It was impossible not to wonder what was going through the mind of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev as he joined the throngs in Berlin this week to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Two Americans that have long been close to Gorbachev are Stephen Cohen, professor of Russian studies at New York University, and Katrina vanden Heuvel, the Editor and Publisher of The Nation. From 1985 to 1992, Cohen and vanden Heuvel had a unique insight into Perestroika: they both lived on and off in Moscow, and eventually got married. Together, they have a revealing interview with Gorbachev in this week’s issue of the Nation.
Interestingly, despite vanden Heuvel’s reputation as a progressive that drives conservatives wild (Rush Limbaugh, ever tactful, still refers to her as “Hurricane Katrina”), she probably played as subversive a role in the former Soviet Union as anybody on the right.
Working as a journalist in Moscow under path-breaking editor Yegor Yakovlev, vanden Heuvel grew so angry over stories about how Russian women were mistreated by their spouses and ignored by society, she started an underground journal for Russian women, called Vyi I Myi. It provided a venue for thoughtful and spirited conversation on the role of women in Russian society. Over time, she and her co-founder, Colette Shulman, received notes from hundreds of Russian women who were inspired by the journal to start the first domestic violence centers, the first gender studies programs, and the first small business centers, among many others.
Cohen and vanden Heuvel went on to write a book together on Perestroika, called “Voices of Glastnost.”
In their new interview with the former Soviet leader, Gorbachev talks about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, his relationship with Ronald Reagan, and the perils of foreign interventions into Afghanistan.
When Reagan and Gorbachev first met in 1985, Gorbachev’s people asked what he thought of Reagan. Gorbachev replied “a real dinosaur.” And about Gorbachev, Reagan said, “Gorbachev is a diehard Bolshevik.”
It is especially moving to read Gorbachev talk about the courage it took for both Reagan and Gorbachev to move beyond their ideologies and come together around nuclear disarmament. It’s the kind of story that makes you believe that someday, in our lifetime, we may be able to move beyond the bitter partisanship that defines our politics today.
And this kind of vignette is tailor-made for speechwriters. In describing what changed his thinking, Gorbachev says:
“I began to understand that society needed a new vision — that we must view the world with our eyes open, not just through our personal or private interests. That’s how our new thinking of the 1980s began, when we understood that our old viewpoints were not working out. During the nuclear arms race, I was given a gift by an American, a little figure of a goose in flight. I still have it at my dacha. It is a goose that lives in the north of Russia in the summer and in the winter migrates to America. It does that every year regardless of what’s happening on the ground, between you and us.”
The interview isn’t completely touchy-feely. He’s got a lot of harsh words for America, even today. But it’s well worth the read.
