Architect amidst the Ruins (russian: Архитектор у развалин, other versions: - 'The Architect of the Ruins', - 'To the Architect of the Ruins') was an

open letter An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an individ ...

Gennady Zyuganov Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov (russian: Генна́дий Андре́евич Зюга́нов; born 26 June 1944) is a Russian politician, who has been the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and served as M ...

, then a relatively little known

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

functionary who later became the leader of the

Communist Party of the Russian Federation The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF; russian: Коммунистическая Партия Российской Федерации; КПРФ, Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii; KPRF) is a left-wing nationalist and c ...

, to

Alexander Yakovlev Alexander Nikolayevich Yakovlev (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Я́ковлев; 2 December 1923 – 18 October 2005) was a Soviet and Russian politician, diplomat, and historian. A member of the Politburo and Secret ...

, the ideological founder of perestroika who was also known as the "architect of perestroika".

History

The letter was published in the

hardline In politics, hardline (or hard-line) is an adjective describing a stance on an issue that is inflexible and not subject to compromise. A hardliner is a person holding such views. The stance is usually far from the centrist view. People, policies ...

communist newspaper ''

Sovetskaya Rossiya ''Sovetskaya Rossiya'' (russian: Советская Россия, ''Soviet Russia'') is a political newspaper in Russia. It kept its name after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and presently presents itself as a leftist ind ...

'' on 7 May 1991. The letter argued that perestroika caused disintegration of the state; democratization resulted in a "war of legislation";

glasnost ''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, ...

turned out to be a weapon in the

psychological war Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

against the Soviet people; and a new alliance of obscurantists,

lumpen Lumpen can refer to: * ''Lumpen'' (magazine), an American art and politics magazine * Lumpen journal, A Journal of Poor and Working Class writing * Lumpenproletariat, a term in Marxist sociology * Lumpenbourgeoisie * Swedish slang for military s ...

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

, and criminals was coming into being. The letter was perceived as the start of the campaign to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev. It was later reported by

Oleg Shenin Oleg Semyonovich Shenin (russian: Олег Семёнович Шенин, link=no; 2 July 1937 – 28 May 2009) was the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Shenin), which should not be confused with the larger UCP-CPSU. She ...

that the text itself had been written by a

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

team, and Zyuganov's signature just suited the goals.

References

External links

Text of the original
{{DEFAULTSORT:Architect Amidst The Ruins 1991 documents 1991 in the Soviet Union Gennady Zyuganov Open letters Politics of Russia Soviet internal politics