Vladimir Yakunin - The Treacherous Path - An Insider's Account of Modern Russia

When I returned to St Petersburg in 1991 we had very little, but we were happy. Now when I am in St Petersburg and Moscow I find myself surrounded by people who can have what they want, whenever they want it. You can find anything you want in the shops, enjoy food at some of the best restaurants in the world, stare at expensive cars and glinting skyscrapers, and yet despite these signs of conspicuous wealth, I do not believe that people are more content. Perhaps less so.

I remember how in those first years after the collapse of the Soviet Union my family and I were sustained by a belief in the future. Today has not been good, we would say, but tomorrow will be better. I thought then that people would be happier as soon as they were richer. It seems that, like Keynes, I was wrong.

The world has changed in so many ways, but I am not sure that I have changed with it, at least not deep inside, where one’s true essence lies. Sometimes it seems to me that I have been like the still centre of a storm – while everything else has been ripped up and thrown to every corner of the wind, here I am, steady, much the same as I ever was. Occasionally I wonder what the young intelligence officer who travelled with his family to New York in 1985 to defend socialism would make of the man I have become; I hope he would see that I have held on to many of the same values that he cherished, that I still believe in solidarity and respect, that my love for my family and country are as strong as they were then.

Of course, the passing of the years has taken its toll on my body and I am increasingly conscious that the time left to me is limited. I know that I may not be able to achieve all the things I want to, and as a result I find myself gripped by an urgency that I never knew before.

I started writing this book in July 2016 in what already felt like very different circumstances. It was not designed as an exculpatory exercise; I do not need to be told that I am no saint. My intention then was only to show a different perspective to Western readers, one that I hoped would be frank and insightful.

But now as I sit here in December 2017 I am as alarmed as I ever was during the peak of the cold war. Spitak, Chernobyl, 9/11, all these events taught me how fragile life is, how vulnerable we all are – and that the same blood runs through all of our veins. The way that the Americans responded with such compassion to the earthquake in Armenia, a disaster that had befallen people in a distant nation that was supposed to be their enemy was a pivotal moment for me; it helped me understand that it was possible to transcend ideology and propaganda. I worry that our capacity to do this again is diminishing with every day that goes by. I still want to help people from the West understand my country and the reasons it views the world in the way it does, though I fear that perhaps this is no longer sufficient – something more is needed.

Had you asked me three years ago if I felt optimistic about the future then I would have replied yes without a second’s pause. Now, things are different. I have to remind myself that despondency is one of the venial sins, so if you consider yourself a Christian, then you can never abandon hope, even if it seems as though the conditions for maintaining optimism are withering.

But we cannot sit idle waiting for a Messiah to come along and do our work for us. It is our responsibility, as citizens, to realise the power we possess. All human beings are able to produce something positive, to contribute to the health of civil society, both domestically and internationally. I will continue to pursue the projects I have become involved with, even if I know that they may not bear fruit until long after I have gone. There are days when these efforts can seem futile, when the effort involved outweighs the benefit accrued. But then there are other times when I see bright shoots wherever I turn. When I think about the relationships I have formed with men and women from the United States, or Britain, or Germany, or when I look around the offices of the Dialogue of Civilizations’ Research Institute and hear people from around the world talking amicably in different languages and with different accents, I know that it is possible to substitute discussion and cooperation for aggression and chauvinism.

I was taught to survive, and I have survived. I hope that one day we will be able to say the same about mankind.

It was my eldest son, Andrey, who first suggested that I write this book, and to him I owe thanks for the unstinting intellectual support that helped me to overcome my initial uncertainty. I would like to thank all those people whose love and devotion helped me to come through the toughest period in my life.

I am also very grateful to my friends who supported me during this work, and also to everyone at Biteback for their work on this book.

However, I would like to reserve my greatest thanks for all my colleagues, both those I have named in this book and the many I have not. There is very little I could have achieved in my life without your talents, dedication, professionalism and support. There are some, too, to whom I owe my life – my gratitude to them knows no bounds.

Footnotes are indicated by the use of ‘n’, e.g. 15n

Abkhazia 1

Abramovich, Roman 1, 2n

Adamkus, Valdas 1

Adler 1, 2, 3

Adler–Krasnaya Polyana rail line 1

Afghanistan 1

agents, secret service 1, 2, 3

Aksenenko, Nikolai 1, 2

alcoholism 1

All-Union Leninist Young Communist League 1n

Alliance of Civilizations 1

Alpika 1

Andrew, St (Andrew The First-Called) 1

Andropov Krasnoznamenny Institute (KGB) 1, 2

Andropov, Yuri 1, 2, 3

Androsov, Kirill 1

Anti-Monopoly Committee 1

Antonov 1 (plane) 2

Armenia 1

Armenian General Benevolent Union 1

Association of Hackers 1

Association of Sailors 1

audit committees 1

authorities, local 1, 2, 3, 4

Baikal-Amur (BAM) railway 1

Baltic republics 1, 2

Baltic Shipping Company 1, 2

Baltic–US Charter 1

BAM (Baikal-Amur) railway 1, 2

banking system 1, 2

banks

Deutsche Bank 1n, 2

Onexim Bank 1

Rossiya Bank 1

World Bank 1, 2

Bashkortostan 1

Baskin, Ilya 1

Bastrykin, Alexander 1

Belarus 1n

Berezovsky, Boris 1, 2n, 3, 4, 5, 6

Berlin airport 1

‘best practice’ theory 1

birth rate 1

blackmail 1, 2, 3

Bokarev, Andrei 1

Bologoye 1

Bolsheviks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Brezhnev, Leonid 1, 2

bribery 1, 2, 3

Britain 1

Buran programme 1

Bush, George H. W. 1, 2

business leaders 1

businesses, registration of 1

Canada Line, Vancouver 1

Carnegie, Dale 1

Castro, Fidel 1

Caucasus region 1, 2

charities 1

Chechnya 1, 2

Chekha (secret police) 1

Chernenko, Konstantin 1

Chief Control Directorate of the President 1, 2

China 1

Chubais, Anatoly 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Chung-hee, Park 1n

churches, destruction of 1, 2

Churchill, Winston 1

CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) 1, 2

civilisations 1

Clash of Civilisations, The (Huntington) 1

Cooperatives, Law on (1988) 1, 2

coal industry 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

cold-war mentality 1

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) 1, 2

communism 1, 2, 3, 4

Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) 1

Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) 1, 2, 3, 4n, 5

conservation 1, 2

construction projects 1

consumerism 1

corporate boards 1n

corruption 1, 2, 3

CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) 1, 2, 3, 4n, 5