we do have socialism and therefore they should fight against anti-Sovietism His assessments of the international situation and situations in communist parties are so primitive and banal that it is disgusting A dozen and a half of smart educated and well-informed people were listening to this chinwag as if it was a revelation that should be used as the basis of his reports in Prague I thought if his texts really were prepared at this level what it would be like However they would not be approved He is able to distinguish between a good and a bad product He even likes to use the assessments like “wretched ” “primitive ” and the like Tomorrow it will start all over again And so right now I am reading a devastating article by Andre Fontaine “FCP between the State and the Revolution” in La Monde and constantly break away to jot down some emerging intelligent thoughts for insertion into 44 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Ponomarev’s text This is what we all do—the best what we can produce “in the current context”—for him However some of us manage to do something for themselves And for him and for me as an intermediate station —not the very best July 15 1984 This evening I am leaving for Jurmala B N “kicked me out” unexpectedly because he is planning to go on vacation on August 1 therefore I should stay and take care of business while nobody will be in town I have to be back on August 5 I will not have time to write about anything now so I will just outline On July 9 there was a conference of all apparat members attended by Gorbachev and other Secretaries Ligachev’s report “About the situation in the Uzbek republican party organization ” Horror complete degradation I memorized the cotton harvest was growing and the production of fiber declined year after year they stole hundreds of thousands of rubles from the state managed to hide 240-300 thousand tons of cotton by doctoring papers took tens-thousand ruble bribes while stealing millions from the state They built palaces squares and the like in Tashkent One mural at a metro station cost 2 million And meanwhile half a million of the city residents still live in clay huts dugouts without plumbing running water gas and sometimes even without electricity The same thing in Samarkand the second most populous city All bosses from the top to the bottom acquired posh mansions in the city and suburban villas some of them have five cars for personal use The CC CPSU received 30 000 letters about all this in the last three years however … nobody paid any attention … Just in Kashka-Darya district the entire department of interior i e the police and Co was arrested starting with the head of the department “At the present moment ” as Ligachev put it items valued at 7 million rubles were confiscated from them A fake paper was discovered in the republican Ministry of the Interior 700 communists as “dead souls” in order to show the considerable size of party members in the Ministry Relatives occupied all main positions in the district committees Several thousand party officials of all ranks have been fired about 1 500 of them were charged with crimes In a word this is some kind of fantasmagoric stealing scheme where Mikhail Evgrafievich Saltykov-Schedrin would pale in comparison It is not entirely clear why they decided to reveal all this in front of the whole apparat starting from a referent-instructor level Maybe so that everybody would scratch where he should whether he has some “similar facts” in his safe box or in his notebook From July 10-13 I was in Prague for the Conference of CC Secretaries B N ’s report The Romanians Ponomarev’s toast Cyphered cable Situation if you don’t do it nobody will do it for you B N pulled me into the editorial office of Problems of Peace and Socialism He made an hour-long speech unprepared retold in his primitive narration his report at the CC 45 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Secretaries Conference Then questions and answers He let me speak on the question of the Vatican and social-democracy and decided that he did me a favor but also “added ” obviously I did not slap the Pope quite enough August 8 1984 From July 16 to August 5 I stayed at Yantar’ Amber Spent 21 days wonderfully Now I am sitting in for Ponomarev and Zagladin Tomorrow for the first time in my life I will be not just attending but speaking—at the Politburo There is so much to done And again now it is Gorbachev who demanded at the Politburo that B N prepares an honest report about the communist movement and the main question is—“what to do with it ” Volsky sitting at a table at Yantar’ was telling me he was at the Politburo that from a five-minute affair—the results of Gorbachev’s meeting with Van-Gate—sprang a two-hour discussion everybody spoke and “smashed your guy i e B N quite hard ” But B N judging from the fact that nothing has been done since the 19th and that he did not inform anybody even Zagladin treated it with disdain this happened under Andropov and then under Chernenko as well He does not sense that people are sick and tired of him and nobody enjoys his monopoly on the international communist movement Volsky General secretary’s assistant told me “I come in—he says—to Gorbachev’s office on my own business after the Politburo session and he suddenly asks me what do you think will anything come out of this ” --From what Volsky did not understand --From the discussion of the communist movement at the Politburo … Did Ponomarev understand and is he capable to understand what people want from him Will he be able to react properly Since there were no other people dealing with international issues at the PB except for him How will he pass on the task to those who will work on it I—said Volsky—tried to deflect the issue saying that I was from a completely different department I cannot say anything However Volsky could have said something but he thinks Chernyaev does not have to know about it That’s what the attitude to Ponomarev is Today on the phone he tried to embellish all that According to him nothing special they did not criticize us they do not demand any materials urgently However when I told him that there were conversations inside the apparat that they “blasted” the International Department he softened somewhat and started giving me advice to take this seriously 46 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org August 9 1984 My presentation at the Politburo did not happen I was present for all the issues but when the turn came to the fourth on which I was supposed to speak Gorbachev spoke himself and said pretty much what I was going to say While speaking he repeatedly cited me and I naturally nodded I don’t know whether he wanted to make my task easier or just did not want to waste time unclear He treats me in a comradely way he said this word himself when he hugged me by shoulders in front of his assistants after the meeting with the American Garst in his office I edited Arkhipov’s review of the Bulgarian two-volume publication about Dimitrov Arkhipov is the chief secretary of the journal Kommunist But what a pathetic product this review was And what a striking lack of information about the CC current policy toward the communist movement And this is an article for the CC main journal August 11 1984 Yesterday among other things I finished the article for Kommunist about the communist movement It turned out it seems to me not bad and even original The most important thing is that there is a new aspirational not Ponomarev’s but hopefully Gorbachevian attitude to all the foreign communist parties in that article’s style … A new spirit—not one of “struggle for unity on the basis of Marxism-Leninism ” but based on the understanding of their own tasks August 12 1984 There were two meetings on Friday Antonio Rubbi—head of the International Department of the CC of the Italian Communist Party Trevor Munroe—general secretary of the Jamaican Worker’s Party Two hours with each of them Rubbi and I have known each other for a long time At times he could be angry and then he can say bad things about us worse than the most right-wing person in the Italian government That is why it was fascinating to see him after Gorbachev’s visit there for Berliguer’s funeral and after Gorbachev made an “indelible” impression Rubbi loves to play up candor throw “mother-truth” in your face But this time he was exceptionally loyal as an angel acted in the utmost comradely way Even when asking about Afghanistan he did not pronounce their sacramental formula “And what do you need there ” Munroe—a refined intelligent negro the “brain” of all the leftists in the entire Caribbean Basin quite an educated Marxist He was very concerned that I would refuse to meet with him Indeed we postponed his visit twice this year because he “did some stupid things ” After Grenada crushing of the revolution there by the United States he accused Fidel Castro of betrayal defended Winston Coard in every way possible wrote up 47 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org many theoretical justifications of his actions as a consistent Leninist revolutionary in contrast to Bishop a petty bourgeois talker who according to him was only useful in the first stage of the revolution and then became the brakes on the revolution And so on and so forth in the spirit of Stalin’s orthodoxy I met with him as a friend I pretended that “nothing happened ” started from afar speaking about out internal transformations and their international importance about Reagan and the prospects of relations with America about the Grenadian students study at the Lenin’s School He raised the subject of Grenada first apologized saying that he made a crude mistake because his Grenadian friends did not share the information about their internal disagreements with him as well as with us and therefore he analyzed everything incorrectly In response I said that we were very disappointed and mainly because he expressed all his criticism publicly but that it is good that now he is trying to resurrect relations with Castro I reminded him of one episode from our revolutionary experience namely the story of the Brest Treaty Then if Lenin had not won by one vote against Trotsky and Bukharin at the CC the Germans would have crushed our revolution and that at that meeting where Lenin threatened to step down there was one Lomov who uttered “So what we will have to do without Leonid Ilyich ” However at that meeting it did not occur to anybody either to expel Lomov or to arrest and then execute Lenin But here Coard and Co whom I personally do not view as counterrevolutionaries and U S agents but who were driven to adventurism and crimes against the revolution by their own dogmatism did just that In a word we parted as friends again At the PB where I was supposed to talk among other issues they discussed the results of Ustinov and Chebrikov’s negotiations with Karmal Ustinov spoke about his impressions and conclusions in his picturesque folksy way His assessment of Karmal is very ironic but says what can we do we do not have another one over there As I understood there is little change in the situation The bandits control 80% of the territory There is no full normalcy and order even in Kabul The trouble is that the liberated areas are not “reinforced ” or they way we would put it they do not implement “soviet regime” there The troops leave—and the bandits come back In the army whereas in the beginning the Khalqists represented 80% of the officer corps now it is still up to 60% And the animosity still remains—to the extent that even here in the USSR during their studies they get into fistfights almost every day Our troops closed the border with Pakistan 100% for 750 kilometers but after that there is “hole” of 500km in length where the Pushtu tribes as well as the bands travel back and forth freely The so-called “mobilization” to join the army—is laughable Let’s say Karmal drafts Ustinov says “catches” 3 000 men per year and signs them up for service and 2 500 of them run away and scatter Karmal constantly leans towards saying that our advisers should rule and also implement their decisions themselves Ustinov says I said to him 48 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org it will not work this way You are in power this your country you should govern and our people are there in order to “give advice” if you ask them So you should not shift the responsibility for governing Our Minister of Defense is a smart experienced even wise person One may say that there is nothing militaristic in him But he is inside the logic of the events He is not capable to look into the essence It does not occur to him that it is possible to turn our whole “Afghan epic” completely differently Because if it occurred to him he could just say to all his colleagues and he uses informal ty with everybody —simply in just the same folksy and old-guy fashion—maybe we should tell all these Karmals to go f themselves Chebrikov added to Ustinov’s report Less expressive in terms of language with constant “so”’s and he also made a very awkward mistake unintentionally and the main thing is that he did not even noticed it When characterizing Karmal he expressed his surprise that “he is growing” in the political and personal sense But also he says he got used to being a head of state a leader He has started to stick up became stubborn and of course he started to be cunning with us But what can you do he says he is an Eastern man The Azeri Aliyev who was sitting next to the speaker got bright red in the face and started to fidget with something in his hands The Kazakh Nuriev deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers and the Armenian Kastandov also deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers frowned and focused on the table in front of them The conversation went on And only Gorbachev who was presiding quickly glanced around the table with his lively sharp eyes and barely hid his smile For Chebrikov obviously all the real “our guys” are Russians whoever they might be by their ethnic origin The PB discussed the situation with the harvest in the RSFSR Gorbachev he of course was the initiator called up several district committee secretaries—both those whose districts were doing very poorly as well as those who were doing well even though they also had the drought He staged a comparative exhibit let each of them show themselves It is hard for them to deal with him… He knows the work better than they do And any slightest inaccuracy incompetence a slightest attempt to mislead— immediately led to his retort and the orator found himself in a stupidest situation It is particularly hard for them because he cannot stand it I noticed it at the Secretariat when people read from a paper material that they must know like “Our Father ” even if you woke them up in the middle of the night He tolerates this kind of “reading aloud” of the text prepared by the staff for a brief time only immediately starts to ask questions trying to uncover the essential things causes and how things could be fixed what is the solution And if the orator even after those suggestive questions keeps sticking to his text then he tells them to sit down unceremoniously He told one of them “Take your seat you did not think your presentation through ” The situation itself is very hard nonetheless The