THE RUSTY CURTAIN: ANATOLY CHERNYAEV, GEORGI ARBATOV, AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE SOVIET COLLAPSE, 1970-1979 Michael Ginnetti A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2015 Committee: Douglas Forsyth, Advisor Beth Griech-Polelle © 2015 Michael Ginnetti All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Douglas Forsyth, Advisor “It seems the Western interpreters of Marxism are right when they say it is an outdated gospel.” Such a harsh condemnation of communist ideology might be expected from some persecuted Soviet dissident or perhaps a war-drumming functionary in Washington. However, this quote is from none other than Anatoly Chernyaev, a high-level apparatchik working for the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union who found himself disillusioned with the state of Soviet society in the 1970s. In much the same way, Georgi Arbatov, the director of the Soviet Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada, declared that, “one had a particularly sickening feeling inside because of the intolerable propaganda.” From these perceptions of the Soviet Union in the 1970s, Chernyaev and Arbatov would rise to become personal foreign policy advisors to Mikhail Gorbachev and active reformers in the 1980s. The current restrictions on research in Russia have turned the personal writings of Chernyaev and Arbatov into resources of nearly exclusive importance on the history of the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Not only were Chernyaev and Arbatov highly placed individuals within the Soviet government, they were remarkably intelligent, creative, and observant men who recorded their thoughts, impressions, and memories of the Soviet Union as it was before the implosion of the communist system. Secondly, Chernyaev and Arbatov recognized how the Soviet Union had gone astray and recorded evidence of its waywardness for posterity. Lastly, Chernyaev and Arbatov’s realizations in the 1970s as to the bankruptcy of the entire Soviet apparatus, coupled with their unique positions within that apparatus, specifically iv conditioned and prepared them to work for the reformation of the Soviet Union when the proper opportunity presented itself with the election of Gorbachev as leader of the Soviet Union in 1985. For their singular contributions to the historical narrative of the Cold War, documentation of the factors leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and efforts with Gorbachev to overhaul the Soviet system, Chernyaev and Arbatov can no longer remain as little-known figures in the historiography of the end of the Cold War. v To Mom, my first teacher, and Dad, whose sacrifices made that education possible, and to the “good fight.” vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, this is God’s thesis, not mine. He wrote it, not me. I was asked to endure many months of uncertainty, anxiety, and arduous work, but in the end, He is the one who brought the project together. There is no way I could have written this thesis alone. Secondly, I want to thank my family for supporting me in my study of History, especially my Mom and Dad who placed great value on my education and made great sacrifices to provide transformative educational instruction for me and my two brothers and sister. So many people have left their mark on this work through their vocation as professional academics. A special thanks to Douglas Forsyth for sticking with me through the dark days of this project and for helping me to see it through to completion. A very warm thank you also to Beth Griech-Polelle for jumping on my thesis committee and helping me to see how my project could come together. Thank you both for trusting me and believing that I was capable of getting the job done. A personal thanks also to the faculty members of the History Department of Bowling Green State University: Scott Martin, for your tireless efforts to keep the Department afloat in the midst of difficult circumstances; Walter Grunden, for our frank conversations and your dedication to pedagogy; Rebecca Mancuso, for instilling in me a budding interest in Canada, local history, and for a delightful TA experience; Ruth Herndon, for the time you took to teach us new grad students about professionalism and life within academia; Benjamin Greene, for your willingness to assist me on multiple occasions when I was searching for direction and information, and for the invaluable lessons on teaching and researching; Nicole Jackson, for your amazing seminar on Reconstruction (will we ever understand?!); Amilcar Challú, for welcoming me to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and taking an interest in hearing about my studies; Michael Brooks, for “working your magic” to make my cohort’s graduate experience a vii truly edifying and memorable one; Ian Mladjov, whose mentorship and generosity towards me exceeded all bounds and whose unending confidence in me drove me to become the best scholar