Kremlin Secrets: Up the Down Staircase, An Interview with V.A. Pechenev

Abstract

We have learned a lot of things in the years of perestroika, but one thing that is usually known to any civilized people still remains a secret to us—namely, who leads us, how, and why. The Kremlin has still not disclosed many of its secrets, as if they bear a "forever secret" stamp. One of those whom official reports from TASS until recently would refer to as "an aide to the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee who … participated in the meeting" agreed to raise the curtain of secrecy over this a little and to reveal the mechanism by which one rises to the pinnacles of power. This is Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor V.A. Pechenev.