Belying the controversy that soon swirled around it, the letter exuded moderation, balance and reasonableness. The notion that Andreyeva simply spouted neo-Stalinism or in the words of journalist Robert Kaiser, “fiercely defended Stalin,”377 represented a preposterous misreading. Andreyeva said she shared the “anger and indignation” of all Soviet people over the repression of the 1930s and 1940s, from which, she said, her own family had suffered. Moreover, she said the Party’s 1956 resolution on the cult of personality and Gorbachev’s speech on the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution remained “the scientific guidelines to this day.”378 The charge of anti-Semitism came from American journalists who saw a hidden meaning in her use of the word “cosmopolitan” to criticize “nationality-less ‘internationalism.’”379 She clearly aimed her criticism, however, at those who idealized the West, including “refuseniks” who would turn their backs on their country and socialism and emigrate to the West.380 Even the Politburo’s official rebuttal failed to charge Andreyeva with anti-Semitism. The notion that the letter represented Russian nationalism rested on nothing more than her crediting the nationalists with drawing attention to such problems as corruption, ecological decline, and alcoholism. But she also castigated the nationalists’ romantic and distorted views of Russian history.
The idea that the letter represented an anti-perestroika manifesto crafted by the Ligachev camp lacked any foundation. Andreyeva and Ligachev denied any such thing. Historian Joseph Gibbs said interviews with the Sovietskaya Rossiya’s staff could not verify Ligachev’s involvement in the letter’s publication.381 Historian Stephen F. Cohen said that Ligachev was not an “intriguer” by nature and that the evidence of Ligachev’s involvement in the Andreyeva letter was “highly inconclusive.”382 In his memoirs, Gorbachev gave only one reason for suspecting a conspiracy, that the letter “contained information known only to a relatively small circle,”383 an unsupported claim, dubious on its face. Moreover, the letter’s moderation, eccentricities and inaccuracies made it a highly unlikely candidate for a manifesto hatched at the highest levels. The letter, for example, incorrectly attributed an Isaac Deutscher remark to Winston Churchill.384 Moreover, for an allegedly anti-perestroika manifesto, the letter oddly called for backtracking on neither glasnost nor perestroika. Instead, Andreyeva merely argued for recognition in the ongoing debates that the “main and cardinal question” was “the leading role of the Party and the working class.”385 Nevertheless, Gorbachev and Yakovlev soon mounted a campaign transmogrifying this letter into a dangerous threat to the whole reform effort.
The day after the letter appeared, Ligachev held a meeting with certain heads of the mass media. Though one advocate of the conspiracy theory asserted that this was an “unscheduled”386 meeting at which Ligachev ordered the reprinting of the letter, Ligachev himself said that the meeting had been scheduled a week before the publication of the letter, that the meeting dealt with many matters, that he mentioned the letter favorably in the context of a discussion of the media’s treatment of history, and that he gave no instructions to reprint it.387 Gorbachev, who first saw the letter while on a plane to Yugoslavia for an official four-day visit, initially told his chief of staff that it was “all right.”388
After returning to Moscow, meeting with Yakovlev, and learning that Ligachev and some other members of the PB supported the letter and that the letter was being reprinted by the provincial press and was being circulated in Leningrad, Gorbachev’s attitude changed. He ordered an investigation of the letter’s origins, and he decided to make an issue of the letter and to use the letter as a pretext for a pre-emptive strike on his opponents in the Politburo. Gorbachev agreed with Yakovlev that he should strike back “from the highest level.”389 Soon, Gorbachev met with representatives of the mass media and denounced Sovietskaya Rossiya.390 Then, according to Ligachev, rumors began to circulate about a “conspiracy” concocted by the “enemies of perestroika” who had timed the publication of the Andreyeva “manifesto” to appear when Gorbachev was out of the country.391
In March and April, the Politburo took up the Andreyeva letter on at least three occasions. One of these turned out to be an extraordinary session. For two days, six or seven hours a day, the Politburo took up one issue—the Nina Andreyeva letter. The PB had never before devoted itself to a newspaper article, let alone for two days. Ligachev said that a mood descended on the meeting totally different than the “democratic and free and easy” style that usually prevailed. “The mood was very tense and nervous, even oppressive.” Yakovlev set the tone. He denounced the Andreyeva letter as a “manifesto of anti-perestroika forces.” According to Ligachev, “Yakovlev acted like the master of the situation. Medvedev echoed Yakovlev. They wanted to impose on the entire Politburo their opinion that Andreyeva’s letter was no ordinary statement: it was a recurrence of Stalinism, the chief threat to perestroika.”
Though Yakovlev did not mention Ligachev by name, Ligachev said that Yakovlev implied that someone, presumably Ligachev, was behind this letter and was plotting a coup. According to Ligachev the meeting turned into a “witch hunt” reminiscent of the worst days of Stalin. Gorbachev came out “unequivocally on the side of Yakovlev.” According to Ligachev, even PB members who had previously supported the letter “were forced to change their point of view.” Moreover, “Gorbachev literally ‘broke’ those who, in his view, failed to condemn Nina Andreyeva’s letter sufficiently.”392
The witch-hunt continued for weeks. At one point, a Central Committee commission raided the offices of Sovietskaya Rossiya looking for evidence of a conspiracy.393 On or about March 30, while Ligachev was on a three-day trip to the provinces, Gorbachev called another PB meeting at which he made a denunciation of the letter a loyalty test, allegedly saying, “I am asking all of you to declare yourselves.” According to some accounts, Gorbachev threatened to resign “unless a clear choice” was made. Everyone present criticized the article and Sovietskaya Rossiya. The PB also passed a resolution condemning Valentin Chikin, the editor of Sovietskaya Rossiya and “warning” Ligachev. Finally, the PB voted unanimously to have Yakovlev draft an official rebuttal to the Andreyeva letter.394 Thus, Gorbachev divided his opponents and threw them on the defensive, most of all Ligachev, whom Gorbachev had isolated and humiliated.
On April 5, Pravda carried the PB’s rebuttal. Among other things, the rebuttal said, “For the first time the readers have been able to read in a highly concentrated form…the intolerance of the elementary idea of renewal, the brutal exposition of fixed positions that are in essence conservative and dogmatic.” The rebuttal asserted that “by defending Stalin” those behind the letter were defending “the right to use power arbitrarily.” The following day, Sovietskaya Rossiya was forced to print the rebuttal, and on April 15 the paper printed a retraction of the original letter and self-criticism. Newspapers began printing a flood of supposedly spontaneous letters from readers attacking the Andreyeva piece.395 On April 8 in Tashkent, Gorbachev declared that “the destiny of our country and socialism are in question” and indicated that someone besides Ligachev should handle ideology.396 At a PB meeting, on April 15 and 16, Gorbachev said that an investigation of the Andreyeva letter proved it “started inside here.”397 Yakovlev made a long speech attacking the letter that ended with “It’s an anti-perestroika manifesto.”398 At the same meeting, Ryzhkov attacked Ligachev for stepping into areas “outside his competence.”399 According to Robert Kaiser, by the end of the meeting “Ligachev was isolated.”400 The meeting relieved Ligachev of some of his duties and transferred ideological responsibilities to Yakovlev.