Conference Speakers
Anatoli Adamishin – A long-time diplomat, he has had a distinguished career in the Foreign Ministry of both the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, rising to the level of deputy foreign minister. From 1990 to 1992, he was ambassador of the Soviet Union, and then Russia, to Italy. From 1994 to 1997, he served as Russia's ambassador to the United Kingdom. He is currently president of the North Atlantic Cooperation Association, and a member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy. His books include Transnational Terrorism in the World System Perspective (Polish Institute of International Affairs, 2002), and Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War (U.S. Institute of Peace, 2009).
Marieluise Beck – First elected in 1983 as a deputy to the German Bundestag from the "Green" faction "Bund - 90/Grün". Among other posts, she has served as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. She is currently a member of the Bundestag Committee for international issues, where she focuses as the spokesperson on eastern European affairs for the Greens on matters concerning Russia, Belarus and Western Balkan countries. In addition, she serves as the chairperson of the German-Bosnian Parliamentary Friendship Group of the German Bundestag and is a member of the Parliamentary Assemblies of the Council of Europe and the OSCE.
Alexander Bessmertnykh – Statesman, diplomat, government and public figure, he served as minister of foreign affairs from 1990 to 1991. Before then he was briefly Moscow's ambassador to the United States and also served as first deputy foreign minister beginning in 1988. In 1992, he was elected president of the Foreign Policy Association, and in May 1993, he was elected chairman of the World Council of Former Foreign Ministers. He is the author of numerous articles on diplomacy, and strategic and military matters. He is a full member of the Academy of Political and Social Sciences of the Russian Federation.
Thomas Blanton – Director of the National Security Archive (since 1992) at George Washington University in Washington DC. He is an award-winning historian (Newcomen Prize in History from Harvard University 1979; Link-Kuehl Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations 2011); journalist (Emmy Award for individual achievement in news and documentary research 2004; George Polk Award 1999 for "piercing self-serving veils of government secrecy"); and public interest advocate (James Madison Award Citation 1996 from the American Library Association; Freedom of Information Hall of Fame 2006 from the Newseum). He is co-author with Svetlana Savranskaya of the forthcoming Last Superpower Summits: Gorbachev, Reagan, and Bush (Budapest/New York: Central European University Press, 2012). His articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Diplomatic History, H-DIPLO, Foreign Policy, Slate, the Boston Globe and many other publications.
Malcolm Byrne – Deputy Director and Research Director at the National Security Archive where he directs the Soviet Flashpoints project and the Iran-U.S. Relations project - both documents-based, collaborative research programs in partnership with scholars and archivists from the regions under study. He is editor of "The National Security Archive Cold War Reader Series" through CEU Press. His recent books include the award-winning Mohammad Mosad deq and the 1953 Coup in Iran (2004), A Cardboard Castle? An Inside History of the Warsaw Pact (2005), and From Solidarity to Martial Law: The Polish Crisis of 1980-1981 (2007).
Anatoly Chernyaev – Historian, public figure and publicist, he served for twenty years in the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, rising from assistant to deputy to head of the Department. In 1986 he became Gorbachev's senior foreign policy aide, serving with the titles of assistant to the general secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and later assistant to the president of the USSR for international affairs. He is currently an expert of the Gorbachev Foundation and the author of «Дневник помощника Президента СССР», «Совместный исход. Дневники двух эпох. 1972-1991». His English-language book, My Six Years with Gorbachev (Penn State, 2000) met with high critical acclaim.
Stephen Cohen – Professor of Russian Studies and History at New York University and Professor of Politics Emeritus at Princeton University, where he was also, for many years, Director of Russian Studies. Cohen grew up in the state of Kentucky and received his undergraduate and Master's degrees at Indiana University and his PhD at Columbia University. Cohen is the author of several well-known books that have also been published in Russian, including Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: a Biography; Rethinking the Soviet Experience; Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia; Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives; and, most recently, The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin. Cohen is also a frequent commentator on American television and radio and contributor to the Russian press.
Alexander Daniel – Historian and champion of human rights, he worked on a number of samizdat publications during the soviet period, such as Chronicle of Current Affairs. Since 1989, he has been a member of the board of directors of the human rights organization Memorial where he is responsible for publications and serves as director of the program on the "History of Dissidents in the USSR." He has published many articles in Russia and abroad on a wide variety of human rights issues. From 1990-93, he served as an advisor on the Human Rights Committee for the President of the Soviet Union.
