Document No. 34: Diary of Anatoly Chernyaev on the Situation in the Baltics, December 10, 1988

This diary entry shows that Gorbachev, unlike the CIA analysts in the September “Housecleaning” analysis (see Document No. 33), began as early as December 1988 to sense the rising instability in the Soviet Union, and particularly the spillover effect that the secessionist movements in the Baltics were having on the Russian “mainland.” Nevertheless, Chernyaev registers the remarkable “self-delusion and naïveté” of his boss for believing it was in the self-interest of the Balts to stay in the ...