entire Volga region Central Russia especially the Tambov and Voronezh districts “burned” during the May drought The harvest is only 4 to 5 centner 100 kilograms from a hectare 49 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Also they discussed forestry The Council of Ministers prepared a draft of improvements in the industry But this improvement will not allow us to catch up with the West even by 2000 in comparative production of goods from the same amount of lumber In the United States they produce them for 166 rubles and we only produce for 41 ruble We lose more than 25% of processed lumber and in Britain and Japan they lose 2-4% About 50 million of cubic meters a year goes bad rots In terms of volume of lumber all the mechanization notwithstanding we are still at the level of 1958 today Probably because in those years it was GULAG who did that work and today you cannot compel or entice anybody to do it Ligachev explained that the lumbermen living conditions were much worse that those of all other sectors of labor I heard a lot of similar things before—at the CC Secretariat—under Brezhnev Suslov Kirilenko But today when Gorbachev took it in his hands there is some emerging confidence that we will start moving after all August 16 1984 On Tuesday at the last CC Secretariat the following thing happened The agenda was finished people started getting up Suddenly Gorbachev says heads of departments and those who cover for them please remain in the room We sat around about 20 people He says Konstantin Ustinovich called me yesterday He said I am here on vacation had an opportunity to devote more attention to TV listen to the radio regularly read every line in the newspapers And I see something wrong is happening in our country On every occasion every little thing I see again and again General Secretary of the CC CPSU Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet comrade Chernenko Konstantin Ustinovich … Here and there he sent something to somebody directed said greeted and the like Of course the position of General Secretary has solidified in the party as a symbol of its unity the collective leadership Of course the directives and statements of the General Secretary should be treated with respect be authoritative But we should know the limits On big principal issues and a required number of times But not at every step where it’s needed or not This creates an unnecessary element devalues the statements He says consult with the comrades discuss how we could best correct it without noise without publicity Gorbachev commented on what he just said emphasized that this was a sensitive matter but we should correct it Take for example our meeting here today The Secretary of the Ivanov district committee made a presentation businesslike conversation and the presentation was substantive concrete But how did he begin “Implementing the decisions of the XXVI Congress of the CPSU and the subsequent Plenums of the CC CPSU directives of the General Secretary chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and so on and so forth ” Sometimes here or at some other work meeting we “fight” ruthlessly say unpleasant things to each other … but even during such work interactions it comes out in accordance with the instructions of the General Secretary chairman of the presidium … and it goes on and on 50 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org The attending members were told to pay attention Zimyanin was instructed to gather mass media leaders and to “explain” to them in a careful manner Yesterday Ponomarev called me from the South I told him about that He got very interested he put it this way “it means he is against the cultism ” Today Zaitsev came in and said B N called ordered me to come to you so that you would tell me about the last Secretariat This is for the new edition of The History of the CPSU which is being re-published endlessly edited by Ponomarev … “in order to maintain the proper norm in it ” We started to talk he is after all Ponomarev’s consultant on the party history he knows the “other side” of this history We started from “small things ” He says did you hear about Molotov --Rumors nothing specific … --So listen they reinstated him in the party already issued the party card And that is while his hands are covered in blood not just to the elbow but to the neck to the top of his head Stalin was not the first to sign the execution lists On the state apparat and industry on party personnel—it was Molotov On transportation industry — Kaganovich On the military—Voroshilov Stalin always put his signature afterwards There are terrible things there I held those documents in my own hands For example the list of 145 industrial leaders … signed Molotov below his signature Stalin But in Stalin’s handwriting there is a bracket across from all the names and it says “All to be shot ” Or the list of 46 secretaries of district committees Also a bracket and the same inscription in Stalin’s handwriting This is how it is he says … And why then can’t we rehabilitate Rykov and Bukharin — shot up Zaitsev and continued on the subject The question about them was first raised in 1957 Myself and Mints were invited to a session of the CC Presidium Furtseva raised the issue What’s the matter According to the history that we were taught from 19 24 to 19 30 the country did not have a chairman of the government But at the same time Rykov succeeded Lenin in his position And Vladimir Ilyich notwithstanding the “episode” of 1917 valued him a lot After Sverdlov there were two statesmen judging by the scale of endeavors they started Rykov and Tsuryupa But Tsuryupa was very ill and stepped down soon But this one Rykov —was a person of crystal honesty and great erudition who enjoyed everybody’s undisputed and genuine respect … And what did they falsely charged him with in 1938 That he voted at the VI Congress to make Lenin stand trial i e wanted to get rid of Lenin with the hands of the counterrevolution But this is a lie Today we have a published transcript of the VI Congress It says in black on white Rykov together with Sverdlov and Dzerzhinsky were categorically against it … in contrast to Stalin who put forth a proposal about a “conditional appearance ” i e if the Provisional Government provides security guarantees When Rykov was arrested he wrote to Stalin from prison I saw these letters—Zaitsev continued “Joseph you of all know that this is not true what can it be ”… And Bukharin He was falsely charged with in addition to everything else that during the Brest negotiations he conspired with the SRs socialist revolutionaries to kill Lenin 51 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org By the way in 1928 when they started to lash him for the rightist turn at the Moscow party conference one of the participants demanded explanations from Bukharin He said yes there was an incident they came to me in 1918 proposed an agreement promised their full support in getting rid of Lenin I threw them out and then went to Vladimir Ilyich told him about it and we both had a good laugh … Stalin and Rykov’s relations were quite cold Molotov and Bukharin always disliked each other But Stalin and Bukharin were bosom buddies They both were of small height and when they saw each other especially at the dacha they loved to tackle each other to wrestle Bukharin would always floor Stalin and the latter would get really angry and harass Bukharin again … Everybody in the party leadership used the familiar “ty” with each other except for Lenin He never addressed anybody like that and nobody addressed him This comes from the aristocratic upbringing And all others met each other in prisons There it would have been awkward to use the formal “vy ” By the way according to witnesses Stalin acted badly toward his comrades in jail in exile—he roughhoused people schemed against them … --And what was Kamenev like —I asked —I can picture Zinoviev he apparently was truly disgusting as a person --No Kamenev was completely different First of all he was a person of a colossal education It is not an accident that they made him director of the Academy publishing house after he was removed from his party positions He was always surrounded by people from the most elite intelligentsia And also he exhibited a striking poise he never lost his nerve was always calm and reasonable Lenin had an inner respect for him By the way after the episode when Stalin called Nadezhda Krupskaya a whore Vladimir Ilyich called Kamenev and asked him to make sure that Stalin apologized --But wait tell me how did it end at the CC Presidium regarding Furtseva’s proposal --Well well … Mikoyan supported her Frol Kozlov supported there was such a CC Secretary Suslov took an unclear position on the one hand the trials of 19 37 19 38—were falsifications Rykov and Bukharin deserve to be rehabilitated On the other hand where would all this lead us Meanwhile as they were discussing all this Nikita showed up He was wearing a General’s uniform I remember it as if it was today probably came back from some military review or a visit to a military unit And from the get-go started to say “It is clear that the trials—are all nonsense they are forgery But at this point we had enough of Stalin he meant the XX Congress and the revelations about the personality cult we still can’t recover from that and all the communist movement as well It’s OK we can wait And for now let us ask the authors of textbooks it is for this reason that Mints and Zaitsev were invited to the session of the Presidium to present it in such a way as if there were no trials … They did not happen that’s it This way we will not tell the truth but we will also not tell lies Of course it is not easy But let them use their brains ” 52 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org This is what we did—continues Zaitsev We did not mention Bukharin’s name in the story of the leftist SRs during the Brest period in contrast to the “Brief Course ” And we did not mention Rykov among those who voted for Lenin to appear in court at the VI Congress And launched into self-justification let the future historians appreciate that we “in that situation ” gave them a slit through which they would crawl toward the truth I objected it’s been 27 years Khrushchev “postponed” the consideration of the issue But you never took a step to remind about it Who will do it Then as you said yourself a commission was created The results of that commission—are the three huge volumes of Stalin’s crimes Today all of that as well as the documents that it brought up are back behind the wall of utmost secrecy once again Yes confirmed Zaitsev now nobody is allowed to go there You Ponomarev and Mints are essentially the only ones who know and remember all this Who then would “remind” Or are you waiting till one of the present leaders “gives an order ” They have no time for this One of you is 90 the other—80 and you are just under 70 Is this how this will sink into oblivion for another 50-100 years Why are you harassing me Can I stick my nose into it without Ponomarev And he will not do it even though the party would build him a monument if he dared to do it … But he does not care about it What he cares about is a second gold star for his 80th birthday And he is not confident that if he “enters” with that he would not be smacked … I started to say that as far as I understand the current leaders—take Chernenko Gorbachev Vorotnikov Solomentsev—they are not likely to be against looking into this issue once again --I don’t know I don’t know --he responded—I only know that when Pelshe was appointed to the CPC the Committee of Party Control of the CPSU he requested those materials and studied them Solomentsev however as far as I know did not and does not intend to do it Along the way he told me that he saw a questionnaire for a dozen people with one question “to arrest Bukharin or not ” Against were Krupskaya Mikoyan and … Khrushchev And one ore thing Krupskaya was poisoned at the Arkhangelskoe sanatorium And when the uninformed medics brought her to the Granovsky street an order came refuse treatment do not apply therapy “let her croak on her own ” It is clear why it was done Stalin became aware that she was planning to “raise a fight” at the forthcoming XVIII Congress She was buried with all the proper honors By the way the other day I read summaries of letters from first Secretary of the Volgograd district committee and the head of the Letters Department of the CC Yakovlev which were sent to the Politburo “for information ” with requests and demands to rename Volgograd back to Stalingrad When I go to work in the morning a group of people waits for a bus at the opening of the China town passage Sometimes I see when the bus comes and these intelligent-looking people enter it There is a big portrait of Stalin on the windshield of that bus This has 53 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org been going on for more than two years They say it is allowed but only if he was in the Marshal’s uniform August 17 1984 Felix my school friend called me and said that Vadka had died also one of my school friends And for the last two years I have been planning to call him and make up … after I did not invite “all my people’ to my 60th birthday This is how childhood is being erased the house in Maryina Roscha was destroyed Zhorka died and now Vadim August 22 1984 Stenogram of conversation between Chernenko Gorbachev Ustinov Rusakov and Honecker Aksen Hager Milke who came in secret also in order to “discuss” the quarrel because of Honecker’s forthcoming visit to Bonn They are taking advantage of us the Germans decided a bit too early that they are not vassals any longer but our partners But they snarled back and criticized us because we spilled the argument onto the pages of Pravda And did not promise not to go to Bonn A brochure for Ponomarev about the 40th anniversary of the Victory Platitude platitude and platitude once again How long can it go on At the Secretariat something “on counter-propaganda” in Ukraine—what an abyss of ungovernable and mass passion overall hostile to the regime and the authorities and the way of life There are 5 000 religious organizations in Ukraine—just the legal ones Vadim’s funeral Our school contingent is diminishing And every time the bell tolls for somebody else who is next I should tell about the spectacle of the funeral itself separately August 25 1984 On Thursday I met with Tato Berlinguer’s former assistant We talked for two hours And again—what can we do to stop Reagan Overall—a polite conversation between aliens they do not want to understand that today’s United States understands only force and that from an international point of view what is happening there now and how they behave toward others in essence makes them similar to the Hitlerite Germany of the second half of the 1930s Neither compromise nor settlement is possible in the political sphere They are possible i e saving ourselves from war only if we step out of the political sphere—into the sphere of humanism replacing politics with the philosophy of “existentialism” in a new manner The same feeling after yesterday’s three-hour conversation with Alberto Mino— Secretary of the San Marino Communist Party 54 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org I attended the Politburo on Thursday They