Michael Dobbs – Moscow bureau chief for The Washington Post between 1988 and 1993. He previously served as Washington post correspondent in Belgrade, Warsaw, and Paris. He has written three books about the Cold war: Down with Big Brother (about the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe), One Minute to Midnight (about the Cuban Missile Crisis), and the forthcoming Six Months in 1945 (about the Yalta and Potsdam conferences and the early stages of the Cold War.) In addition to his journalistic work, he has held fellowships or visiting professorships at Harvard, Princeton, the University of Michigan, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, and the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Martin Gilman – Honorary professor at the Higher School of Economics and professor at the HSE Centre for Advanced Studies, he is the author of No precedent, no plan: Inside Russia's 1998 default, (MIT Press, 2011), and Дефолт, которого могло не быть (Издательство Время, 2009). From 1975 to 1981, he worked for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. Since 1981 he has been a leading expert at the International Monetary Fund's Strategy, Policy and Review Department in Washington, DC. He has also worked on the Russian team of the Fund, serving as director of the IMF office in Moscow from November 1996 to February 2001.
Andrei Grachev – Historian and journalist, he served as press secretary for Mikhail Gorbachev during his term as president of the USSR. He previously served in the International Relations Department of the CPSU. He later became chairman of the Scientific Committee of the World Political Forum. He is the author of « Горбачев», «Кремлевские хроники», «Дальше без меня...». His English books include Final Days: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Soviet Union (Westview, 1995) and Gorbachev's Gamble: Soviet Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War (Wiley & Sons, 2008).
Ruslan Grinberg – Director of the Institute for International Economic and Political Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He is a committee chairman of the CIS National Investment Council, member of the Scientific Council of the Security Council of Russian Federation, member of the Expert Council of the All-Russia Commission for Certification, vice-chairman of the Russian branch of Economists Aligned for Arms Reduction, founder and participant of the Russian-American Group for Economic Transformation, and editor-in-chief of the journal The World of Changes. A Ph.D. in economics, he has published more than 200 works in Russia and overseas, including Economic Socio-dynamics and Rational Government Behavior (Springer, 2005).
David Hoffman – Contributing editor at the Washington Post and Foreign Policy magazine. He covered the White House during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and was subsequently diplomatic correspondent and Jerusalem correspondent. From 1995 to 2001, he served as Moscow bureau chief, and later as foreign editor and assistant managing editor for foreign news. He is the author of The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia and the Pulizer Prize winning study of arms control The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy, 2010.
Artemy Kalinovsky – Assistant Professor (Universitair Docent) of East European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Artemy has a PhD and an MA from the LSE in International History and a BA from the George Washington University. He is the author of A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Harvard University Press, 2011), and co-editor with Sergey Radchenko, of The End of the Cold War and the Third World (Routledge: 2011) His writing has also appeared in Foreign Policy, National Journal, Foreign Affairs, and the Washington Post. His current research focuses on the political history of Soviet Tajikistan.
Maria Lipman – Editor of the Pro et Contra journal, published by Carnegie Moscow Center, she is also an expert in the Society and Regions Program at the Carnegie Moscow Center. She served as deputy editor of the Russian weekly newsmagazines, Ezhenedel'ny zhurnal (2001-2003) and Itogi (1995-2001). She has worked as a translator, researcher, and contributor for the Washington Post Moscow bureau and has had a monthly op-ed column in the Washington Post since 2001. Her articles and chapters have appeared in the Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics and The New York Review of Books, among other publications.
Fedor Lukjanov – International journalist and political analyst, he is editor-in-chief of the magazine Russia in Foreign Affairs and a columnist in Web publications «Газета.ру» and «ИноСМИ.ру». He is also a member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy.
Jack Matlock – U.S. Ambassador to the USSR, 1986-1991. Since retiring from the Foreign Service in 1991, Matlock has held academic positions at Columbia (1991-1996 and from 2007), the Institute for Advanced Study (1996- 2001), Princeton, 2001-2004, Hamilton College (2006 and 2009) and Mount Holyoke College (2007). Earlier, he served as Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Special Assistant to the President for National Security, and Ambassador to Czechoslovakia. He is the author of Superpower Illusions: How Myths and False Ideologies Led America Astray--And How to Return to Reality (2010), Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended (2004); Autopsy on an Empire (1995), as well as a handbook to the Russian edition of Stalin's Collected Works (1955, 2nd edition, 1971).
