“The Invention of Russia – From Gorbachev’s Freedom to Putin’s War” by Arkady Ostrovsky

Completed on 22^nd of November 2017. Ranked 4 stars.

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Review:

The recent history of Soviet Union and Russia, starting from Khrushchev’s “thaw” in the late fifties of the last century till recent years. It shows the interaction between politics and media in trying to shape public opinion and control each other. The author starts with the in the late fifties and development of more open media magazines. One of them – “Novy Mir” was led by Alexander Tvardovsky. Following the Prague Spring in 1968 he was set aside and died in 1971. Tvardovsky was a writer himself. I read his short story “Stove makers” and found it delightful.

The most interesting part revolves around Yegor Yakovlev and his son in 1990s and their Role of Media in the last days of Soviet Union and their development in Russia after Soviet collapse. Focused on Yegor Yakovlev and his son, and also a media baron Vladimir Gusinsky in 1990s it reads sometimes like a detective story with ever changing alliances and allegiances between the various politicians and media players.

In order to understand better some details of this continuous battle I needed to build a list of the major players remember all those strange characters appearing in the story. Highly recommended for those who like a good non-fiction story.

Main Characters:

1. Roman Abramovich – (born 1966) – an oligarch. His assets were worth $7.6 billion in 2016. An associate of Berezovski. Recommended Putin to Yeltsin as his successor and became his close confidant.
2. Yevgenia Albats – (born 1958) – an investigative journalist. Worked for Yegor Yakovlev to investigate crimes of KGB.Viktor Anpilov – (born 1945) – a journalist. In 1992 led diehard Communists to besiege the television centre in Ostankino.
3. Mikhail Barsukov – (born 1947) – a head of Yeltsin’s security services.
4. Boris Berezovsky – (1946 – 2013) – an oligarch who profited from gaining control over various assets, including the country's main television channel, Channel One. Berezovsky helped fund Unity – the political party, which formed Vladimir Putin's parliamentary base. Following the Russian presidential election in March 2000, Berezovsky went into opposition. After he moved to Britain, the government took over his television assets.
5. Alexander Borodai – (born 1972) – in 2014 was Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
6. Viktor Chernomyrdin – (1938 – 2010) – a Prime Minister of Russia between 1992 and 1998 under Yeltsin, and the minister of Gas Industry of the Soviet Union, between 1985 and 1989, and first chairman of the Gazprom energy company between 1989 and 1992.
7. Anatoly Chubais – (born 1955) - a Russian politician, economist and businessman, involved in privatization in Russia under Yeltsin's administration in the early 1990s.
8. Oleg Dobrodeev – (born 1959) – in conjunction with Kiselyov started “Itogi” in NTV. Started supporting Putin and left NTV to become in 2000 chairman of the Russian State TV.
9. Sergey Dorenko - (born 1959) – a TV journalist who hosted a controversial weekly news commentary program in 1999-2000. He criticised Putin’s opponents – Lushkov and Primakov and their party Fatherland-All Russia. When in August 2000 he criticised the government handling of the submarine Kursk his program was cancelled. He refused to cooperate with Putin.
10. Konstantin Ernst – (born 1961) – CEO of Channel One Russia TV network, following an assassination of Listyev’s in 1995.
11. Yegor Gaidar – (1956 – 2009) – an economist, the architect of the controversial shock therapy reforms in Russia.
12. Vladimir Gusinsky – (born 1952) – an oligarch, founder of NTV, the newspaper “Sevodnya” and the radio station “Echo of Moscow”. In 1993 founded a holding company “Most Group”, totalling 42 companies and his own bank. Allied with Yeltsin. Accused of supporting the election of Primakov and Luzhkov, positioned himself outside Yeltsin’s “family”. In 1999 accused Putin of terrorist attacks in Moscow and other cities. He was arrested by Putin in 2000 and made leave Russia.
13. Ruslan Khasbulatov – (born 1942) - a Russian economist and politician, played a central role in the events leading to the 1993 constitutional crisis in the Russian Federation.
14. Dmitry Kiselyov – (born 1954) – a Central Television journalist supporting Luzhkov and opposing Yeltsin in 1990s.
15. Yevgeny Kiselyov – (born 1956) - in the 1990s was the host of the NTV weekly news show “Itogi (Results)”. The show was modelled on “60 minutes”. Was dismissed in 2001, having criticised Yeltsin and his “family”. In 2008 moved to Ukraine.
16. Alfred Kokh (Koch) – (born 1961) – a deputy prime minister under Yeltsin and an ally of Chubais. Became head of Gazprom-Media. Out of fear of persecution he fled to Germany.
17. Alexander Korzhakov – (born 1950) - a former KGB general who served as Boris Yeltsin's bodyguard and confidant. Fired during Yeltsin’s campaign in 1996 after he arrested two people from Chubais’ team, while they were leaving the parliament with 0.5 $M to pay for campaign news sheets.
18. Mikhail Lesin – (1958 – 2015) – a Media executive. In 2000 as Minister of the Press under Putin he was involved in negotiations with Gusinsky to take over Gusinsky’s NTV assets and ensure he would leave Russia. Adviser to Putin, helped to create “Russia Today” TV news network. Died in unexplained circumstances in hotel room in Washington D.C.
19. Vladislav Listyev – (1956 – 1995) – a journalist and head of ORT channel. Ordered a temporary stop to all advertising. Was shot soon after and no killer or motive was ever identified.
