By Govind Talwalkar
Sept.30 : When the ghost of his dead father told him that he (the king) had been poisoned by his brother who had then married the widowed queen, Hamlet’s whole moral world collapsed. In the circumstances, it was not that Hamlet hesitated to act but he was acutely aware of the dire consequences that would inevitably follow.
One is reminded of this tragedy as we look at the inner conflict which Mikhail Gorbachev underwent after assuming the office of the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985. He had the courage to admit that the system he had inherited was thoroughly rotten and suffered from widespread corruption and inertia.
The diary of Anatoly S. Chernyaev, an adviser to Mr Gorbachev from 1986 to 1989, is now available on the website of the National Security Archives and throws light on the extent of the rot in the Soviet Union.
Mr Chernyaev served in the Army during World War II, and later graduated from the Moscow University. He was a student of philosophy but was also interested in history, literature and art. After graduation, he joined the foreign department of the International Communist Party and then moved on to become Mr Gorbachev’s political adviser.
Mr Chernyaev was not an admirer of Joseph Stalin and was appalled with the corrupt administration of Leonid Brezhnev. No wonder he felt elated when Mr Gorbachev took over as the general secretary. Like millions of Russians, and foreigners, he too welcomed the innovative policies of the new general secretary.
As an adviser to Mr Gorbachev, Mr Chernyaev had access to several secret documents and was privy to confidential discussions. He describes corruption at higher levels — he writes about foreign secretary Andrei Gromyko taking bribes and gifts from diplomats seeking promotions, and his wife, whenever the couple visited New York, would purchase jewellery and expensive goods.