I have every intention of continuing to work in politics and public affairs to promote New Political Thinking and, needless to say, to facilitate reforms and democratic change within our country. That is what I told Boris Yeltsin.
Salvation in work
I celebrated my 61st birthday at home with my family. There were many greetings, often from people I had not previously known, and the apartment was overflowing with flowers. There were telegrams from all over the place: from big cities and the distant provinces. Some were short, just three or four words wishing me good health and fortitude. I and my family found that particularly touching. People understood that we were in a difficult situation and wanted to lend us support. Some of the letters were very carefully considered and thoughtful. We were cheered to see that people, citizens, understood that change was essential and that life could be better.
On 3 March 1992 we held the official launch of the International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies, the Gorbachev Foundation. That day, hundreds of invited guests streamed towards our headquarters on Leningrad Prospekt. There were representatives of Moscow academic and artistic organizations and public figures, among them Eduard Shevardnadze, Yevgeny Primakov, Yevgeny Velikhov, Alexander and Yegor Yakovlev, Nikita Mikhalkov and other famous people. There were many foreign guests, journalists and diplomats, in total some 1,000 guests. The Russian government was represented by Vice-President Alexander Rutskoy. In a brief speech, I said:
We are witnessing a change of eras. That is why we have decided to continue the intellectual effort that ushered in a new understanding of the present day and major changes in the world, opening new opportunities for relations between countries and peoples. Hence the motto of our Foundation, ‘Towards a New Civilization’.
We are not a governmental, but an academic organization. We have no levers for exerting direct influence on policy, and we make no claim to participate directly in the political process.
Our Foundation is not going to be an ivory tower dispassionately observing the situation in the country. The Foundation’s aim is to provide analysis and research to help Russia emerge from crisis.
To investigate objectively what was happening in the country and the world, to provide a platform for intellectual searching with the involvement of representatives from a broad spectrum of political forces, except, needless to say, the extremists – such was the mission I and my associates envisaged for the Foundation. Looking back, I can only say the Foundation has been fully up to the task. It has been a success.
The Foundation began work, and has continued all these years, under far from easy conditions. The first priority was to raise funds for its research and charitable projects. We received, and still receive, no financial support from the state. With time, the main source of funding came to be from my lecture tours abroad. That is nothing to be ashamed of. Giving lectures is not just a way of earning fees, but an opportunity to talk to people about what is happening in the outside world and in Russia. Despite the difficulties of the present situation in our country, despite my critical attitude towards many aspects of what goes on, I always tell my audiences, be they academics, students or businessmen, Russia will get back on her feet; she will be a major player in global processes. There have been times of trial and times of troubles in her history before, but she has always been reborn and given much to mankind. So it will be this time also.
Attempts to ‘destabilize’ me
Gradually, my post-presidential life developed a routine and I found myself with a busy schedule. There were many invitations to speak abroad, from Germany, the United States, Japan and Italy. Preparing for these visits took up a lot of time. I consulted academics and experts, and worked on important addresses to the German Parliament and US Congress.
Meanwhile, attempts to neutralize me continued with various ‘charges’: I had been involved in a conspiracy connected with the State Emergency Committee’s coup; I had been embezzling the CPSU’s funds; and so on. Someone evidently saw all this as a high priority. While the libels were coming from the likes of long-forgotten Deputy Sergey Belozertsev, they could be ignored. When, however, they came from the president of Russia, I asked Prosecutor General Valentin Stepankov to conduct an enquiry into the substance of the charges.
On 15 March 1992, the prosecutor general, replying at a press conference in Moscow to a question from Andrey Pershin, correspondent of the Interfax News Agency’s Presidential Messenger, said the prosecutor’s office had conducted an investigation at my request. No hard facts had been found in the files on the case of the State Emergency Committee or been presented by Belozertsev. A document to this effect had, the prosecutor general stated, been issued to Gorbachev.
I also talked to the prosecutor general about the ‘case of the Communist Party Finances’. I had nothing to hide, and it was clear from the outset that there was a great deal of groundless speculation in the allegations. I could see that certain people were trying to exploit the law-enforcement agencies and courts against me, but considered it important to demonstrate respect for them. Our discussion was conducted in a civilized manner, and there was no talk of ‘restrictive measures’ like a ban on my travelling abroad. We agreed to meet a second time. This took place in early April and lasted about an hour and a half. Here is the Interfax agency report:
Mikhail Gorbachev said that he was prepared to cooperate with the Prosecution Service to establish all the facts in connection with the case on the CPSU financial resources. Gorbachev stated that, by visiting the Prosecution Service, he wanted to demonstrate that respect for the law should be the ‘norm for everybody’ in the country.
Mikhail Gorbachev stated that no specific charges had been laid against him in the course of his interview at the Prosecution Service. He expressed doubt that the investigation would reveal concealment or illegal transfer of CPSU funds to banks in other countries.
I also answered questions about the case of the CPSU’s money put to me by Vadim Belykh and Valeriy Rudnev, reporters from Izvestiya [The News]:
Q: Mikhail Sergeyevich, so much has been talked and written about the Party’s finances, but everyone is waiting to hear what you have to say.
A: Frankly speaking, there has been too much noise and too much invention in the newspapers and gossip about this issue. I support the efforts of the team of investigators: we need finally to understand everything and dot all the ‘i’s. There is no need for all this sensationalism. We should also ensure that the investigators’ findings are made public. There should be no secrets about the Party’s financial affairs.
In recent years there have not been any. Of course, in the past the budget of the CPSU was not made public. Not even all Party members knew our income and expenditure, but at the Twenty-Eighth Congress we made all the Party’s accounts openly available to Party members.
How well we managed the money is another matter. Initially, the Party’s funds just lay as dead weight in the bank. Later, when we reduced the membership dues, we naturally lost some income, actually, a very considerable part of it. The question arose of how to make up the losses, and we began to study commerce. We reduced the size of the Central Committee and provincial Party administrations, and started investing money productively. We put it into circulation to bring in income for the Party. I emphasize that we did all this in accordance with the law. How competently we did it is another matter.