discussed information for the party activists about the “German-German” casus Zimyanin was trying to soften the terms But he was attacked especially by Ustinov The logic was as follows not only Honecker but also Kadar and Zhivkov and even the Czechs behave lousy We they said keep repeating that the situation is worsening because of the Pershings in Europe and they keep exchanging hugs with the FRG Italy and England as if nothing was happening And we are playing politesse afraid to tell them directly … and we have the right to tell them that it will not work this way Chebrikov supported Ustinov and Gorbachev supported 50% of it and everything with the exception of one phrase was left as it was drafted The meaning we told Honecker in conversation with Chernenko back in June that he should not go to Bonn but he does not listen to us and continues to prepare for the visit Sad … Where will it all take us September 13 1984 I am traveling around Italy with my daughter Three days for the return trip Budapest Meeting with the Hungarians the train stops there for six hours Gyula Turner with an advisor present was telling me how Kadar was giving his opinion to Ambassador Bazovsky regarding the information received from Moscow from the Politburo why we forced Honecker not to go to Bonn He started like this “Of course we are not happy with this turn of events ” And about internationalism which could be real now if it was implemented through independence and specifics of every country of the commonwealth Arbatov He is offended that I am neglecting him Although I am just lazy to socialize with anybody But he believes again that everybody is ganging up on him and that they don’t value him And that he will not get to become a CC member at the XXVII congress Hinting that he is thinking about a preventative resignation “Maybe they will need me later then they will remember ” Look at this De Gaulle Nonetheless he’s been at Gorbachev’s twice recently According to his words he told him the ugly truth about the food situation and that we see enemies everywhere the GDR the Bulgarians the Hungarians not to mention the Poles Apparently our best friends are Ceausescu Kim Il Sung With them everything is OK all’s normal we hid our criticisms in the pocket And that something has to be done with Western Europe And that we should not give a present to Reagan Gromyko’s agreement to meet with him in Washington on September 28 without preconditions Today we went to Nagornoe to attend military exercises Eleven buses with flashing lights Traffic was stopped half an hour before our column Civil defense … General Altunin and other generals and colonels Everything is built on the assumption that there will be more death and destruction that in the last war but that it is possible to survive rebuild and start living again 55 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org It looks like B N accepted the memo on ICM in general but with several deletions and suggestions he turns the spirit of it into a banal newspaper article about communist heroism September 16 1984 There was a conversation with Zagladin at B N ’s office That one agrees with everything as always and will not do anything He has a different level of policy influence little memos for K U written together with Alexandrov And “these ” i e Ponomarev with his pitiful ambitions to have some influence and primitive selfpreservation efforts—they are not worth any brain or nerve cells And I was just burning with indignation he just wanted to put on some polish some cheap propaganda in favor of the ICM which is like a regional party committee for him where one just needs to present things in a best way Well I did not mention what it was all about About the memo on the ICM for the CC Ponomarev sees our draft again as “blackening ” He does not understand that he is being tested—for seriousness for his ability to assess the situation realistically his ability to look at things in a new way a modern way to present a plan—a program in this his own sphere which would fit Gorbachev’s approach to policy But our B N despises Gorbachev he considers him a parvenu and a complete ignoramus in big politics an “agrarian secretary ” who went twice on foreign trips and believes that he learned everything This hubris will cost Ponomarev dearly Especially so because it is directed toward a person who is superior to Ponomarev in all parameters many times over including by his intellect his education and in his adherence to his principles and in his decency And his approach to the ICM is rational and not policing and propaganda like B N ’s And he will achieve his goals most likely by removing Ponomarev But one more year will be lost And the International Department will be in deep shit once again because we cannot jump over Ponomarev’s head to the CC with this assignment September 18 1984 I attended the CC Secretariat We listened to Leonov first secretary of the Kalinin district committee about the committee’s work in agriculture Gorbachev and others subjected him to a merciless criticism with the conclusion if it goes on like this he will be removed And not only for the failure to fulfill the plan but also for the total disaster on all indicators but—what was especially striking—for encouraging the adorations and praise of his own person for tolerating subservience for idle talk and show off instead of real work and for lack of party propriety McClennan with delegation agreed to come even though Chernenko refused to meet with him And it is better this way—if from our side we have Gorbachev But I will have a lot of hustle and bustle because the British sector is absolutely helpless I cannot stop 56 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org being surprised by how primitive most of our staff are many of whom spent 25 to 30 years at the Department They have neither a sense of modern day or proper knowledge or even an ability to present—to write down—what they do know September 20 1984 It looks like I am experiencing the second “ideological crisis” of my life The cause is the same—I found myself again in a situation of a Chinese person who came to believe the slogan “may 100 flowers bloom ” In March Ambartsumov brought me an article about Lenin and the crisis of 1921 I even proposed to title it “Lenin in 1918” He asked me to recommend it to the Voprosy Istorii Issues of History The article is brilliant fresh smart and all built on Lenin’s ideas But it also contained hints about the crises in Hungary Czechoslovakia Poland and how to deal with them in Lenin’s fashion Trukhanovsky naturally listened to me and printed the article in the Lenin’s April issue And in September or August they read the article in Warsaw First the “revisionists” got interested in it They found support for their positions in the article It went all the way up to Jaruzelski He also approved and sent the annotated article around the Politburo After that—a laudatory article in Tribuna Ludu This was enough to get people in the CC apparatus to start reading it I don’t know who was the first to “inform ” most likely the Department of socialist countries but was followed was Zimyanin’s instruction to Institute of Marxism-Leninism IML —to give a crushing review It was carried out Then—a memo from departments of science and propaganda … And then today in the folder of materials for Kommunist editorial board where I am a member I received a stunningly demolishing article by Bugaev where Ambartsumov personally and the editors of Voporsy Istorii are accused of perversions of Leninism and the like I call Kosolapov tell him this is banditry Trapeznikovism at its worst He I cannot do anything there was an instruction But he immediately started to try to persuade me that in his opinion too the article is vulnerable I told him don’t play a fool for half a year nobody noticed it i e deviations perversions of Leninism and suddenly today … Of course I understand we have to spifflicate Ambartsumov so that the Poles would not think of it again instead of telling the Poles politely that they are perverting Ambartsumov The science department questioned Voprosy Istorii about how the article came to be They told the truth Chernyaev recommended it So everybody knows it now however nobody officially said anything to me or Trukhanovsky who called me several times in panic 57 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Kosolapov did not know about my role either Everything is done anonymously Fedoseyev already ordered ten scholars to write a review of the article and make their conclusions Whatever one says and whatever we feel about the terrifyingly banal article in Kommunist I had failed the editorial board and Trukhanovsky personally who is about to face the elections to become an Academician And they have trusted me in everything my opinion has been unquestioningly authoritative for them for the last twenty years In short I should resign from Voprosy Istorii Here is the June Plenum for you with all the appeals for creativity courage for reasonable risk for freshness of thinking rather than chewing the cud of the habitual September 21 1984 B N sent the memo for conversations with McClennan Co to Gorbachev almost without changes I agreed to meet the delegation on Sunday Dzhavad’s helplessness and in addition—drunkenness with the help of Pushkov What’s happened with him But I do not feel any compassion I feel disgust towards slackers even those to whom in principle I feel sympathetic What irritates me is not even that I have to work for the entire sector after all it does not take that much time What irritates is the shamelessness of people who do not shy away from receiving their paycheck for somebody else’s work—even for the work of their bosses I edited and sent to Kommunist the review of Ezhegodnik Annals edited by Krasin apparently they want to stop the discussion of our ICM article which they don’t even mention to the authors by publishing this review I did not go to the editorial board meeting of Voprosy Istorii although Trukhanovsky kept asking he needed a quorum to be nominated to become an Academician After the editorial board meeting I called him and “disappointed” him with the information about my yesterday’s conversation with Kosolapov In his turn he told me how Vladimirov first deputy of the Science Department blasted Ambartsumov’s article at a briefing at the Department I told Trukhanovsky that I am planning to resign from the editorial board “in the tradition of Russian officers and the British Cabinet” He was trying to talk me out of it but not too vigorously and admitted that it would help him to save his skin—by shifting all the blame on me 58 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org I started working again “from scratch ” on the memo with the plan on the ICM for the Politburo Zagladin keeps slacking focusing on his articles speeches to various audiences and receptions of delegations Arbatov told me that in a conversation Gorbachev mentioned me as “one intelligent person in the International Department” … Nice to hear I finished reading “Kamo Remind Me” by Zubarev Big real literature “Kamo” forces one to think about the senselessness of living in accord with one’s conscience … except only for the hope that they would write a documentary novel about you in the future September 23 1984 In the morning I went to the dacha Enjoyed being with nature and in the evening stopped by the Pushkin museum But I realized that it is better not to do it in a bad mood However in 45 minutes I experienced the same feeling as I did today from the riot of fall colors—a longing for a simple real life By the way I learned that they allowed to publish Rybakov’s novel The Children of the Arbat—about Stalin and the year 1934 I read the first part in manuscript and the question was discussed at the top Gorbachev Vorotnikov Ponomarev—in favor Stukalin has been in favor for a long time But Shauro and Belyaev—were always against And I also learned that there are already proofs of the memoirs and an essay about Sholom Alekheim Held it in my hands It would have been unthinkable even a couple years ago And an article about Jewish literature in Yiddish Late in the evening I was meeting with McClennan Co including Philippa Lengton a feminist member of the Politburo At the airport everything was properly done ZIL limousines lots of plainclothes police … B N 45 minutes of conversation with tea—immediately He was in his vulgarprimitive element B N did not go to the hotel with McClennan We had supper the Brits myself Dzhavad Lagutin and the interpreter From the very beginning our conversation shifted to literature in connection with the forthcoming Plenum of the Writers’ Union And so for the entire evening I was debunking their perceptions about us and about our great literature—not an easy task because here was full and complete ignorance about the real state of our current literature But at the same time this subject permitted us to create an atmosphere of candor and to open an intellectual plane on which we could interact with him September 27 1984 I’ve been dealing with the Brits all week Yesterday we had a meeting at the Politburo Gorbachev led it very skillfully smartly correcting our ideological purism and bullying and creating a genuinely comradely atmosphere by focusing on politics and the recognition of the right of originality 59 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Our B N was in his usual banal spirit Embarrassing The Brits were “charmed” by the hospitality and good will They were taken to a collective farm a state farm the plant named after Ordzhonikidze I was with them practically all the time talked to them about anything that was appropriate And we did not impose anything on them anywhere did not “teach” them and did not “call” them to anything Even today in my office when we were telling them about the Chinese for two hours it was done very properly exceptionally objectively only with facts and let them make their own conclusions Tomorrow I am seeing them off Gorbachev called me afterwards after the meeting with them inquired “how was it ” and them interrogated me what I thought about his trip to Britain as head of the parliamentary delegation everybody asks him to come from Thatcher to … He said it during the conversation And McClennan actively supported the idea of the trip And me too—even more energetically even cheekily saying that it would be an act of our “European Policy ” Slowly stealing hours at work I have been finishing the memo and the plan of work with the ICM for the Politburo Now I can lean on what Gorbachev was telling the Brits Yesterday Ambartsumov stopped by We talked I refused to undertake anything—“out of pride ” He is not going to prostrate himself and beat his chest either Nonetheless I woke up last night with the thought—why shouldn’t I write my opinion to Kosolapov turned and tossed then got up and instantly wrote two biting pages will attach for memory I sent them in the morning Interesting what is he going to do with them Chernenko was awarded the third Hero of the Soviet Union star on the occasion of his 73d birthday Brezhnev tradition is continuing without any effort to make it more original His speech at the anniversary Plenum of the Writers’ Union on which a team of smart speechwriters was working for three months is very good Let’s