The Last of the Mohicans

In modern Russia it is practically impossible to find a person, who has worked with all the country’s leaders from Stalin to Yeltsin. Valentin Falin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, reputable foreign affairs specialist, ex-ambassador of the USSR in Germany, the former CPSU Central Committee Secretary, probably the “last of the Mohicans”. He prepared analytical reports for Stalin and Beria. He wrote foreign policy speeches for Khrushchev. Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin relied on his advices. His fate was intervened by Andropov. He was accused of organizing a coup in Germany, the collapse of the USSR and was summoned to court in respect of the famous “CPSU affair”. Valentin Falin since 1950 had a responsible job in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, in the seventies served as the Soviet ambassador in Bonn, in the eighties — the political columnist of “Izvestia” newspaper and the head of the “News” Press Agency, from 1988 to 1991 — Head of the International department of the CPSU Central Committee and adviser to M.Gorbachev on general political issues. In the interview with Alexander Ageev and Alexander Isayev — fragments of the USSR backstage history through the point of view of its participant and witness.