Yegor Vladimirovich Yakovlev

Yegor Wladimirowitsch Jakowlew ( Russian Егор Владимирович Яковлев ; born March 14, 1930 in Moscow ; † September 18, 2005 ibid) was a Russian journalist and writer. He was a major pioneer of perestroika .

Life

Yegor Jakowlew was initially a historian and began his journalistic career as an editor for various Soviet specialist and regional newspapers. In the early 1980s he worked for the Communist Party's newspaper “ Pravda ” and for the government newspaper “ Izvestia ”. In 1986 he became editor-in-chief of the Moscow weekly newspaper " Moskowskije Novosti " including the international editions (including Moscow News, Moscow News). The then Soviet party leader Mikhail Gorbachev used the Moskowskije Novosti in the spirit of the new freedom of the press to spread and explain his perestroika policy. To this end, he was largely supported by Yakovlev. In addition, Gorbachev appointed him chairman of the State All-Union Society for Television and Radio.

In 1990 Yakovlev was named “Journalist of Europe” in Milan. Under President Boris Yeltsin , he was briefly entrusted with the management of television. The journalist ceaselessly criticized the restrictions on the freedom of the press and did not hold back with his opinion until he died from lung and heart failure. He was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Yakovlev also made a name for himself as a book author and wrote several works about the Russian revolutionary leader Lenin .

Quotes

• "It is the end of a legend, the end of a man without whom Russian journalism would be different." (Igor Jakowenko, General Secretary of the Union of Journalists, on September 19, 2005)

Web links

• Literature by and about Yegor Wladimirowitsch Jakowlew in the catalog of the German National Library