hope to God that the bureaucrats working on culture take it as their instruction September 29 1984 I don’t know what Kosolapov did with my missive But the story about the Ambartsumov article is going around Moscow already It got to Bovin to Arbatov They told me citing others completely unfamiliar people from different “strata ” Last night on the phone Arbatov spent a long time trying to persuade me that I should go to Gorbachev and tell him “What for do we need this scandal with Jaruzelski on such a shitty issue What do we want—to stay friends only with Kim Il Sung and Ceausescu ” 60 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org But I am not Arbatov And I will not go Maybe I would have gone had I not been the “guilty one” on this article When one attends the Secretariat sessions and when one sees how Gorbachev conducts them the heart rejoices the real party style of conducting affairs of relations among the top party leadership of relations within the party elite is being revived But when one watches the scenes of presenting awards to Chernenko one feels dipped into the Brezhnev-court style once again Moreover everybody noticed that the award was presented by Ustinov not Gorbachev which would have seemed natural—the “second person” in the party—and not even by Tikhonov Which means that they kind of “smeared” Gorbachev in front of everybody so that everybody could see how things stand and who is the boss And more … They are giving awards for nothing at all without any reason 73 years and at the same time they write about modesty as one of his defining personal traits However according to the court logic modesty is an attribute of the position not of the person who occupies it General Secretary of a Bolshevik party is supposed to be modest therefore he is regardless of what he is like in reality and most importantly of how the people perceive him October 2 1984 Yesterday I handed the memo about the communist movement to B N He has not read it of course but in turn he handed me an article written for him by the consultant Kolya Kovalsky about how Reagan in contradiction of the historical materialism and Marx believes that revolutionary events are the “hand of Moscow ” Vulgar Vulgar Horror Yesterday he invited me and Zagaladin who by the way did not make any corrections on my drafts He advised let B N read it … whatever he says Karen is right— Zagladin is fine with any version—if B N drags out the presentation he will be the one to blame in Gorbachev’s eyes it would not be Zagladin’s fault If Gorbachev likes the material however everything would be done in such a way that everybody would know that it is Zagladin’s achievement At Ponomarev’s we talked about how to ensure a high level of representation at the Prague conference on PWS … He needs this for prestige he would look more significant surrounded by two at least dozens of general secretaries Meanwhile it has been confirmed once again that they do not value him at all at the top Gorbachev asked Zagladin how were the things with the memo Zagladin apparently mumbled that things are moving “Watch it--said Gorbachev—if you are planning to submit empty phrases again better drag it out by another month or two ” 61 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Zagladin related his entire conversation with Gorbachev Maybe he made up a lot of it but even if just 25% of it is truth it is significant And about the ICM—that it is now different and one cannot return to the past The parties are indeed independent and that’s how they should be treated And to think—why the influential strong parties “get into deviations” and split from us and the small insignificant—are orthodox and loyal to us and what are the criteria of good relations inside the ICM “they treat us well Is that the main criterion of quality of a party … What if they took this criterion regarding us would we tolerate it ” Apparently Gorbachev also spoke about the mess in the creative unions old senile men lacking talent praise themselves nominate themselves for awards give themselves money prizes and degrees … And if for example one exhibits those artists nobody would come to see them At the same time Glazunov with whom Gorbachev met recently is so angry that “if you make a tape of what he was saying to Gorbachev and give it to the KGB they can just jail him ” And he is right He is truly deprived Whatever one thinks about some of his paintings whenever you exhibit him you would need to call in the mounted police there would be such crowds of people And it actually happened And yet he does not have even a pathetic award let alone monetary prizes This is how things are Nonetheless concluded Gorbachev something has shifted let’s not jinx it we should not rush it force it Even in foreign policy—I will go to Britain Kunaev will go to Japan … This way we will gradually dilute the monopoly i e Gromyko although the name was not mentioned It seems like he has great designs God bless him as they used to say in the old days I read memorandum of Gromyko’s conversation with Reagan Well well well Just listened to the report on Chernenko’s conversation with Mohammed Yemen on the “Vremya” news We behave in diplomacy just like the Chinese in the early 1960s Blind deaf and stupid I cannot believe that it is Alexandrov and Brutents who make up such stupid talking points October 3 1984 B N suddenly acted as a “dove ” telling me that what Chernenko said to Yemeni Mohammed and what was on TV and in the newspapers—is from yesterday We apparently should stick to Reagan’s words and not give others an opportunity to accuse us of pushing away his hand offering peace This is how it is perceived by the public Gromyko’s wooden position and the accompaniment of our propaganda have completely driven the “peace-loving public” into a dead end We are behaving in such a way as if we do not see any way to preserve peace other than the arms race 62 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org October 5 1984 Kosolapov called yesterday He was asking what should he do with my protest letter Today he said was the editorial board meeting Should he read it … The situation is irreversible anyway But if I read it it would put you how can I say it in a “specific” situation in the editorial commission In response I asked—does Zamyatin know about my opinion He hesitated And then continued yes he does know “when he gave instructions we talked about you He knows that the Ambartsumov article—it was your recommendation ” I did not push to catch him in the act although it is clear that he showed or red on the phone this protest letter And of course I did not interrogate him about what Zimyanin said about me To justify his behavior Kosolapov started saying again that he personally also does not agree with my assessment of the Ambartsumov article But I refused to join in this awkward discussion The issue of Kommunist will come out any time now However Kosolapov assured me that Bugaev’s criticism would be presented in a diluted form Just now at Dmitrovka I conducted a long conversation with Kashtan and Walsh leaders of the Canadian CP about the results of Gromyko’s trip to Washington about the prospects of the International Conference of Communist Parties about the British CP delegation in Moscow about the situation in the French Communist party and so on and so forth they took detailed notes they have their own congress in April October 6 1984 I came across Karamzin About Ivan the Terrible I have an impression that Stalin read Karamzin very well and acted exactly by his scheme—in his atrocities Or maybe such is the biological logic of tyrants Karamzin concludes his chapters about the Terrible history remembers evil people do not The same with the popular attitude to Stalin Why do they not like and not trust Chernenko Not only because he does not look good on TV and is short of breath He delivers excellent smart just speeches in front of writers as well as in front of public controllers But everybody knows that he returned all the decorations to Schelokov and found him a job of senior inspector in his own ministry They cannot forgive him that Medunov instead of sitting in jail lives in Moscow with a very good pension And now the main Moscow thief and graft-seeker Grishin received his second Hero of the Soviet Union star I watched “The Time of Wishes” with Papanov Magnificent and wise and a very modern movie in every sense For the first time I read Aragon’s poetry in French Interesting In his time he was simply pro-Soviet … 63 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org And again I returned to Hertzen The diary of 1842-45 A thirty-year-old man Gigantic mind and phenomenal education And again—all this is about us of today October 7 1984 I was in Tsaritsyno One looks at this splendor of an unfinished design and wants to see it finished today with all the instruments and capabilities of modern technology and so that inside it would all sparkle in crystal – lamp covers and fez marble staircases and parquet and to turn it into a partner of Tretyakov Gallery or the Pushkin museum And … for the first time I was in Tsaritsyno in 1928 A school tour for the first grade My first teacher took us there—Nadezhda Ivanovna from the school on Maroseika in the Petroverigovsky Lane to which I rode on a tram from Maryina Roscha by myself every day until the fifth grade I probably already had a cold and in addition we also rolled in the grass On the way back they took us by train with a steam engine to the Kursk Train station and from there I had to get home alone as always I got to the Maryin market got out of the tram and realized that I could not walk I laid down on a bench at the beginning of the boulevard on Sheremetievskaya Then walked a little more then laid down again This way I barely managed to get home and fell into my grandmother’s arms On that day my temperature got above 40 C Dreadful by the standards of that time croupous pneumonia I almost died A local Roscha doctor Mikhail Ivanovich Sokolov from the 2-nd Lane saved my life I remember the white Chekhovian little house where he saw patients From that pneumonia I acquired my asthma which tortured me with its attacks two-three days each month until 1960 including during the war The same Mikhail Ivanovich predicted at that time it will stop when he is 20 or 25 years old If not then when you are 40 If it does not stop at 40 then he will die of asthma The attacks stopped exactly at 40 The last one was in the summer of 1960 But I still feel the long-term effects of this decease These are my reminiscences connected to the visit to Tsaritsyno today October 10 1984 The day before yesterday I visited Grigory Baklanov Now he is a Soviet classic No official collection of our writers can be without him We sat around drank some He has a smart and well-informed wife Ira Ogorodnikova came to visit and immediately took the lead in the conversation I have not seen her for a long time she must be 64 now but looks like a beauty graceful elegant light … what can you say—the breeding From Old noble lines no less … We spoke about whatever came to mind about the plenum of writers absolutely pathetic empty like a living proof of a dead end of the literary process if one tries to describe it as something consistent and purposeful—and this is how we were supposed to judge it because it was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first congress of writers i e to the start of the “unified stream” of socialist realism We talked about the generals 64 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org among the writers—how the bosses in the Writers’ Union promote themselves give awards to themselves give degrees to themselves and publish themselves and so on about the injustices as well as everywhere about the selfishness instead of devotion to ideas about lack of principles and even courage in pursuit of the career We talked about the Germans not all of whom are Fascists Baklanov was trying to argue with me saying that they despise us anyhow and until we have good economy better economy than they have and that will never happen they will never start respecting us and treating us as equals I objected that we have our own “weapon” so we can be lenient and spit on their pretenses We talked about Gorbachev—as a successor of Andropov who did not know how little life he had left and so was slow with decisive measures About the youth about those in our country who celebrate Hitler’s birthdays about the fact that the symbols of “Spartak ” “TsSKA ” “Dinamo” on the walls means not just childlike fun by the sports fans it is an almost organized form of protest which does not have a concrete address yet Irka proposed a theory we became too numerous—the people and there is no natural regulator Therefore we started to rave about Baklanov presented me with four volumes of his forthcoming compilation I leafed through it while I was sick I stopped again at “July 1941 ” And I got stunned again— this is—Konstantin Simonov does not measure up—revealing crimes which produced millions of victims tragedies of the years 19 41 and 19 42 And this is published again in 1983—for something like this only a weaker version Nekrich was expelled from the party and kicked out of the Institute of History in the end of the 1960s and he ended up in the USA However the one-volume edition on World War II produced by the Defense Ministry completely ignores what we were like in reality before the invasion In that volume everything is in order they foresaw the war were preparing for it undertook all measures but alas did not have enough time And at the same time this Baklanov’s novel comes out as well as other creative products that have the same view of our history of that time After all it is good that things have never been orderly in Russia with the exception of the Stalin period October 11 1984 I am staying at home but mainly working on things for the office I edited the memo on ICM for the Politburo several times but B N has not even started to read it although he got it before his departure to Algeria I think he is pushing it back until after the Plenum hoping according to Arbatov to make a breakthrough toward his ultimate dream—to become a Politburo member I came up with “criteria” of our work in the ICM taking into account the realities that not everybody considers themselves Marxist-Leninist but you cannot expel them from the ICM and that many will criticize us and we will have to take that into account too and the only absolute criteria of belonging to the ICM that 65 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org remains is the common “end goal”—communism in which by the way not everybody believes I edited Tereshkova’s texts she is going to Britain for the Queen’s Women’s Day I am reading the proofs of “Ideology of Social-Democrats between the Wars ” Galkin and I are main editors This is a completely new work for the first time objectively with full knowledge of the subject critically and without strangulation or exaggeration the authors analyze the evolution of the programs and views of international social democrats By the way the almost total even textual concurrence between their ideas at the time and the current “Eurocommunism” is being revealed It is sad that workers’ movement proceeds in cycles returning to the same ideas and recipes in search