International Conference “Responding to the Challenge of the Times” to mark the 25th anniversary since the Start of Perestroika held at the Gorbachev-Foundation

On Friday, March 19, 2010, the Gorbachev-Foundation held the International Conference “Responding to the Challenge of the Times”. The conference, opened by the Foundation’s President, Mikhail Gorbachev, was part of a series of events celebrating the 25th anniversary since the Start of Perestroika.

In March-April 1985, a series of events took place which marked the beginning of the process known by the name of ‘Perestroika’. A quarter of a century has passed since then and much has changed in the world – sometimes beyond recognition. It is amazing just how much has been spoken and written about this period, and about Perestroika itself. However, despite all the multitude of diverging views, approaches, conclusions, bitter arguments and fundamental differences of opinion, one thing is beyond doubt: Perestroika, triggered by the internal processes taking place in the Soviet Union, has become a global phenomenon. It made a decisive impact on the history of the world: at the height of the Cold War, which divided the world and put humanity on the verge of a nuclear catastrophe, a response to the utmost challenge of the times was found.

New global challenges have arisen in today’s world so dramatically changed. In many ways they are a result of the way the Cold War was ended and its consequences; however, so far we have not been able to fully comprehend the nature of these challenges, or their immediate and long-term consequences for Russia and the world. This raises the logical question: Are we capable of understanding the challenges of modern times and are we ready to offer appropriate responses to them?

The Conference included an official launch of a new book published in 2010 by the Moscow-based Ves Mir Publishers and titled Responding to the Challenge of the Times. The book deals with the foreign policy of the Perestroika period and is based on the materials from the Gorbachev-Foundation’s archives. Anatoly Chernyayev, Vadim Medvedev and Pavel Palazhchenko of the Gorbachev-Foundation, the political scientist Viktor Sheinis, the Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs Fedor Lukianov, and the head of Ves Mir Publishers Oleg Zimarin were among the speakers at the book launch ceremony.

Speakers at the Conference's First Session “Perestroika in the World History of the 20th Century”  (chaired by Viktor Kuvaldin, Professor at the Moscow School of Economics, Moscow State University) included Archie Brown, historian and Professor of Politics at Oxford University, UK; Aleksandr Bessmertnykh, former foreign minister of the USSR and President of the Moscow-based Foreign Policy Association; Sergei Rogov, Director of the Institute for the USA and Canadian Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences; and Stephen F. Cohen, Professor of Russian Studies at New York University and Professor Emeritus of Politics at Princeton University.

Speaking at the Conference's Second Session “Today’s Global Challenges and the Search for a New Thinking”  (chaired by Pavel Palazhchenko, head of the Gorbachev-Foundation’s International and Media Relations) were the German Ambassador to the Russian Federation Walter Jurgen Schmidt; the Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs Fedor Lukianov; Svetlana Savranskaya of the U.S. National Security Archive, Washington, D.C.; William C. Taubman, Bertrand Snell Professor of Political Science at Amherst College, USA; and Boris Makarenko, member of the management board of Russia’s Institute of Contemporary Development.

Participants in the debates that followed included, among others, Giulietto Chiesa, former Member of the European Parliament; Ruslan Grinberg, Director of the Institute of Economics, the Russian Academy of Sciences; and Fredo Arias-King, a political scientist and recognized democracy advocate from Mexico.

A webcast of the event was online at http://www.a-z.ru/. The Conference proceedings will be published at the Gorbachev-Foundation’s website.

The Conference was widely covered in the national media, including Mir Interstate Television and Radio Company, Vesti TV news channel, Interfax news agency, Argumenty I Fakty national weekly, ITAR-TASS news agency, Rosbalt news agency, and others.

In particular, Mir Interstate Television and Radio Company (http://mirtv.ru/content/view/) gave its audience information about the book and its contents, emphasizing that “the book for the first time presented transcripts of talks [Mikhail Gorbachev held] with foreign leaders”. Talking about the causes of Perestroika the former Soviet President was cited as saying, “We needed change. We came to realize that we could not go on living like that. This realization emerged in society itself …”

Vesti TV news channel posted a story covering the event at its website http://www.vesti.ru/
and presented detailed information about the book, citing Mikhail Gorbachev’s as concerned about the “relapse” of the Cold War: “We ended the Cold War, but are again falling into the same trap”. The first and only Soviet President is alarmed by the new military doctrine of the United States and the attempts to divide the world again “by missiles and military bases”.

Interfax news agency gave an overview of the conference and the book launch, citing Mikhail Gorbachev as saying that he was not going to retire yet and that he had plans to author more books in the future.

A story published in the online edition of Argumenty I Fakty, one of Russia’s leading national weeklies (http://www.aif.ru/politic/news/49926), informed the readership about the book and presented the remarks the Soviet President made at the launch ceremony. Mikhail Gorbachev is confident that the facts and stories covered in the book and previously unknown to the general public will shed light on a host of events. “Let everybody see how we were ‘selling the country out’”, Mikhail Gorbachev joked.
 
ITAR-TASS news agency (http://www.itar-tass.com/) covered the Conference and the book launch in its report, emphasizing that of particular interest are the book materials dealing with the more dramatic events of the period, including the war in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from that country, the Persian Gulf War, and the events that took place in Eastern European countries shortly before the demise of the Soviet Union.

In its report of March 19, 2010 (http://www.rosbalt.ru/2010/03/19/721668.html), Rosbalt news agency gave an overview of the conference, extensively quoting Mikhail Gorbachev’s presentation of the book. His comments on the book gave an insight into the motives that had inspired the Soviet President to launch Perestroika. According to him, changes in the country were effected long after he became the General Secretary of the Communist Party. “Perestroika started in the year of 1988. All the years in between were a prelude to Perestroika. It was only after the 19th [Communist] Party Conference that this process of moving forward became irreversible,” the news agency quoted Mikhail Gorbachev as saying.