I could be. A special thanks also to Michael Carver, who has moved on to sunnier climes, but who welcomed me to the Department and made me feel at home in new environs. And of course, a big thank you to Tina, without whom, there is no History Department as we know it. I have told the members of my cohort this many times, and I do so here again. An immense thank you to my cohort: Alex, Chloe, Ethan, Joan, Katherine, Meghan, Rachel, and Stephanie. I could have never made it through grad school without you guys! Our Cohort Rocks! I will never forget any of you…ever. And an extra special thank you to the one and only Joe Faykosh. I cannot imagine my grad school experience without you! I would also like to mention several of my undergraduate professors who had a profound impact on me and in preparing me for future studies. A heartfelt thank you to Hongshan Li for opening the vast expanses of history to me. An immense expression of gratitude to Leslie Heaphy for welcoming me as a student, setting me up for success in grad school, and opening up many doors of opportunity for me. Likewise, thank you Ralph Menning for introducing me to the historical field of international relations and Great Power diplomacy; I have been hooked ever since. A sincere thank you to James Carlton who is singularly responsible for inspiring my interest in political science. Similarly, a hearty thank you to John Jewell for accepting me into the Honors Program and remaining one of my staunchest supporters. A thank you also to Rob Brindley, Melissa Crites, Sally Fadorsen, John Highman, Pam Patacca, Laurie Donley, Fran Haldar, Gregg Andrews, and all the wonderful people where my collegiate education began, back at Kent State University Tuscarawas. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………..... 1 CHAPTER I. ANATOLY CHERNYAEV……………………… ....................................... 5 CHAPTER II. GEORGI ARBATOV…………………………………………………….. 49 CHAPTER III. HISTORIOGRAPHICAL LITERATURE REVIEW ……………… ......... 81 CHAPTER IV. CONCLUSION……………………………. .............................................. 104 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………… .......... 108 1 INTRODUCTION With a resurgent Russian menace towards Europe, especially Ukraine, many people have begun to wonder if the Cold War is on again, or even if it was ever over in the first place. From 1946 to 1991, the titanic struggle between the United States of America and its Western European allies versus the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics engulfed the globe and informed nearly every event of the second half of the twentieth century. Whether in the form of democratic capitalism or totalitarian communism, ideology lay at the root of the conflict, a conflict that would test and ultimately be decided by the strength of those disparate ideologies. For many who lived through the Korean Conflict, Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War, or collapse of the Berlin Wall, thinking of the Cold War as history can oftentimes be a disorienting experience or an inconceivable realization of how much time has passed since those events. As relatively new history, one that is steeped in obfuscating propaganda from both sides, historians have much to discover and learn about the Cold War, particularly the end of the Cold War. Utilizing western sources, historians have been able to analyze the Cold War with some regularity, but that endeavor only represents half of a story that was at its core bilateral. Public access to Soviet archives and primary sources was nonexistent during the Cold War, and has been little better in the less than forthright regimes which have been the heirs to the Soviets in Russia. In fact, after a brief period of access immediately following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the doors to the Russian archives slammed shut to curious scholars and have remained largely so ever since. In the former Eastern bloc countries where less repressive governments have succeeded in holding onto power, former communist archives have been more available to scholars, although the Russian archives remain still off limits. 2 Until such time when the seal on the Soviet archives is re-broken and historians can resume their quest in their traditional environs, scholars must hunt in other places for sources of information on life in the USSR and the end of the Cold War. Two non-governmental sources with considerable potential are the diaries and memoirs of Soviet citizens and officials who witnessed or even participated in the events leading up to the downfall of the Soviet Union. As eyewitness accounts, these primary sources can help to contextualize what is already known about the Cold War, as well as illuminating the darkened corners of that history. The diaries of Anatoly Chernyaev and the autobiography of Georgi Arbatov are sterling examples of two such sources. Both Chernyaev and Arbatov were key actors in the unfolding drama of the Cold War.