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The Transformation of Practices of Soviet Speechwriters from the Brezhnev Era to the Early Perestroika Period

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The Transformation of Practices of Soviet Speechwriters from the Brezhnev Era to the Early Perestroika Period Speechwriting als Beruf: The Transformation of Practices of Soviet Speechwriters from the Brezhnev Era to the Early Perestroika Period By Yana Kitaeva Submitted to Central European University Department of History In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts Supervisor: Alexander Astrov Second Reader: Marsha Siefert CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2019 Copyright Notice Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author. CEU eTD Collection ii Abstract The aim of this thesis is to offer a new perspective within the field of Soviet Subjectivity through the concept of the kollektiv proposed by Oleg Kharkhordin and applied to the case study of Soviet Secretary General‘s speechwriters from Brezhnev to Gorbachev. Namely, I examine the transformations in speechwriting practices of the kollektiv in the 1970s and 1980s. The kollektiv underwent a process of routinization in the early Brezhnev era, establishing a system of collective writing intended merely to transmit Party directives. This routine, which the contemporaries had described as numbing and uninspiring, had completely changed under Gorbachev. Practically, the routine of the speechwriting had become the continuous process of the creation of new ideas under the supervision of the Secretary General in the mid-1980s. Retrospectively identifying with the ―sixties generation,‖ the speechwriters felt that they were finally allowed to fully express their creative potentials and reform the system from within. Having resulted in the creation of the ―New Political Thinking,‖ this case study does not only show us how these two different approaches to speechwriting reflect the totalitarian and the revisionist perceptions of Soviet Subjectivity; it also shows how the changing self-image of the Soviet state had developed and was transmitted into the international arena. CEU eTD Collection iii Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the help of many people. My advisor, Professor Alexander Astrov and the second reader, Professor Marsha Siefert went through numerous discussions and seminars, chapter drafts and essays, guiding and shaping the future thesis. Other professors at CEU have also contributed to my work, including Karl Hall, Alexander Semyonov, and Mate Nikola Tokic. The kind and friendly staff at the Gorbachev Foundation Archive has supplied me with both archival documents and published primary sources. I would like to thank them for their enthusiastic support. The CEU History Department itself has offered me a lot in terms of its international environment full of very talented students. I can only wish it to stay as extraordinary in the years to come. I am immensely grateful to my peers at the Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Research Group for making me think more broadly about the area of Soviet studies, and for always having the time and interest to hear about my progress. My friends and colleagues from the Higher School of Economics, Masha Zimina, Rita Pavlova, and Sasha Korobeinikov, have been with me through both my BA and MA programs, shaping me as a researcher and as a human being. I am grateful to them for sharing the hard-working and lazy moments of the past six years with me. I can only hope that I have been as helpful to them as they have been to me. Finally, I would like to thank my family for being there for me. My grandma, for never doubting me and encouraging me to open myself to new experiences. My mom, for supporting my move to a foreign country and teaching me how to face and overcome CEU eTD Collection problems. And my husband, for being there from the inception of my thesis until its completion, and performing all of the reproductive labor so that I could focus on my career. iv List of Abbreviations CEH – Common European Home Comecon – Council for Mutual Economic Assistance CWPSC Department – The Department of the CPSU Central Committee for Relations with the Communist and Workers Parties of the Socialist Countries EEC – European Economic Community Gruzinform – Georgian Information Agency ID – International Department MFA – Ministry of Foreign Affairs MGIMO – Moscow State Institute of International Relations TASS – Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union CEU eTD Collection v Table of Contents Copyright Notice ........................................................................................................................... ii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... iv List of Abbreviations ..................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Historiographical Overview .................................................................................................... 6 Sources .................................................................................................................................. 10 Identifying the Genre: Memoirs and Diaries ........................................................................ 13 Outline .................................................................................................................................. 20 Chapter 1: History of Soviet Speechwriting through Ego Documents ................................... 22 Using Soviet Subjectivity to Analyze the ―Kollektiv‖ ......................................................... 23 Usable past of ―Zhivago‘s Children‖ .................................................................................... 29 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 2: Soviet Speechwriting before Gorbachev ................................................................ 36 Soviet ―Speechwriters‖ and their Duties after the Death of Stalin ....................................... 37 Collective Speechwriting Under Brezhnev and the ―Routinization‖ of the Profession ....... 42 Brezhnev‘s ―Desire for Peace‖ ............................................................................................. 53 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 62 CEU eTD Collection Chapter 3: Speechwriting during Perestroika .......................................................................... 65 Departmental Alterations from 1985 .................................................................................... 67 Alterations in Practices of Speechwriting for Gorbachev .................................................... 76 Formulating the ―New Thinking‖: Practice of Speechwriting for Soviet International Relations ............................................................................................................................... 83 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 93 vi Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 96 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 101 Unpublished primary sources ............................................................................................. 101 Published primary sources .................................................................................................. 101 Secondary sources ............................................................................................................... 101 CEU eTD Collection vii Introduction On the 17th of September 1987, the agreement between the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eduard Shevardnadze, and the US Secretary of State, George Shultz, on the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was reached. The night before the official announcement of the upcoming treaty, an American soldier from a communications group was wounded in the arm in Berlin.1 Fearing failure of negotiations and a possible diplomatic scandal, the Minister and his speechwriters urgently prepared the apologies, which were read next morning, on the 18th of September, during Shevardnadze‘s extraordinary press conference in the ―golden room‖ of the Soviet embassy in Washington D.C.2 Later that day, the speechwriter of the Soviet Minister would write in his diary that ―this shot could kill the ―double zero‖ agreement,‖ but concluding the thought with the following passage: ―E.A.3 did what Gromyko could never do. Any obstacles from the Americans would make him [Gromyko] stop negotiations: ―If so,
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