Russian Perestroika ideologist died

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One of Perestroika ideologists, Acedemician Alexander Yakovlev died at his 81 in Moscow on October 18. With Yakovlev’s assistance millions of Soviet citizens, victims of political repressions, were rehabilitated.

Three presidents expressed their condolences to the family of Yakovlev. Vladimir Putin said Yakovlev’s activity as Head of Victims of Political Repressions Rehabilitation Commission helped thousands of people restore their reputations. Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin said Yakovlev had done a lot to establish democracy in Russia. And the former USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev stressed that death of Yakovlev is a gravy piece of news for all continue struggling for democracy and freedom, reports Lenta.ru.

Alexander Yakovlev was born on December 2, 1923 in Yaroslavl Region. In 1941 he went to the front and served in the marines troops till 1943. After the World War II he graduated from Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University.

In 1958-59 he had a course in Columbia University (USA). His PhD thesis was about historiography of the US foreign policy doctrines. In 1969 he became a professor. In 1972 after criticizing the national patriotic ideology he was sent to Canada as the ambassador where he spent 10 years. In 1983 he returned to Moscow after Mikhail Gorbachev, then Communist Party Central Committee Secretary, visited Canada.

In 1988 he was nominated as Head of Foreign Policy Commission of the Communist Party Central Committee. He helped publishing works of Solzhenitsyn, Nabokov, Rybakov, Pristavkin, Dudintsev in the USSR.

From March 1990 to January 1991 Yakovlev was a member of the USSR Presidential Council, after that he became a special presidential aid.

Until recently, Yakovlev headed the International Democracy Foundation that was founded in 1993 as a charity, non-governmental, non-profit organization.