Gorbachev

Yuri Chekalin07.09.2026

Mathias Rust: The Trial of the Man Who Landed a Plane Beside the Kremlin. On September 4, 1987, one of the most extraordinary trials of the late Soviet era came to an end in Moscow. Standing before the court was nineteen-year-old West German citizen Mathias Rust—a young man who, only months earlier, had accomplished something […]

Yuri Chekalin20.08.2026

On August 19, 1991, an event began that would enter history under a dry bureaucratic acronym: the GKChP — the State Committee on the State of Emergency. Thirty-five years later, it is easy to look back and see those events as inevitable. The Soviet Union, it seems, was already doomed; the August coup merely added […]

Yaroslav Listov19.08.2026

Why Deng Xiaoping Saved China While Yanaev Lost the Soviet Union History sometimes confronts states with remarkably similar tests. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the two largest socialist states in the world faced crises of their political and economic systems: economic hardship, growing public discontent, factional struggles within the ruling elites, and mounting […]

Alexander Palladin27.03.2025

In-December-1987-Mikhail-Gorbachev-and-Ronald-Reagan.jpg

In December 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan held their 3rd summit meeting in Washington and I covered this event in a group of Soviet reporters. While there, I got a call from CNN. They invited me to take part once again in Crossfire nightly TV program. (I was their regular guest during my stay […]

Alexander Palladin01.02.2025

As I mentioned recently in my The End of an Era previous piece, in October of 1990, I got an offer to head the Presidential Information Service (PIS) post, reporting directly to Valery Ivanovich Boldin, Chief of Staff of the USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev. Each morning we would prepare digests of the latest mass media […]

Alexander Palladin13.01.2025

On January 7, 1991, I was discussing current issues with Valery Ivanovich Boldin, Chief of Staff of the USSR President, when a red bulb lit up at his desk signaling a phone call from Mikhail Gorbachev. On such occasions visitors had to leave Boldin’s office immediately but Valery Ivanovich picked up the receiver with one […]

Alexander Palladin25.12.2024

Upon his return to Moscow from Crimea after the well-known events of August 1991, Gorbachev appointed Grigory Revenko as the head of the Presidential Administration instead of Valery Boldin who was arrested for participating in the State Emergency Committee. Revenko brought with him a group of trusted people, including Anatoly Sazonov. He was made the […]

Alexander Palladin06.11.2024

My speech at Richard Bland College, Petersburg, Va. March 20, 1985. “Mr. Chairman, esteemed hosts, ladies and gentlemen! As little as I might know about your country and your mores, I do know that a person in my present position is expected to start with а joke. I feel being under special pressure of this […]

Alexander Palladin19.10.2024

38 years ago, in the capital of Iceland, Gorbachev and Reagan had their second personal meeting. It almost ended with an agreement on the complete elimination of nuclear missile weapons of the USSR and the USA. Fortunately for us, at the last moment, the advisers of the then head of the White House persuaded […]

Yuri Chekalin23.05.2024

In the USA and Great Britain, the name of Vadim BAKATIN is known today by many more people than in Russia. For the West, he is a hero who managed to destroy the KGB in the shortest possible time. That is, to fulfill the task set by the President of the USSR Mikhail GORBACHEV, without […]

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A Hard Landing

The GKChP: The Day the Soviet Union’s End Began

The GKChP and the Chinese Lesson

My TV Duel with Future US Presidential Candidate

Eyewitness Report on August ’91 Events At Kremlin

Gorbachev As a Reincarnated Pontius Pilate

The End of an Era

The Soviet Newsman Speaks in the USA

Assisted By Reagan Fate Was Merciful to Russia

Executive Servant of the Spotted Devil

The Cheka Was Born Before the Revolution

The Last Train

See the Pentagon and Die

Vance Has a Problem: His Friendship with Tucker Carlson