of new or presenting them as new whether due to ignorance or due to the inability or impossibility objectively to think up something new Orthodox communists distinguish themselves by trying to stick to the ideas developed by the classics They find their support in the fact that the wave-like and zig-zag-like course of events sometimes coincides with the straight “unbendable” like on which the ideas of the classics are located I continue to edit volume VIII of International Workers’ Movement Theory and History We have to finish this “epic” next year I did not think that Timofeyev’s guys would be able to find more or less acceptable way to describe the communist movement of the 19 60-70-80s October 12 1984 Bugaev’s article was published in No 14 of Kommunist I reread it Of course contrary to what he promised Kosolapov did not soften anything or change anything in it Maybe there is something to the accusations from the Western voices when they note that a prolonged ideological struggle which characteristically involves criticism revelations stigmatization expulsions and the like transforms the moral nature of the people who are engaged in it They stop noticing that they are acting indecently shamefully … i e those of course who did not lose conscience completely and not yet willing to cynically and spitefully write and do any kind of vile act just so they could profit from it personally Bugaev obviously belongs to this last category—with some remaining dregs of conscience He is convinced that he is doing the right thing However it is impossible to fight against either one of these two kinds of this intellectual villainy Because the party-state “morality” does not even consider it necessary to measure its actions by the “simple norms of human morality ” by an elementary responsibility for the consequences of its actions for individual persons I for instance am convinced that none of the CC Secretaries who signed their name under the memo of the Science Department about condemning Ambartsumov read his article Maybe with the exception of Zimyanin himself But as a result he has been practically excommunicated from Leninism and 20 scholars—members of the editorial board and all the editors of Voprosy Istorii were publicly accused of irresponsible and false understanding of Lenin 66 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org I have been staying at home for four days now I read a lot I skim a lot I write and edit a lot both for work and just for pleasure and mainly because I promised and took obligations I could not sleep at all last night—was agonizing about the meanness regarding the Ambartsumov article October 15 1984 On Saturday I visited the exhibition of paintings nominated for the state award a disheartening poverty of imagination And exhibition of Turkmen paintings on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the republic not one soul attending I ran through the rooms quickly Why do they organize such things It is a demonstration of antiinternationalism Today B N told me confidentially that we grew less than 170 mln tons of bread—like in the worst of the drought years of the last five-year period We counted on 210 mln tons now we are buying 50 mln tons abroad—an unprecedented amount In this regard B N swiped at Gorbachev saying here they put him in the Central Committee in charge of agriculture And things are getting worse and worse And meanwhile says Ponomarev he Gorbachev tends to stick his nose in other people’s business the communist movement foreign policy this is in response to me reminding him about the memo on the ICM which is buried on his desk again He thinks about it with fear and disgust He drags and drags it hoping that he would be able to somehow cheat the time “get around it ” manage to not present it get out of this task He was bragging that it was him B N who was the initiator of the Chernenko speech at the Politburo that in response to Reagan’s peace statements we need to do something beside the stubborn pronouncements that the U S policy does not change Today we already have a draft by the Foreign Ministry the general staff and Zamyatin but without the “initiator” Ponomarev —Chernenko’s responses to a Washington Post correspondent Not exactly what Ponomarev wanted and what we wrote for him It turns out that he sent that to Alexandrov but he advised him to use that text for a different occasion I was at the CC Secretariat Chernenko’s memo about working with cadres Everything is correct—we need to have a youth reserve from knowledgeable people and so that there should be no criminals among party officials … Gapurov first secretary of Turkmenia was reporting how they were “implementing” the four-year old resolution about the struggle against the “vestiges of religiosity ” The first secretary himself looked wretched pathetic helpless and illiterate And the picture is as follows all the weddings even those which are registered with civil authorities and celebrated in a Komsomol fashion are later registered with the Mullah Thousands of underground mullahs In public view people appear to live by the Soviet norms but at home in the village—follow the Sharia norms Boys are circumcised 100% of funerals are done by the rules of the Koran and so on From 40 to 50 self-immolations per year Bobkov KGB reported that they even discovered Murid groups Anti-Soviet and anti67 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Russian feelings are very wide-spread 270 thousand of able people do not work 85% of working-age women stay at home and live like they did 100 years ago Kalym dowry is flourishing sums could go up to 10 000 rubles Luchinsky deputy head of the Propaganda department who made a supplemental presentation reported the following fact four Komsomol members stole a girl right from a wedding and an underground mullah married one of them on the spot Mullahs sanctify underage marriages left and right And so on And then the Russian CC Secretaries starting with Gorbachev get sincerely surprised and indignant how could all this be happening 67 years after the October revolution I was surprised too And unhappy thoughts come to mind maybe we should send all these Turkmen with the Tajiks Uzbeks Estonians and others to go f themselves let them do whatever they want to do to themselves independently Maybe at some point they will ask to be taken back But dream on We don’t even want to let Afghanistan “out of our hands ” and we are trying to civilize it and “make it happy” paying the price of thousands of lives of our own boys and the global shame on the head of the country of Soviets After my yesterday conversation with B N and the hint that Gorbachev is still interested in the memo on the ICM he suddenly returned the memo with corrections and underlining I am desperate he added newspaper nonsense and struck out all the attempts to evaluate the conditions of our work in the current communist movement in a serious and objective way I am losing hope … Zagladin took a look noted B N ’s contribution in the above-mentioned fashion and sent everything to me And what am I to do—why should I be responsible And I care about it with all my heart and don’t know why I do not want to spit at all this and just print it exactly as Ponomarev wants and present it … But I am ashamed Conscience does not allow me October 17 1984 I received the Polish ambassador the Bulgarian ambassador They asked to tell them about the meeting at the Central Committee with the delegation of the CP of Great Britain I was purposefully objective I “took into consideration” B N ’s comments and edits of the memo about ICM for the Politburo But once again by way of ingenious editing and rephrasing I kept the realistic approach to the current ICM because there is not and there will not be a different approach as much as Ponomarev wants it In response to our article in Novoe Vremya New Time on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Tagliatti’s death the Italians published articles of their most prominent leaders starting with General Secretary Natta—on 16 pages of Unita—trying to prove that the critical line toward the CPSU and the USSR and the insistence on the full 68 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org “autonomy” of the ICP starts precisely from Tagliatti This is one more proof that no Ponomarev will ever be able to force the sheep back into the Comintern sheepfold October 21 1984 Yesterday I visited Felix Zigel school friend Secrets and fates are striking Turns out that he is a spiritual son of that famous Vvedensky the initiator of the famous religiousphilosophical debate of the 1920s And that is since 1934 We all of us the whole class knew Felix since 1935 and some of us even earlier But I learned about it for the first time And what is even more striking is that in 1980 Felix found out reliably from “one religious figure” that Vvedensky was a turnskin that already in 1916 he set himself a goal to rise to the top of the Orthodox hierarchy in order to destroy the church from the inside He was himself Jewish baptized in 1898 And that the sensational dispute with Lunacharsky was staged by the OGPU and it was all agreed with Lunacharsky beforehand in order to prove plausibly that there was no God And that the blood of dozens of “holy fathers ” starting with the Metropolitan of Petrograd 1922 —he was shot—is on Vvedensky’s conscience The next ones were Tikhon himself the Patriarch and so on and so forth He showed me Vvedensky’s photos the appearance is truly demonic Felix was telling me about the “shock” that he experienced about all this 28 years since the death of his “spiritual father ” But said that although he was a great sinner he deserves our indulgence “I removed his photos from under the glass on my desk But I keep visiting his grave every year I cannot do otherwise ” Felix himself is a striking figure—a professor of the geodesic institute author of dozens of books on cosmogony comets and the UFOs a popular lecturer on all these subjects Many recognize him on the street He is quite normal in daily life inclined towards mischief obscenity all kinds of artifices and semi-decent couplets but at the same time it seems like he is a good father and a proper family man In short last night got me seriously agitated by the unpredictability of phenomena in our same Soviet world October 22 1984 I met with Vassallo He is inviting me to Malta in December A pile of coded cables including an invitation to Ireland—the Workers’ Party is fledging to the detriment of the O’Riordan’s CP I am still fussing with the “analysis” of the communist movement trying to perfect it But B N is only interested in the article written for him by Kovalsky and Menshikov—a primitive sermon that the revolutionary process is not the “hand of Moscow ” as Reagan insisted but the result of objective laws Tomorrow is the CC Plenum No sensations are expected October 23 1984 69 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org The CC Plenum was held We waited for the organizational issues but they did not come out The agenda was – melioration Chernenko made a speech first He was so out of breath mumbled “ate” his words and phrases that at times it was impossible to understand anything However when during the break I looked through the text of his speech that was distributed—everything turned out to be appropriate and reasonable Nonetheless subsequent speakers starting from presenter Tikhonov loftily praised his speech as “brilliant deep filled with ideas programmatic impressive greatly exciting for all of us” and the like And as if in a joke Gorbachev who was presiding proposed that we listen to a gramophone recording of Lenin speech “What is a Soviet government ” before the discussion justifying such an unusual proposal by saying that our “skillful engineers” managed to restore Lenin’s voice practically without distortions For about 10 minutes we listened all stunned to this speech by a genius … And I think I was not the only one who compared this speech with the speech of our present General Secretary what we used to be and what we became The bows to the “wisdom” and other things addressed to Chernenko were present in every speech more or less egregious But in contrast to the Brezhnev times these obligatory statements were never accompanied by applause Still the entire Plenum got up like schoolboys when Chernenko appeared in the Presidium As far as the melioration is concerned the picture like in other issues is varied there are some bright spots—and the heart rejoices Altai a collective farm in the Stavropol region … But “overall ” the picture is joyless we practice melioration since 1966 for almost 20 years now but in the majority of cases the harvests are just slightly bigger than on the traditional method sometimes even smaller However the environmental damage is already obvious and things that were built 10-15 years ago are already outdated not only morally but simply run down and rusted I feel lonely in this crowd of “responsible officials ” Many of them are indeed doing important work and carry a big burden that the country needs But many of them are bureaucratic ballast But all of them are just “voting ” which we can do without as well Because as in all other issues everything was prepared and predetermined beforehand And the Plenum is just a ritual from which no civilized society can free itself it is just different in different societies And so—you come out of the Spassky Gate … people on tours cordoned off in small flocks by the police look at you “The CC is coming From a session They were deciding things ” Involuntarily deep inside you feel important because they look at you too as a person who is one of those who “decides thing ” Ridiculous Came to my office a phone call Ponomarev He says that he talked with Gorbachev about “his” article about teaching Reagan historical materialism and that the latter 70 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org approved So we should inform Kosolapov about it and he should publish the issue as soon as possible In short people want different things but the hen wants mullet Cdr Ponomarev is not interested in melioration or even in ICM—he is interested in his banal text cooked by the consultants at the level of a 9th grade textbook I had a feeling that Kosolapov and Medvedev who were involved in the story with Ambartsumov feel uncomfortable around me I had a sense that maybe they even were looking for an opportunity to talk to me in an “informal” setting during the breaks But I pretended that I did not notice them And when I have to speak to them for work I also limit the conversation to business only without any hints that I intend to “seek explanations ” reproach them or appeal to their conscience decency comradeship … October 25 1984 I got sick And therefore my mood is “defeatist ”—however this is also a result of the “general political position ” In contrast I am marveling at Ponomarev who was “rolled by” again—his ultimate dream to become a Politburo member did not realize once again but for him it is like a water from a duck’s back Maybe because I am sick it feels like everything is falling apart There is some kind of disarray at the Department Deputies don’t know what each of them is doing and do not talk to each other for weeks or even months sometimes Each one of them probably thinks that he is