In his recent essay “Perestroika and New Thinking: A Retrospective,” USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev provides an overview and analysis of his years in power from 1985 to 1991. This panel will reflect on this historic figure, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday, by examining his leadership of the Soviet Union and putting the experience in historical context. Each of the speakers brings a unique perspective on the importance of Gorbachev’s tenure and will help the audience understand why his legacy remains relevant today.
Speakers:
During his 35 years in the American Foreign Service (1956-1991), Jack Matlock served as Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for European and Soviet Affairs on the National Security Council Staff from 1983 until 1986, and Ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1981 to 1983. He is the author of several books including Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended (2004) and Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador’s Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union (1995).
Since 2001, Dr. Svetlana Savranskaya has been director of Russia programs at the National Security Archive, George Washington University. She is the author, with Thomas Blanton, of the book The Last Superpower Summits: Gorbachev, Reagan and Bush (2016), and editor of the book by the late Sergo Mikoyan, The Soviet Cuban Missile Crisis: Castro, Mikoyan, Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Missiles of November (2012).
Mark Kramer is Director of Cold War Studies at Harvard University, a Senior Fellow of Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and Chair of Harvard’s Sakharov Seminars on Human Rights.
Archie Brown is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of the British Academy and an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of The Human Factor: Gorbachev, Reagan, and Thatcher, and the End of the Cold War (2020), The Myth of the Strong Leader: Political Leadership in the Modern Age (2014), The Gorbachev Factor (1996) and The Rise and Fall of Communism (2009).
George Breslauer is Professor of the Graduate School in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author or co-author of seven books—including Khrushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders (1982), Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders (2002), and The Rise and Demise of World Communism (2021); he is also the editor or co-editor of six books. Photo Credit: Carleigh Foggiato.
Moderator:
Marlene Laruelle, PhD, is Director, Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies; Director, Central Asia Program; Co-Director, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University.