20. Yury Luzhkov – (born 1936) – a Mayor of Moscow from 1992 to 2010. Accused of corruption and fired by President Medvedev.
21. Igor Malashenko – (born 1955) – a co-founder in 1993 of NTV, and its first chief, sponsored by Vladimir Gusinsky. Led Yeltsin’s campaign in 1996.
22. Yelena Masyuk – (born 1966) – a NTV reporter covering the first and Second Chechen wars. In 1997, she was abducted by the Chechen separatists and held for 101, until a ransom was paid by NTV. Since 2012 she works in “Novaya Gazeta”, set up by Gorbachev from his Nobel Peace Prize money.
23. Tatyana Mitkova – (born 1957) – a NTV journalist. In 2001, she was summoned to the prosecutors’ office and appealed to Putin to treat her and her colleagues as journalists not oligarchs. With Gazprom taking control of the network she was persuaded to stay.
24. Alexei Navalny – (born 1976) – a lawyer and political activist. A regular participant in “Russian March”, since 2009. A critic of corruption under Putin.
25. Boris Nemtsov – (1959 – 2015) – a deputy prime minister with Chubais under Yeltsin in 1997 and 1998. He coined the word oligarchs.
26. Alexander Nevzorov – (born 1958) – a Russian journalist. From 1987 till 1993 he hosted the program “600 Seconds”, distributed across the Soviet Union, in which he uncovered dirt and corruption. In 1990, he covered the events in Vilnius from Russian perspective.
27. Leonid Parfyonov – (born 1960) – a journalist, worked for NTV on the cultural programs. Remained with the new owners of NTV after 2001. In 2004, he got sacked after satirical report of Putin’s inauguration ceremony.
28. Vladimir Potanin – (born 1961) – an oligarch. He acquired his wealth notably through the controversial loans-for-shares program in Russia. His estimated wealth in 2017 was $14.3 billion.
29. Yevgeny Primakov – (1929 – 2015) – Prime Minister of Russia from 1998 to 1999 under Yeltsin.
30. Alexander Prokhanov – (born 1938) – a Russian writer and editor of Russia’s extreme-right newspaper “Zavtra (Tomorrow)”. Worked for “Pravda”. In 1990 founded a newspaper “Dien (Day)”, where he challenged Yeltsin. When “Dien” was banned in 1993, he founded “Zavtra”.
31. Mikhail Prokhorov – (born 1965) – an oligarch. Started by acquiring from the workers the shares of Norilsk Nickel for a fraction of its estimated market value. Long term business partner with Potatin.
32. Alexander Rutskoy – (born 1947) - a Russian politician and a former Soviet military officer. Yeltsin’s opponent during 1993 crisis.
33. Nikolai Ryzhkov – (born 1929) – was a head of Gorbachev’s cabinet between 1985 and 1991.
34. Victor Shenderovich – (born 1958) – a satirist, writer and scriptwriter. He is best known as a scriptwriter of popular political puppet show Kukly (Puppets) which was aired on NTV 1994 to 2002. He is known as an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin's rule and the government's stance on the war in Chechnya. Shenderovich is among the 10 first signatories of the online anti-Putin manifesto "Putin must go" published in March 2010.
35. Yury Skuratov – (born 1952) – a lawyer, the Prosecutor General of Russia between 1995 and 1999. Investigated corruption charges by Yeltsin and his associates.
36. Oleg Soskovets – (born 1949) – was in charge of Yeltsin’s election campaign in 1996.
37. Vladislav Surkov – (born 1964) – Putin’s political adviser. He started in 1990’s as a head of the advertising department of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's businesses.
38. Aleksandr Tvardovsky – (1910 – 1971) – a Soviet poet and chief editor of “Novy Mir” magazine between 1950 and 54, and again between 1958 and 1970. Published Solzhenitsyn in his magazine.
39. Alexander Voloshin – (born 1956) – Yeltsin’s chief of staff in the late nineties. Served in the same role under Putin till 2003.
40. Alexander Yakovlev – (1923 – 2005) – a Soviet politician and historian. Called the “godfather of glasnost”.
41. Vladimir Yakovlev – Yegor’s son. The founder of the “Kommersant Newspaper’, the first Russian daily business oriented newspaper.
42. Yegor Yakovlev – (1930 – 2005) – a journalist, proponent of Glasnost under Gorbachev, a head of Soviet TV in 1991 and 1992. In 1986, he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Moscow News. In 1993, he became a publisher of Obschaya Gazeta.
43. Valentin Yumashev – an adviser to Yeltsin. In 1997, he succeeded Chubais in the powerful position of the Chairman of the Presidential Executive Office. In 1998, he was dismissed from that position.
44. Gennady Zyuganov – (born 1944) – a communist politician.

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Quotes:

The Bolsheviks did not nationalise only private land and assets; they also nationalised humankind and individual consciousness. And while they expropriated physical assets by means of physical violence, they claimed minds through ideology and the media.

Notes:

The Chernobyl reactor passed an inspection by foreign experts, only because prior to the inspection, its engineers had temporarily replaced Soviet electronics with Swedish and American ones.

The Novocherkassk massacre events occurred on 1^st and 2^nd of June 1962. They were triggered by the labour strike of a locomotive building in response to food price increases, combined with the increase of production quotas. Reportedly 29 protesters were killed by Soviet Army troops, and 84 were wounded. The whole story remained classified until 1992.

The economic foundation of the Soviet system was destroyed not by an external enemy of by dissidents but by the proprietor’s instinct of members of the nomenklatura who gladly exchanged their petty privileges for something far bigger – a piece of the pie.