Vadim Medvedev – A member-correspondent of the Russian Academy of Sciences, he is a doctor of economics and professor, and an expert of the Gorbachev Foundation. Previously he held numerous top posts in government. He was secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (1986-1990), a member of the CPSU Central Committee Politburo (1988-1990), and a member of the Presidential Council. He also served as advisor to the president of the USSR (1990-1991). He is the author of many publications on the problems of the theory of economics and politics and the history of perestroika.
Vladimir Mukusev – A leading journalist during the glasnost period, he was the founder and TV presenter of the highly popular and often controversial information program "Vzgl'ad" (1987-1990). He conducted a celebrated telebridge with Phil Donahue and was the first Soviet recipient of an Emmy award. He also served as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet from which post he initiated Russia's first law on the mass media.
Nikolai Petrov – A scholar and expert, in 1990-1991 he worked as an expert of the Constitutional Commission of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet. He served as chief organizer of the Analysis and Forecast Division in the Supreme Soviet (1991-1992), adviser and analyst for the Russian Presidential Administration (1994-1995), and a scholar at the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies (1993-1994) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (1994). From 1996 to 2000, he worked at the Carnegie Moscow Center as a senior consultant and scholar-in-residence. He later lectured at Macalester College in the United States. He is also a senior research associate with the Institute of Geography at the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is widely published.
Marie-Pierre Rey – Professor of Russian and Soviet History and Director of the Centre of Slavic Studies at the University of Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. She wrote several books and many articles devoted to Russian and Soviet history. Among them: Le dilemme russe: la Russie et l'Europe occidentale d'Ivan le Terrible à Boris Eltsine (Flammarion: Paris) 2002; "Gorbachev's New Thinking and Europe, 1985-1989" in Europe and the end of the Cold War, a reappraisal, edited by F. Bozo, MP Rey, N.P. Ludlow and L.Nuti, (Routledge) 2008; "The Mejdunarodniki in the 1960s and first half of the 1970s: backgrounds, connections and the agenda of Soviet international elites" in The Making of Détente, Eastern and Western Europe in the Cold War, 1965-1975, edited by W. Loth and G-H. Soutou, (Routledge) 2008; "The USSR and the Helsinki process, 1969-1975: optimism, doubt or defiance?" in Origins of the European Security System, the Helsinki process revisited, 1965-1975" edited by A. Wenger, V. Mastny and C. Nuenlist, (Routledge) 2008; "Europe is our Common Home, A Study of Gorbachev's Diplomatic Concept" in The Cold War History Journal, January 2004. She recently published a biography of Tsar Alexander I (Flammarion: Paris) 2009 based on new sources and new archival materials and will publish in January 2012 a History of Napoleon's Russian campaign based on French and Russian sources coming from the ground.
Sergei Rogov – A corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and doctor of history, he has spent most of his career in various posts associated with the Institute of the USA and Canada. His assignments including representing the institute in the Soviet embassy in Washington (1984-1987). In 1991 he was appointed deputy director of the institute and rose to the position of director in 1995. He is a member of many advisory boards and councils including the Economic Council of the Russian Federation Government. He is the author of 300 articles and 16 books, including "The Role of the National Security Advisor in the US Decision-Making Process"; "The Search for a Balance of Interests in the Soviet-American Relations"; "The USSR and the USA: problems of Mutual Security"; and "The Evolving Military Doctrine of Russia".
Oleg Rumyantsev – President of the Moscow-based NGO Foundation for Constitutional Reforms. He served in the Russian Parliament from 1990-93, where he was the executive senior secretary of the Constitutional Commission and head of its drafting Working Group. From 1994-96, he was a legal advisor to the State Duma Committee on Legislation, and from 1996-98 a deputy secretary to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Russia and Belarus. In addition to his government service, Rumyantsev's corporate career has included vice president positions with Mars Russia & CIS, Shell EP Services (Russia), and TNK-BP Management. He is a widely published expert on political science, Russian constitutional law, and on Russia's investment climate. He is also co-founder and director of Rule of Law Program at International Institute of Global Development, chaired by M. Gorbachev and A. Lebedev.