doing the most important thing Shaposhnikov by pressuring the Finns sometimes in Helsinki with Romanov and sometimes at the hotel on Dmitrov street Brutents by attending the “state meetings” at the high level with the Arabs and by representing the CPSU at all kinds of their congresses and events Zagladin—on the orbit outside of the department on the CPSU Program on drafting memos for K U together with Aleksandrov which are later announced as “major initiatives” at the Politburo at meetings with all kinds of parliamentary delegations and of course on TV And also almost every week in some magazine or newspaper His work in the Department is limited to receiving party delegations He is waiting for his hour to come all the while trying to receive a state prize for the book for which he already got his doctorate and now wants to get into corresponding members of the Academy The decay has not maybe yet reached the lower layers of the Department but reached the middle layers—definitely Even more so because the object of our work—the communist movement—is so hopeless and doughy since the “results” of our work are not defined therefore the indifference cynicism and devil-may-care attitude to work slacking—all this gets integrated into the “soil” very quickly This is the state of affairs in what is most important for me—in my service October 26 1984 71 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Yesterday I re-read Confession by L N Tolstoy One can argue with him on a whole number of arguments but he grasped the essence or rather he reproduced it from the entire previous spiritual development of man – “why do we live ” And there is no answer It is a different issue that for billions of people even intelligentsia this question does not even exist seriously Ask Ponomarev for example what is the purpose of his life … He will consider the person who asked the question a crazy or even worse—a revisionist and an anti-Soviet October 27 1984 Yesterday I went to the Department I met with Pat Clancy who is trying to recreate a real Communist party in Australia It is kind of an obligation of politeness And only later I understand that this conversation—not approved by anybody—not even coordinated with Ponomarev he does not even know about it —could have an impact on something important in the future of an entire country One Communist party there fell apart another one SPA is in the process of falling apart and Clancy is trying to create a new one—“a Marxist-Leninist but quite a modern one ”—wise with everything positive from the past experience If he does not succeed in this—then objectively there is no place for a communist movement in that country … But what if he does succeed and the process resumes … In any case I spoke on behalf of the Central Committee I “expressed approval ” I promised all kinds of support Even though the CC had no idea of all this Even if I tried to report it to the CC nobody would have paid any attention who cares some kind of Australian communist party and in general nobody knows what’s going on there anyway and to figure it out and simply learn about it—there is no time nobody wants to and just “who needs it ” It is “more important” I am turning to Ponomarev once again to make speeches in front of the French parliamentarians from which there will never be any real result just pure protocol but instead—an almost full page in Pravda with the text of that speech insufferable in its banality and blah-blah-ology One would be hard-pressed to find a dozen of readers in the USSR who would read this speech and even less so in France I skimmed the archival publications of Zoschenko in No 10 of Novyi Mir It turns out that he was already thinking “those kinds of things” even before he started to publish as a writer I read work-related things such as TASS with greater interest than just literature sitting around me on the shelves Maybe it is because after all it could become useful for something else Timofeev called and warned me that there were reactions to the VIII volume and that they could provoke B N to eliminate the entire product of work that took two years I thought about how I would rebuff that I should take the floor after Timofeev’s report 72 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org October 31 1984 Yesterday attended the CC Secretariat Gorbachev is on vacation after the entire summer and fall when he conducted both the Politburo and the Secretariat sessions Everybody expected that now temporarily Romanov would conduct the Secretariat— he is the only one who is just like Gorbachev both a CC Secretary and a Politburo member there are no others like that However to everybody’s astonishment Chernenko himself showed up And that sight was worthy of contemporary history First of all in a striking contrast with Gorbachev—lively intelligent interested in what he is doing believing that we can achieve something a person with ideas and with a willingness to act to realize the ideas And here is this one reading the title of the issue on the agenda in such a way that my grandson is Kachalov 2 in comparison Tongue-tied confusing words stressing wrong syllables without any punctuation marks The manner itself of “conducting the meeting” was at the level of some primary cell in some small workshop “Are there any questions No … Anybody wants to say something You Let’s listen to comrade …” His comments were primitive monotonous formal just to move to the next issue No inferences and as for the conclusions from the discussion—it might have been better without them at all because it was impossible to understand anything For example I still did not figure out if Bondarchuk was awarded the state prize as a special case “Red Bells” or not he failed to get two required votes in the Prize Committee And here I am sitting and watching this man and thinking how can this be This great country with the people who are rich in talents who created the greatest culture and gave birth to hundreds and thousands of individuals with great intelligence and unique education has such a leader—primitive wretched semi-literate colorless person the mediocrity of mediocrities who is not an expert in anything and does know or understand anything deeply And the fortunes of the world depend on him the superpower is in his hands he wields authority comparable only to the authority of a banana republic dictator his only word would be sufficient for anybody in our country to find himself not where he was and to become not who he was How can this be In the age of scientific and technological revolution at the end of the XX century This morning Indira Gandhi was assassinated I thought how does history unfold as we know it should be determined by the Marxist laws How do the points of high pressure form in world politics which could produce harsh consequences for entire peoples The Korean plane … The Abushar case The assassination of Indira Gandhi 2 Vasily Kachalov 1875-1948 great Russian actor master of public reading 73 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org The assassination of the Polish priest Andropov’s death And so forth The immeasurable power of mass media which pull millions and hundreds of millions of people exactly what Lenin was dreaming about turns this world politics into a chain of coincidences that threaten to blow up the humankind November 1 1984 Discussed with Timofeev Co the ideas and the concept of the interparty conference “Working Class of the 1980s and the Communists ” Also discussed with him what remains to be done for the VIII volume after the meeting of the main editorial board They are sending Ponomarev to Bucharest Ceausescu wanted to discuss the current international issues and the state of the communist movement with one of CC CPSU Secretaries Hence the holidays or half of the holidays are going up in flames we will have to prepare “positions ”—he is leaving on the 11th B N is rushing us with the memo on the international communist movement it must be that he wants to push it through while Gorbachev is on vacation The Ambartsumov case will end up in routine discussions they are sending Academician Tikhvinsky to the special session of the editorial board of Voporosy Istorii so that he would conduct an “educational discussion ” Fedoseev asked Bogomolov the director of the institute where Ambartsumov works whether he was going to react to Bugaev’s article He responded yes we will discuss it in the sector or at a meeting and we also will express our opinion about Bugaev’s article not only about Ambartsumov’s article I called Bogomolov today about some work issue and then asked him “Oleg I hope you will not allow them to fire Zhen’ka or squash him in any way ” He “No way I heard how you stood up for him Thank you And by the way I heard it from the mouth of Zimyanin himself that there should not be any “administrative conclusions ” and then Medvedev also confirmed it to me ” I met Senkevich referent on Poland from the neighboring department in the elevator today Asked him “So how did the Poles react to Bugaev ” He “Oh don’t worry Last thing they think about now They are up to their ears with Pzhelushko assassinated priest And after all—they are serious people They would not quarrel because of some article at the political level It is here that we still have pathetic people who go crazy for such bait It is all nonsense not worth an empty eggshell Therefore it turns out that only I alone made organizational conclusions from all this But I have no regrets After all somebody has to act by the rules of decency Maybe this 74 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org act of mine will be noted by somebody and maybe it would ruin reputations of some careerists and scoundrels including Trukhanovsky—although from the standpoint of some disdainful condescension I understand him November 2 1984 Svetlana Stalina came back I remember her last interview to the Guardian last spring Nostalgic This news brought a lot of all kinds of feelings although I knew for two months that she got the permission to return from the Gromyko and Chebrikov memo to the Politburo I remembered in particular how I was the discussant on her thesis at the History Faculty How funny I remember how I was trying to show off how I presented all kinds of “critical” comments … They shushed me November 9 1984 The last day of holidays Ermonsky our consultant told me not for sharing that he was being sent “to the dacha” again to write … a biography of Chernenko In short we are experiencing a repetition of the Brezhnev case only in an accelerated form this one has very little time left On the 5th and 6th I was in the office … Nothing interesting except that B N had inquired about me one time “When is his article in Kommunist is coming out … we need it before the elections in the USA ” Oh My God Zagladin stopped by Told me about Japan where he spent two weeks with Kunaev’s parliamentary delegation -- XXI maybe even XXII century already How terrible and painful it is to listen to all that I did not go to the Red Square Two feelings were fighting inside me one of an old war horse who always hears the call of his youth in this holiday of something lofty significant when sitting at home is unthinkable when one should “interact with the masses and the other—of disgust toward what we have turned this celebration into long time ago however and also of the unwillingness to go to the CC section right next to the Mausoleum and to mingle with those who are the same as me in rank but absolutely alien in spirit So I did not go … But jogged along the deserted Garden Ring then walked to the Kremlin for the reception Appearances hugs with Urbani … For me—a permanent standing invitation to Luxemburg I fit there so well when I went to their congress And our own people Brutents with his wife dressed in Oriental fashion he just came back from Lebanon and Syria his embraces with Poplavsky first deputy of the CC CPSU administration manager It became clear how it is that he uses all the “benefits ” which are not available for example for me although I am a “candidate member of the CC ” 75 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org and he is not Zagladin and Arbatov with wives Zamyatin Yakovlev former ambassador to Canada By the way he informed me about what I already heard the other day from Volsky in the barber’s shop I was already leaving and he just sat down I am saying goodbye to him and he—cheerful guy—says “Look at this man -- sticks his finger in my chest—Here is the only deputy in the CC apparatus who has not applied to the Academy ” in December there will be the next round of elections to the Academy and once again everybody has succumbed to some psychosis of a horserace with obstacles where all the norms of decency morals honor and honesty are lost including among many from the apparatus I don’t think this is just a coincidence most likely it came from the same source November 11 1984 Yesterday Brutents came for the second time He flattered me—how elegant I was at the reception in the Kremlin that people are “drawn” to me one comes then another and I did not approach anybody myself … And he showed up to take the Academy of Sciences of the USSR reference volume to select academicians and members-in-correspondence and to put checkmarks against their names—so that I should call them and they should vote for him at the December elections at the Academy of Sciences Today Kol’ka Kutsenkov rushed to me with the same request This one in contrast to Brutents who was emotional and super-serious was in his cynically-cheerful style as if to say—everybody is playing this little dirty game why shouldn’t I—such is life And I played along with a serious face I discussed with each of them who would be best to call and with what chances Although I felt disgusted ugly Why do they need to pull me into it — the only one of the deputies as Volsky and Yakovlev testified who did not apply to be elected academician ” But I did not want to offend them I did not have enough character to refuse which would have meant to tell them straight to their faces that I despise them I read today in Pravda Bogolyubov the head of the General Department was awarded Hero of Socialist Labor in connection to his 75th birthday Politburo members among them Ponomarev Ustinov get the Order of October Revolution on the occasion of that date but the ass-licking bureaucrat who carries papers was awarded a Hero That is because he used to do it under Brezhnev when he was Chernenko’s deputy who at that time was in this position Because he is doing the same under Chernenko—friend buddy devoted dog and confidant Terrible This is how they themselves breed all kinds of Schelokovs who finally “in connection with numerous letters from workers ” was moved out of the inspectors at the ministry lost his Marshal’s rank and decorations and was expelled from the party Only they did not put him on trial—looks bad before the West B N went to Bucharest to Ceausescu Today he gathered me Zagladin Shaposhnikov— under the impression of peaceful effect of the exchange of letters between Reagan and 76 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Chernenko—and was thinking aloud how we should organize the fight against the American imperialism now He canceled his own instructions given two days ago at a session like this one—that there should