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349 Document No. 39: Report from Mikhail gorbachev to the CC CPSU Politburo regarding His Meeting with the Trilateral Commission January 21, 1989 The Trilateral Commission was a powerhouse of statesmen and financiers from the United States, Western Europe and Japan. In his report to the Politburo about his recent meeting with the Commission, Gorbachev takes special note of a comment by former French Prime Minister Giscard d’Estaing, who postulated that “in 10–20 years we all will have to deal with a federation of states named Europe”—a sentiment exactly in sync with Gorbachev’s own vision of the common European home. Referring to Kissinger’s conversations with Yakovlev earlier in the month, Gorbachev also mentions that the former secretary of state “hinted at the idea of a USSR– USA condominium” so that the “Europeans do not misbehave.” Gorbachev’s references to Kissinger use the word “Kisa”—a diminutive term for “cat,” replete with connotations of slinking around, and also the name of the pretentious aristocrat in a classic 1960s Soviet movie based on a famous satirical novel by Ilf and Petrov published in the 1930s. On January 16, Kissinger had suggested to Yakovlev that the situation in Eastern Europe was comparable to that preceding World War I when the Great Powers set off a chain reaction which led to war. To avert catastrophe, Kissinger proposed high-level negotiations to reach a set of understandings , both formal and informal. Gorbachev’s words to the Politburo suggest some attraction to the idea, but his assistants would later claim he was uninterested and even hurt by the Americans’ apparent inability to take his “new thinking” seriously . In any case, for the first time, Gorbachev would initiate an actual process to analyze the developments in Eastern Europe seriously. In the following weeks, Yakovlev would receive a number of analytical documents from the CC International Department, the KGB, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Institute of the Economy of the World Socialist System (see Document Nos. 41 & 42). Communist Party of the Soviet Union Central Committee gorbachev is speaking about the Trilateral Commission, with which he met (Kissinger, giscard d’Estaing, Nakasone). It is interested in everything that is going on, especially in our country. It is working on all issues of European world policy. I would emphasize two issues. The first is how you—meaning we, the Soviet Union—are going to integrate into the world economy. These issues are being considered within the Trilateral Commission. If you are going to integrate we should be ready for it, they said to me. giscard told me directly that for us (the USSR) this problem would be extremely difficult, but for them also. Melyakova book.indb 349 2010.04.12. 16:20 350 Second issue. They are coming to the conclusion that the biggest battles for perestroika are still ahead of us. And in the international sphere the main problems for us will emerge in the Third World. They think that the West “let the Third World live,” and the Third World, in turn, “let the West live.” But how are we going to deal with the Third World? They believe that in 10–20 years we all will have to deal with a federation of states named Europe. Kisa [Kissinger] just shrugged at this statement by giscard, and asked me a direct question: How are you going to react if Eastern Europe wants to join the EC? It is not an accident that they asked me about this. They know that our friends are already knocking on the door. And we should also look at what processes are going on there now—economic and political—and where they are drifting. What is going on in Hungary, for example? An opposition party led by [Miklós] Németh has emerged there. Hungary is on the eve of a serious choice. Of course, it will be different. And I think that every country should have, and has, its own face. And we will continue to be friends, because the socialist foundation will be preserved in all of them. The paths of our development will be very diverse while we will preserve our commonality. We need a mechanism that will ensure our mutual understanding and interaction. There will be a lot of political, economic, and military-political questions. We should consider them in the Central Committee’s Commission on Eastern Europe. We should undertake situational analysis with scholars. For example , how would we react if...

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