By the way, in these live conversations he sometimes “blurts out” (or maybe he does it intentionally

1988 January 3, 1988. I am at the “Pines” sanatorium. 1 I’m reading “Life and Fate” of Vasilii Grossman (so far it is published in tamizdat ). Truly, it is “War and Peace.” And he is longing for “perestroika.” This was written in 1960! Lesha Kozlov died on December 28. He was a great guy and one of the talented consultants at ththe International Department. We buried him on the 30 . There was a reception; Askol'dov, I, and the consultants talked about Lesha and about Dobrynin, with whom everybody is unhappy. I said a little too much, namely that M.S. [Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev] has already once promised to take the consultant group away from Dobrynin and give it to me. M.S. gave me some “homework” for my vacation, with the idea that when I ski in fresh air, I might get some fresh ideas... This is for the CC Plenum on schools, where he would like to speak about ideology. The matter is very timely. We already have such a store of freedom of thought that it's time to thsynthesize it. The impulses from the 70 anniversary report gave off powerful results, driving Ligachev and Co. into a panic... And I think at the Plenum where he is one of the speakers, Ligachev will try to “stop” and “reverse” what has been achieved. That is why M.S. wants to speak himself. He told me to think about “our values.” But what are our values, when even the main value—socialism—is being questioned in its very core? For example, today on TV there was a program: ...