be petitions from all over the world sent to the White House to demand that Reagan moves from electoral words about peace to real actions A propagandist mindset suppressed the substance of mind itself which one would think B N does possess November 12 1984 The meeting with Holland is around the corner Kinnock’s personal representative he is coming to see Chernenko on the 21st leading a Labor party delegation I will have to explain to Holland the framework of the summit meeting Meanwhile only Ponomarev knows what it is exactly that I am supposed to talk to him about but he cannot give me any official instructions because he does not know them himself However on my insistence the Politburo instructed the MFA and the Defense Ministry to draft a position—what could we give in response for the Labor party proclaiming their country a nuclear-free zone But that would only be ready right before Kinnock’s arrival while he wants to know our position in advance This is how business is done here in some cases everything is suppressed and in others—complete indifference to something that could have real political consequences I will shoot the breeze on some “philosophical” matters Volobuyev came over Academician former friend he shared gossip about how they reacted to the Bugaev article and all that story in the Academy The academicians on that occasion carefully read the Ambartsumov article and came to the conclusion that he was right including such respected people as the hundred-year-old Druzhinin Kim and even Mintz Overall the academic sphere is grumbling and resentful Bogomolov where Ambartsumov works notwithstanding the fearsome speech by the instructor of the Central Committee Science department stated after a discussion of the article in the Institute the Central Committee instructed us to analyze complex problems including about contradictions and crises under socialism In this work there could be slips mistakes different opinions However the CC encourages justified risk in scientific research Yet what Bugaev had written—is not a contribution to scientific research but an administrative shout Therefore concludes Volobuyev your moral prestige in the academic sphere has only solidified because of this whole story and your statement about resignation from the editorial board of Voprosy istorii although it is not supported is still a cause for admiration In our times such acts are very rare November 13 1984 77 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org I was drafting a memo for Chernenko for his meeting with Kinnock It is difficult—“to think it out of your head ” when you have no idea not only about what he the General Secretary and we all are ready to tell the Labor party but even about how much he knows about that party whether he knows even in general terms who he is going to talk to Although he could not care less he would read whatever is given to him in his boring suffocated voice However and alas there is one threshold Alexandrov-Agentov who in this case it seems does not know either what we need from the Labor party and even in general if we need them at all Ivan Pavlovich Pomelov has died He has been working in Kommunist for a long time worked as a consultant in our department and before that as assistant to Kirilenko at one time the third person in the party who was eager to become the second to replace Suslov We met in the summer of 1961 in Sosny-2 state dacha where we were drafting the report to the XXII party congress about the CPSU Program for Khrushchev He treated me then as a younger brother a naïve little one but in a comradely spirit and honestly We lived together on a little terrace He was one of those honest party members who selflessly did everything that the party ordered in any particular instant but in his heart he suffered deeply from the mess around him Thus one more death next to me November 15 1984 Yesterday I talked with Stewart Holland for four hours Well-bred young Englishman 44 years old author of ten books and numerous Labor party documents shadow minister Just came back from Nicaragua where he was an election observer A true free thinker understands everything knows everything about us although never visited our country without anti-Soviet prejudices but in his English way poses his questions in practical and direct fashion We discussed everything with him I took it upon myself to tell him what they could get from us in order to beat Thatcher and to take power “in a preliminary way” of course among other things I promised that we would respond if England in reality gives up nuclear weapons We even managed to discuss human rights he brought with him a whole list of names whom we should release from prison and whom we should allow to emigrate in the spirit of “mutual understanding ” In the end of the meeting he stated that he was not just satisfied but “really inspired” by the results of our conversation He has things to report to Kinnock In the evening I received the briefing memo from the MFA and the defense ministry about how we could respond if England would announce its non-nuclear status And to my surprise I saw that they propose almost the same things that I told the Englishman and what could satisfy the Labor party 78 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org I finished the memo for Chernenko Tomorrow I will send it to Alexandrov but it is 14 pages long and our General Secretary cannot read more than 6 We agreed that we give some of this to Ponomarev if he is given the floor during the summit or when he meets with Kinnock separately In the evening I was welcoming Ponomarev from Romania All of a sudden Ceausescu spoke in favor of the Conference … Something is fishy here Maybe he wants to sell it to us for something more substantial for him for example for the oil Then I went to Kutsenkov We discussed the “Ambartsumov-Bugaev”case and my role in it Now everybody is reading Ambartsumov’s article from academicians to students it is like hot cakes now though nobody even noticed it when it appeared And there is almost no information that anybody praised Bugaev This is what our chief MarxistLeninist and ideologue cde Zimyanin has achieved by his action But alas Ideological gloom is approaching the forces of ideological pogroms are raising their heads Today Likhachev told me that the Kommunist editorial board crushed and rejected an article by our Veber in which he promoted the same concepts for which he received 100% approval of the scientific council during his defense of his doctoral dissertation just a month ago Moreover they accused him of ideological bankruptcy and revisionism And Kosolapov lead this pogrom against an official of the CC International Department right after the cannon shot in my direction—by the Bugaev article Things are bad On Monday we are leaving to go to the dacha on Klyazma to finish drafting the report to the Prague conference I have no idea how I will be able to combine that with the Labor party visitors November 16 1984 Alexandrov edited my memo for Chernenko Unexpectedly he accepted it “overall ” just “simplified” it cut out what I inserted on Holland’s request and shortened it Trukhanovsky came over His hands were shaking he was barely able to hold a piece of paper He made notes on how to talk to me He asked me in direct terms to help him to become an academician He listed his distinctions compared to other “competitors ” and informed me about unfavorable nuances—as compared to others He said “This is my last chance I am 70 years old There will not be another opportunity ” although this is the entire meaning of his life Pitiful and ridiculous He came back again and again to the “episode” with the Ambartsumov article about how Bromley in the expert commission was trying to “remove” him from the list of candidates for academicians—claiming that it would be a challenge to the Central Committee after the article in Kommunist 79 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org When he was leaving he said “your statement had a stunning effect on Tikhvinsky Academician secretary of the history section You don’t see things like this done very often in our time ” I went to Ponomarev himself to put a word in for Trukhanovsky He responded that Fedoseyev came by and told him that Trukhanovsky lost his hearing cannot speak clearly falls into decrepitude this is an outright lie Fedoseyev needs to fail Trukhanovsky in order to move up his own protégé Vinogradov and the main thing he says he was telling me something about some kind of anonymous letters maybe ” B N was painfully struggling to remember I prompted “The Ambartsumov article ” “Yes of course what else ” –he waved his arms And here I got agitated And told him to his face that he himself did not even read Ambartsumov but signed his “sentence” nonetheless And nobody read it except for Zimyanin who does not understand anything at all does everything on the fly hobbles makes noise tries to teach everybody waves his arms and this is called ideological work I summarized for Ponomarev what was the pathos of the Ambartsumov article He says to me “People are not such fools to criticize for that ” And I said “And in Voprosy Istorii are they all fools that none of then noticed anything what Zimyanin ordered them to “notice” And in half a year wasn’t there at least one pensioner in the entire USSR who would notice ideological sedition in the article if it was there ” And here he started swimming away as he always does from all unpleasant things But I did not let it go and stated that in ideological work under Zimyanin leadership obvious Trapeznikov methods were showing up and it was not an accident that all kinds of scumbags started to raise their heads again they always grease their hands and make their careers on ideological denunciations and defending of the “purity of Marxism-Leninism ” This is where my outburst ended But I still managed to speak for Volobuyev at the end To which I did not get any reaction other than the “defense” of Khromov whom B N hated when he worked as head of section under Trapeznikov but now he thinks that since Khromov was now director of the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences we have to support him In short all of them—Trukhanovsky and Fedoseyev and Ponomarev—they are berries from the same field raised by the Stalin-Brezhnev epoch It is disgusting to play their games even more so because I “don’t get anything” from it and I said so to Ponomarev when I was leaving “You understand that I don’t need anything there I am an outsider in all that I just want if such is the way of doing things in the Academy to make sure that the worst ones do not climb up to the top ” 80 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Gorbachev forbade CC officials to run in the election Therefore Brutents Shakhnazarov and Zagladin fell off the screen automatically However Medvedev was allowed to run November 17 1984 At work I wrote three more pages of the memo for Chernenko’s meeting with Kinnock I had to take into account his speech at the Politburo about the plan for 1985 for the Session of the Supreme Soviet which actually was a rational speech as many of his other speeches that are written for him by intelligent people who really care I started to edit the text that Alexandrov sent back for the same memo And today I still have to prepare to start working “at the dacha” for Prague I watched the two-part movie “The Shore” Bereg based on the Bondarev novel Impressed I feel my past in the war stronger and stronger Just like the main character in the movie—this is where I was ultimately formed as an individual and nothing could have changed me in principle after that And this remains the foundation—and the closer I am to the end and as it gets more and more obvious that “they will not send you farther than the front” and so you have nothing to lose that you have to face God soon—the more clearly this foundation affects all my behavior and my attitude toward life and people around me The official promotion of the film is very strong A national rollout has been announced and it is being shown with a “preview” by director Naumov the film already got the award of the All-Union Festival but the film is not a mass movie and the viewers don’t appreciate it This is an intelligentsia movie Cinematographically it is superbly made although some sections are drawn out In the novel itself the critics consciously did not notice its seditiousness its class unorthodoxy “at that time ” In the film however these aspects are erased And those who did not read the novel will not understand the almost dissident subtext Brutents told me about one episode One day he was at Ponomarev’s For some reason they needed to call Gromyko And there the secretary of the CC candidate member of the Politburo first asks permission to call the minister from his assistant He promises to report this to the minister … He gives permission Ponomarev calls His is tone is obsequious pleading And suddenly Brutents hears “Yes yes …” and Gromyko hangs up while Ponomarev did not even have a chance to finish a sentence ” This is what relations between people in the Politburo are like Such is the monopoly of one member of the triumvirate 81 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org December 1 1984 From December 19 I’ve been at Klyazma it is also considered to be a “theoretical dacha ” The presentation for B N for the conference on Problems of Peace and Socialism journal in Prague where we are going on Monday At the same time from the 23d visit of Kinnock Khili and others plus his assistant Clark They spent two days in Leningrad In Moscow—anything they wanted Clark asked to “expand” the program They did not expect such openness on our part their stereotypes about “those Russians” were crumbling with every day and every hour But they were waiting for the main event—to be received by Chernenko And they received what they wanted and what they came for what Holland came for beforehand we would eliminate the number of the missiles which would be equivalent to turning England into a nuclear-free zone and we guarantee that our weapons will not be targeted at their country Meeting with Chernenko He was approximately in the same state in which Brezhnev existed in the last two years of his life He read what was prepared for him and then listened apathetically to Kinnock’s oratorical response But Kinnock regardless of all my prep work still interfered with some clarifying questions The air started smelling of an embarrassment Alexandrov started writing something furiously and passing it to Chernenko He was moving his lips and trying to figure it out He just started to respond but Alexandrov decided to “interrupt” and “explained” everything himself The Brits realized that they had “crossed the line” and started folding Because—they already had gotten the main things that they needed for their politics at home what they needed against Thatcher My “discussions” with Clark about human rights Something went wrong with the information for the press Ponomarev who hosted everybody had to mediate when Clark and I were arguing in my office It ended well B N hinted that it was too much on their part to try to squeeze “human rights” out of us after they already received more than they expected Overall he spoke with them at a decent level I was the host