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Gorbachev’s aide dies at 95

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s aide Anatoly Chernyayev has died at 95

Anatoly Chernyayev Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

Anatoly Chernyayev

© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s aide Anatoly Chernyayev has died at 95, The Gorbachev Foundation has told TASS.

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Mikhail Gorbachev: A new Union is possible

"Chernyayev died yesterday," Gorbachev Foundation spokesman Pavel Palazhchenko told TASS.

Anatoly Chernyayev was born on May 26, 1921. During World War II he was a platoon commander with almost no chances of living through the four-year frontline ordeal. At the moment of retirement from the Red Army in 1946 he had a captain’s rank. Before starting his Communist Party career Chernyayev was a teacher of history at the Moscow State University. In 1961 through 1986 he held various positions at the foreign department of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee. In 1986-1991 he was a foreign affairs aide to Mikhail Gorbachev, who first held the post of the Communist Party’s General Secretary and later first Soviet President. Chernyayev was regarded as one of the most prominent members of the liberal wing of Gorbachev’s entourage. Starting from 1992 Chernyayev was a staff member of the Gorbachev Foundation in charge of the project entitled Documental History of Perestroika. Foreign Policy of Perestroika.

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