My Years With Gorbachev and Shevardnadze
Subtitle: The Memoir of a Soviet Interpreter
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Published: April 1997
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 394
ISBN-13: 9780271016030
Subjects: Biography: general; European history (ie other than Britain & Ireland); Marxism & Communism; c 1980 to c 1990; c 1990 to c 2000; Foreign Relations; Politics / Current Events; History: World; Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe); Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union; Historical - General; International Relations - General; Friends and associates; Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeevich; Shevardnadze, Eduard Amvrosievich; (Pavel); 1985-1991; Biography; History; Palazhchenko, P; Palazhchenko, P.; Soviet Union; Translators
Description: As the principal English interpreter for Mikhail Gorbachev and his foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, in the critical period of 1985-1991, Pavel Palazchenko participated in all U.S.-Soviet summit talks leading to the end of the Cold War. This personal and political memoir sheds new light on Soviet-American relations and personalities during that time.

Palazchenko focuses on what he saw with his own eyes during important negotiating sessions with world leaders such as Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Secretaries of State George Shultz and James Baker, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

He shares his impressions and opinions about these leaders as well as their Soviet counterparts and gives a firsthand account of the phase of preparation leading up to important international events, including the process of hammering out positions on sensitive arms control issues. Palazchenko describes the events themselves, such as the summits in Reykjavik, Malta, and Moscow, adding many fascinating details to previous accounts.