for the dinner at Dmitrova street on behalf of the Central Committee Reception at the Embassy Lively conversation They were departing in a completely different mood from when they arrived I had an hour-long conversation with Kinnock at the airport while we were waiting for Ponomarev who was running late In short the operation was successful But after that I immediately submerged into the trivial routine Confrontation with B N on the subject of “real socialism” section he brings apologetics and hubris even here notwithstanding all the recent party documents You cannot change him his mind is poisoned by his own propaganda 82 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org And his chameleon-like quality—he made us include a paragraph praising Chernenko’s greatness He instructed his pet Pyshkov to do it but when he saw that the name is repeated five times in one paragraph he attacked me I got outraged and told him that originally there was a different text in that place about the difficulties of socialism about how foreign communists should react to them He got completely offended said “Why are we breaking each other’s nerves like you don’t know what all this is about You did not attend the session of the Supreme Soviet and I did and you did not see what was happening there ” in the sense of ovations for Chernenko I became quiet it is impossible to argue with a person who thinks one thing and wants one thing and at the same time forces himself to do the opposite thing altogether Many times with hints he lets me know that he thinks that Chernenko is a non-entity that it is hopeless to expect any opinion from him that he is incapable of either thinking or speaking “Three days a week are his days off and the other days he works a couple of hours a day ” Yesterday he added There has been a decision about a Congress The Congress is scheduled for October-November 1985 He is in a hurry And there will the Program and everything else in one report He is hurrying for the second term ” And he started complaining again that those “curly heads ” hinting at Pechenev General Secretary’s assistant want to scrap the entire existing Program which Ponomarev considers his baby Alas what could one expect from this kind of political leader whose only distinction is that at 80 years of age he can still speak on his own and not only reading from papers written for him with two-centimeter-high letters Conversation with Trukhanovsky on the phone He confessed that he wrote an apologetic letter to Kommunist and that he included an article about Ambartsumov in his issue similar to Bugaev’s article This time I spoke with him harshly and “disdainfully ” I said that repentances to Kosolapov mean admitting that Bugaev was completely right in his bandit article Beside the fact that it is morally indecent it is also tactically wrong To roll over in apologies now would mean to admit that one is crushed to deny oneself the right to have an opinion And in general the more dignity and character you would show in this situation the better it would be for you and for the journal I felt that on the other side of the line he was getting ready to burst in tears He was just repeating “I could not have done otherwise please understand me Please do not judge me so harshly I am very saddened that you can change your opinion of me now you have known me for 20 years Please come over to my house I will explain everything to you ” This is all so terrible … One could “understand” it under Stalin when the stakes were your life … or prison And now the “stakes” are to get 1000 rubles per month or 1200 and whether to be called academician or corresponding member of the Academy I am reading a wonderful book S L Abramovich “Pushkin in 1836 ” There is a discovery on every page but it is written in such a style as if everything is already known to everybody The ease of talent allows one to see people time streets buildings situations passions little things … And Pushkin himself in all this boundless greatness 83 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org The 27th volume of Dostoyevsky arrived The writer’s diary for 1881—you read it as if it is a diary for 1984 only allegorically written and in a somewhat archaic language Could it be true—Russia while changing is still unchangeable in its deepest nature December 20 1984 A big break because there was Prague then Spain In Prague on PPS Problems of Peace and Socialism business B N in his long didactic style But the hint about the conference was “understood” and supported by many some even very actively The Japanese delegate again asked to close down the Journal which turned “into a CPSU propaganda machine ” and “into a second Cominform ” He was attacked by practically everybody else His appeal to give the struggle against anti-Sovietism was condemned especially strongly In general the conference was more loyal toward us than many other multilateral meetings in the recent years I am hopelessly all the time tied to meetings and drafting papers Reports to Pravda every day cyphered cables to Moscow speeches for Ponomarev on TV for his reception of Husak Spain Congress of socialists December 13-16 Madrid Meeting Yu V Dubinin and the entire key Embassy personnel Reception for Chernenko book presentation Opening of the Congress—Gonzalez Problems of NATO Gonzalez came up to me during the break Reminisced how we partied at the Ambassador’s villa three years ago Prado Streets of Madrid Hotel Castellano Riding in a Mercedes all through the city to the Congress and without a peso in my pockets Dubinin asked for all the representation money to be his Two harsh conversations with leaders of the C ommunist P arty created by us Evening stroll in Madrid with the Ambassador and others Barcelona The Cathedral and Gaudi buildings Empty pockets Humiliating Paris Ambassador Yu M Vorontsov Supper Return to Moscow December 23 1984 Ustinov died A routine funeral Evidently they don’t want to “emphasize ” Zagladin shared a rumor Alexandrov heard his boss’s conversation with somebody about who could replace Tikhonov Chernenko “made a statement” with an article in Kommunist No 18 a theoretical pre-Congress article So far I only heard it on the radio It makes an impression—it corresponds with his statement at the PB regarding the fact that the April Plenum would have to make a decision about the XXVII Congress—in NovemberDecember 1985 and how to prepare for it In an “original” way To let the delegates speak their souls against the pompousness and formality to be a “congress of realists 84 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org and innovators ” The article is indeed in the spirit of realism Thank God But it does not correspond with the personal traits of the General Secretary and this makes me worried At the home of my schoolmate Alina on the occasion of the deceased Vad’ka’s birthday I passionately defended the meaning of the words that will be said at the congress It was on Saturday night but on Friday Zagladin pulled me into his office to talk to Wintsinger head of the International Department of the CC of the French Socialist Party Zagladin is engaged in serious negotiations with the French Socialists but in my opinion it is an empty waste of time I was irritated in a rush and therefore could not restrain myself and talked about the usefulness of such visits but politely with hints The negotiations were conducted in French I managed but when I tried to say something long I did it with the help of an interpreter and a good one too I am reading Children of the Arbat second part I read the first one two years ago They say that Gorbachev interfered and they allowed to publish it in the beginning of 1985 in Oktyabr I really doubt that Rybakov presents Stalin as a literary character with an inner dialog in which he constantly contrasts himself with Lenin This novel is an attempt to unravel the mystery of what Stalin is both psychologically and philosophically and why he became possible But the latter is a mix of Dostoyevsky and Medvedev The novel of a great talent 85 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org Postscript for 1984 This is the formative year when Gorbachev emerged as a statesman of the all-Union and international scale Even under the sick Andropov this person a very unusual one for the Soviet top leadership became the focus of hopes of the socially and physically exhausted ideologically desiccated society which grew disgusted with the pharisaism lies and false pretenses that became characteristic traits of the regime The disappointment that Chernenko and not Gorbachev was elected General Secretary led to the ultimate realization about the hopelessness and state irresponsibility of the top leadership of the country stricken with decrepitude and senile egotism Gorbachev was able to use this situation quite well increasing his activity and demonstrating his intellectual and political superiority over his “colleagues ” The objective situation favored his accent The colors of universal stagnation have darkened this term started to be used in records long time before it became an official “party” term The economy declined Agriculture had completely lost its ability to feed the country one-third of grain was imported thus depleting the gold reserves and swallowing a big chunk of petrodollars The colossal state debt hidden from the population—in the conditions of falling global oil prices—threatened an imminent financial crash Levers of management were failing The picture of flagrant mediocrity lack of talent and falseness of the degeneration of bureaucratic bosses was demonstrated every time in reports by ministers and regional committee secretaries during sessions of the CC CPSU Secretariat and at the Politburo Due to the nature of work of the author of the memos he could see especially well the fatal inadequacy of the chief personalities who were in charge of international affairs Gromyko and his deputies Ustinov Ponomarev Rusakov Rakhmanin … exhibited a complete inability to react to changes in the outside world to “Reagan’s peace offensive ” to the dissatisfaction of the socialist allies with their condition of satellites to the factual “departure from us” and dissolution of most of the units of the international communist movement which started long before we the CPSU stopped paying for the “fraternal parties ” “The Uzbek affair ” headed by the first secretary of a communist party of a Union republic Rashidov revealed not only the “transformation” of the socialist order into an Oriental quasi-despotism bit also a complete failure of the national policy of uprooting the Islam by means of educating population into the European-Russian culture and by imposing the internationalist atheistic ideology And nonetheless one would have been hardly able to find a single person in the USSR who was able to foresee that members of the CC CPSU and then even some Politburo 86 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org members would come to lead autocratic and even pro-Fascist regimes in the former Soviet republics Cynicism servility race for positions titles awards—were affecting a big part of the socalled “creative” intelligentsia and scientific sphere Moreover in this year the consequences of the moral and political decomposition that has been accumulating for decades started to be clearly seen both in the party and state nomenclature among the intelligentsia and also in the spiritually paralyzed wide mass of “regular people ” The moral and political decomposition which later when the totalitarian hood was lifted made it possible to destroy Perestroika so easily and allowed the destructive and criminal Yeltsin’s “elite” to capture power and the property of the nation Along with that there were some obvious signs of ideological opposition among part of the intelligentsia demands for freedom of thinking under the cover of returning to the “Leninist norms” The creeping unformed often unconscious dissent was becoming more and more influential in the artistic and scholarly literature in the cinema in painting It infiltrated even the highest echelon of the intelligentsia party apparatus It found its reflection in particular in the “art” of speechwriters General Secretary and other “leaders” publicly and in their conversations with foreigners said things with which they would have never agreed if only they understood the essence of what was beautifully written for them The texts that they read and the “culturally” formulated statements diverged from their views and dogmas and contradicted their mentality itself and everything that they were doing and how they behaved in their positions As a result the mendacity of the regime and its intellectual helplessness was becoming more and more obvious Gorbachev saw all that He understood that the country lost its direction that the ideological and physical illness of the society had reached a high degree However one cannot discern at least in this period any doubts in the foundations of the system deficient in its Stalinist nature in his words or his deeds He believed that the illness was treatable and that the party … cleansed from the filth that stuck to it after Lenin could become as it had happened more than once in 70 years could become the healer He believed in the purity and the moral power of the ideas of Leninism in the magnetism and authority of the idealized image of Lenin And of course he relied on the discipline simply speaking on the submissiveness of the cadres who were used to doing whatever the “Central Committee” … in the person of General Secretary would think up and order them to do He also hoped for enthusiasm that could be inspired by the novelty of designs and “big goals ” Notes from this year are saturated with the author’s desperation in the face of stupidity meanness mediocrity and selfishness of all kinds of officials who stood above him and next to him who in different ways influenced the situation in the country the politics He was depressed by the indifference to the fates of the country among people who were around him among his colleagues and “subordinates ” by their cynicism and their desire to evade their duties At times he sounds as the almost only “good one” among them This is not for the lack of modesty but the result of hopelessness which pushed him to 87 The Diary of Anatoly S Chernyaev 1984 http www nsarchive org see any smallest signs of hope with enthusiasm and at one time to see those even in the texts read by Chernenko The author’s judgements about his colleagues are sharp and often unfair although they are based in facts Nowadays it is obvious to him that their behavior and their attitude to their “cause” could be explained by their lack of desire to “lay oneself out” in the name of what they no longer believed and what they deservedly despised as well as the main leaders of that “cause” … But they doctors and candidates of sciences continued to serve that cause as well as the author of these notes who probably had a more acute “sense of his craft” if you do something do it well regardless of where your product would go next Characteristically however not one of the colleagues or friends of the author from among the consultants’ group of the CC CPSU International Department did “find themselves” or “find a good place” under the new regime in the new Russia 88