Image | ![]() |
EAN-13 | 9780771079962 ![]() |
Product Name | The Soviet Ambassador: The Making Of The Radical Behind Perestroika |
Language | English |
Category | Book / Magazine / Publication |
Short Description | Hardcover |
Amazon.com | ![]() |
SKU | VIB0771079966 |
Price New | 39.64 US Dollars (curriencies) |
Price Used | 1.59 US Dollars (curriencies) |
Width | 6.25 inches (convert) |
Height | 9 inches (convert) |
Length | 1.25 inches (convert) |
Weight | 24 ounces (convert) |
Author | Christopher Shulgan |
Page Count | 368 |
Binding | Hardcover |
Published | 06/10/2008 |
Long Description | Few realize that behind Mikhail Gorbachev’s Cold War-ending perestroika reforms stood an owlish figure who was just as important as the Soviet leader himself. Fewer still know the role Canada played in transforming Gorbachev’s advisor from a devout Stalinist to the most potent force for democracy and justice ever to walk the halls of the Kremlin. His name was Aleksandr Yakovlev. Today in an increasingly autocratic Russia he’s reviled as the man who brought down the Soviet empire–the "architect" of perestroika and the "godfather" of glasnost, who, some say, was the puppetmaster manipulating Gorbachev’s strings. Yakovlev is acknowledged to have devised the strategy that won Gorbachev the job of Soviet leader. After the Soviet collapse, Yakovlev was the only other man present as Gorbachev negotiated his transfer of power to Russian president Boris Yeltsin. In between, Yakovlev was behind every democratic measure Gorbachev instituted, leading the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Remnick to dub him "Gorbachev’s good angel." His origins were anything but democratic. As a youth, Yakovlev was a faithful Communist who idolized Stalin. By 1970 he had ascended to a position that controlled every media outlet in the Soviet Union, requiring him to plot repressive strategies against such dissidents as Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov But then a mis-step caused the Party to banish him from Moscow. A disgraced Yakovlev landed in the Cold War backwater of Ottawa working as the Soviet ambassador to Canada. His career should have been over. But Yakovlev’s diplomatic posting functioned as an education in Western democracy. He grew fascinated with elections, attended trials and became an expert in the machinations of a market economy. He also developed a close friendship with Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who helped arrange to bring Mikhail Gorbachev on his first visit to North America. It was in Canada that Gorbachev and Yakovlev struck up their friendship as they strategized for the first time the radical changes known as perestroika. Drawing on interviews with Yakovlev’s family and dozens of his friends, as well as never-before-disclosed archival research material, The Soviet Ambassador recounts Yakovlev’s tortuous evolution from Stalin’s acolyte to Stalinism’s nemesis, from faithful member of the Communist Party to liberal democrat engineering the same Party’s collapse. With profound implications for diplomacy in a conflict-driven age, Yakovlev’s story is also a remarkable testament to the power of conviction, and an inspiring account of an underdog overcoming injustice to improve the lives of his fellow citizens. |
Created | 11-12-2012 4:49:45am |
Modified | 05-01-2020 1:18:04am |
MD5 | 8dd9b5e5a216c8eea4b7d80bc8185bfe |
SHA256 | 0ded54ddf4632afb24d4f811856d2a03027be7d7eef3466b1248fb339377fdf2 |
Search Google | by EAN or by Title |
Query Time | 0.0056031 |
Article of interest
The attributes are somewhat like fields. They are the individual data items that describe each product. Each product entry will have several attributes. There is no telling which attributes will be attached to each product but they all have the same basic format.
Here is an example of one attribute. When accessing the data feed API, you can get your data in XML or JSON format. Here it is displayed in XML format to make it a little easier to read through.
<attribute> <field_name>product</field_name> <group_name>Over View</group_name> <title>Product Name</title> <data_type>varchar</data_type> <data_type_description>short text</data_type_description> <has_linked_text>0</has_linked_text> <has_linked_extra>0</has_linked_extra> </attribute>
In the above example you will find these elements:
- field_name - The unique name used to access this attribute.
- group_name - The name of the data group this field belongs to.
- title - The label we place on the screen when displaying this attribute to users.
- data_type - The database data type we are using to store this attribute.
- data_type_description - More infomation about the data type.
- has_linked_text - Some numeric fields have a text representation. We store the numeric value but if there is linked text, we use a lookup table to display that text instead of the number to the user.
- has_linked_extra - Some numeric fields have an extra text value that goes along with the number. We use a lookup table to display that text in addition to the number.
Hopefully, this helps you understand the data attributes you find in the data feed API.
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