Editing Alexander Yakovlev (section)

{{short description|Soviet politician and diplomat (1923–2005)}}
{{For|other individuals with the same name|Alexander Yakovlev (disambiguation)}}
{{Family name hatnote|Nikolayevich|Yakovlev|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2022}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Alexander Yakovlev
| native_name         = {{nobold|Александр Яковлев}}
| native_name_lang    = ru
| image               = Александр Яковлев (cropped).jpg
| caption             = 
| imagesize           =
| office2             = Head of the [[Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
| term_start2         = 5 July 1985
| term_end2           = March 1986
| predecessor2        = 
| successor2          = [[Yuri Sklyarov]]
| office4             = Full member of the [[27th Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
| term_start4         = 26 June 1987
| term_end4           = 14 July 1990
| office5             = Member of the [[27th Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
| term_start5         = 6 March 1986
| term_end5           = 14 July 1990
| office6             = [[Soviet Union Ambassador to Canada]]
| premier6            = [[Alexei Kosygin]]<br />[[Nikolai Tikhonov]]
| term_start6         = 1 June 1973
| term_end6           = 29 October 1983
| predecessor6        = {{Interlanguage link|Boris Miroshnichenko|ru|Мирошниченко, Борис Пантелеймонович}}
| successor6          = [[Aleksei A. Rodionov]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1923|12|2|df=y}}
| birth_place         = Korolyovo, [[Yaroslavl Oblast]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]]<br><small>(now Russia)</small>
| death_date          = {{death date and age|2005|10|18|1923|12|2|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Moscow]], [[Russia]]
| nationality         = [[Russian people|Russian]]
| party               = [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (1944–1991)<br />[[Russian Party of Social Democracy]] (1995–2002)
| signature           = Signature of Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev.png
| preceded2           = Vladimir Stepakov
| branch              = [[Soviet Navy]]
| serviceyears        = 1941–1943
| battles             = {{tree list}}
* [[World War II]]
** [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]]
*** [[Siege of Leningrad]]
{{tree list/end}}
| allegiance          = {{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}
}}

'''Alexander Nikolayevich Yakovlev''' ({{langx|ru|Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Я́ковлев}}; 2 December 1923 – 18 October 2005) was a [[Soviet]] and [[Russia|Russian]] politician, diplomat, and historian. A member of the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] and [[Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Secretariat]] of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] throughout the 1980s, he was termed the "godfather of glasnost",<ref name="Chief Ideologue">{{cite news |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051018.wyakov1018/BNStory/International/ |location=Toronto |work=The Globe and Mail |title=Alexander Yakovlev, 81 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051020010403/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051018.wyakov1018/BNStory/International/ |archive-date=2005-10-20 |access-date=24 May 2013}}</ref> and was the intellectual force behind [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s reform programme of [[glasnost]] and [[perestroika]].

Born into a rural family, Yakovlev served as a platoon commander of a marine brigade during [[World War II]], and became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union following the war. During the rule of [[Nikita Khrushchev]], he became a member of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee of the CPSU]], before resigning to study abroad as part of the [[Fulbright Program|Fulbright Programme]], returning in 1960. Under [[Leonid Brezhnev]], he became Deputy Head of [[Agitprop]] and was placed in charge of a group on creating the [[1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union]]. He was later demoted to ambassador to Canada, in response to his public opposition to ethnic nationalism within the Soviet Union.

In the early 1980s, Yakovlev returned to the Soviet Union, and became a prominent supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev's proposed reforms. In response to his perceived importance in the reforms, he came under attack from hardliners such as [[Alexander Lebed]] and [[Gennady Zyuganov]], eventually resigning two days prior to the [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt]]. During the coup attempt, Yakovlev was a supporter of pro-democratic forces, and later became a supporter of [[Boris Yeltsin]] before turning against his successor, [[Vladimir Putin]], in response to democratic backsliding which occurred during Putin's presidency.