Svetlana Savranskaya – Director of the National Security Archive's Russia and former Soviet Union programs. She earned her Ph.D. from Emory University (1998) in international relations, graduated from Moscow State University in 1988, and studied at IMEMO 1989-90. Her books include the award-winning "Masterpieces of History": The Peaceful End of the Cold War in Europe 1989 (New York/Budapest: Central European University Press, 2010), and the forthcoming Last Superpower Summits: Gorbachev, Reagan, and Bush. She served as the History Channel's lead consultant for the Soviet segments of the three-hour bio-documentary on John F. Kennedy (2004). She has published journal articles and chapters on the Cuban Missile Crisis, Brezhnev foreign policy, European integration, the Helsinki process, human rights in the Soviet Union, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, arms control, and the Gorbachev era; and co-edited Routledge's Cold War Encyclopedia (2009).
Alexander Shubin – Doctor of history and distinguished professor, he is director of the Center for Russian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian Studies of the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. and executive editor of the magazine «Историческое пространство» issued by the Association of Historians from the CIS Countries. A prolific scholar, he is the author of more than 100 academic works, including 20 monographs.
William Taubman – Professor of Political Science at Amherst College, is the author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, (2003), which was awarded the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for biography. Taubman is also the author of The View from Lenin Hills: Soviet Youth in Ferment (1967), Governing Soviet Cities (1973), and Stalin's American Policy (1982); co-author, with his wife, Jane Taubman, of Moscow Spring (1989); editor-translator of Khrushchev on Khrushchev by Sergei N. Khrushchev (1990); and co-editor (with Sergei Khrushchev and Abbott Gleason) of Nikita Khrushchev (2000). During 2009, Taubman was the President of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. Recipient in 2009 of the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation, and the Karel Кramar Medal of the Czech Republic, Taubman is currently at work on a biography of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Dmitri Trenin – A veteran of the Soviet and Russian armed forces from 1972-1993, he worked as a liaison officer in the External Relations Branch of the Group of Soviet Forces (stationed in Potsdam) and as a staff member of the delegation to the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms talks in Geneva from 1985-1991. He also taught at the war studies department of the Military Institute from 1986-1993. From 1993-1997 he held posts as senior research fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome and senior research fellow at the Institute of Europe in Moscow. He is the author of numerous monographs on the relations between Russia and NATO and between Russia and the Western countries. His latest book is Post-Imperium: A Eurasian Story (Carnegie: 2011).
Katrina Vanden Heuvel – Chief editor and publisher of The Nation magazine. She is a frequent commentator on American television and radio on U.S. and international politics. She writes a weekly web column for the Washington Post and her blog, "Editor's Cut," appears at TheNation.com. Vanden Heuvel is also the author of several books, including (with Stephen Cohen) Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev's Reformers; and, just published, The Change I Believe In.
Tatyana Vorozheikina – Professor at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, where she teaches several master-level courses in comparative politics and state and society in Russia and Latin America. She has also been a visiting professor and lecturer in Argentina, Brazil, Switzerland, Chile, and the USA. Some of her publications include: The Political System in Russia and the Soviet Union in the XX Century, in 4 volumes (co-authored with I. Dulutsky, 2008), "Looking back: the Possible Alternatives in the Development of Perestroika" (2005), "Civil Society and the State: Russia through a Latin American Lens" (2002).
Evgeni Yasin – A doctor of economics and professor, he has had a career as a leading economist and public figure. From 1973-1989 he directed the laboratory of the Central Economics-Mathematical Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. In 1989 he took over the division of economic reform at the State Commission of the Soviet Council of Ministers. In 1994, after several other assignments, he headed the analytical center of the president of the Russian Federation, and later in the year was named minister of economy for the RF, a post he held until 1997. Since 1998 he has served as research supervisor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. And from early 2000, he has headed the foundation "Liberal Mission."
Olga Zdravomyslova – A doctor of Philosophy and a sociologist, she is currently executive director of the Gorbachev Foundation (since March 2005). In 1999, she became vice president of the Raisa Maximovna Club. She began working at the Gorbachev Foundation in 2000 as head of the Foundation's Public Affairs Center; since March 2005, She has lectured at Moscow State University, the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, and the State University - Higher School of Economics (Moscow). The author of monographs and articles in Russian and foreign academic publications on social transformation, the sociology of law and gender studies, she is also coordinator of several international research projects of the Gorbachev Foundation.