RUSSIA: Alexander Yakovlev, who masterminded Soviet perestroika reforms together with Mikhail Gorbachev, died yesterday aged 81, a spokeswoman for his foundation said.
For Russians, who watched in suspense Mr Gorbachev's cautious efforts in late 1980s to breathe new life into the Soviet empire by allowing greater freedom, Mr Yakovlev was the "liberal face" of reforms constantly challenged by communist hardliners.
"Yakovlev's death is a huge loss for all those who linked their lives with the struggle for freedom and democracy," Interfax news agency quoted Mr Gorbachev as saying. In the close circle of Soviet reformers, Yakovlev was in charge of glasnost (openness), the only truly successful element of perestroika aimed at ending the Communist Party's monopoly of ideology.
In the heady days of Mr Gorbachev's reformist rule, Yakovlev's jowly face with his prominent eyebrows was always behind the Soviet leader as he sent the idols of communism tumbling.
He played a key role in launching a series of bold projects that laid the foundation for independent Russian media, and protected writers, theatre directors and film-makers who broke new ground by challenging communist dogmas in art.
As head of the Kremlin's commission on rehabilitation of victims of political reprisals, Yakovlev did much to lift the lid on the horrors of Stalin's rule.
He also played the key role in making public the secret parts of the 1939 treaty between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany under which Poland was divided and Moscow annexed the three Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
Throughout his career as a top reformer, Yakovlev survived many attempts by orthodox opponents in the party, led by Soviet Politburo member Yegor Ligachev, to turn back the tide and get rid of him. - (Reuters)