Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

by Svetlana Alexievich

During the Soviet-American disarmament talks, Americans always got exactly what they wanted. In his book, Through the Eyes of a Marshal and Diplomat, Akhromeyev describes the debates about the Oka missile (known in the West as the SS-23). It was a new missile, no one else had anything like it, and the American side intended to destroy it. However, it didn’t fall under the terms of their agreement, which dictated the destruction of medium-range missiles with a radius of 1000–5500km, and smaller ones, with a range of 500–1000km. The Oka’s range was 400km. The Soviet General Staff made an offer to the Americans: All right, let’s play fair and ban all missiles starting with a 400km range instead of 500km. But then the Americans would have had to sacrifice their modernized Lance-2 missiles, which had a range of 450–470km. A drawn-out behind-the-scenes battle…Behind the backs of the military, Gorbachev personally decided to destroy the Oka. That was when Akhromeyev made his famous statement: “And while we’re at it, maybe we should ask for political asylum in Switzerland and never come home?” He couldn’t participate in the annihilation of something he’d devoted his life to…[A pause.] The world became unipolar; now, it belongs to America.