The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 62

fZ. Sunday, May gl, 1941 BOOKS Eyewitness to the dissolution of the Soviet Union I cestsellers hev kuppuru hik argument by de-a ribibtf (iui bo he i attitude In one sf A.f y-i) imhcv ability lu tpxak nun bly about human rcni and itu Holt I ttllVc baa bcV mini rr Oirlcwmc CrMalU lUffld, polillll. althj ()lt), j)jaihrV IIUk abul Itu pcfxiiial Imntriilk, about hi dutx and mumcMk ol iU wir He pmgnatitly dcpiits lilk liiifiak-n l. linn (olltahct SI. buiu by kuwiuom bu-IcatKlatk, ala ready lo pkaw Ihc Kihrral kMrrtary, be luund himMlf aimiiki alone ihc aitcmpi lu pir-kuoJe tMirbaihcV that the radu alidinn tit cruiiMaa allrr IM? bund lo driry ihc Sivi rnin r'ur initially tM.t hoi In u) al kuprier land we don i have any rrn In distrust hik conlrv kiunl, his alienation Irom ihc man he au Yegor writes warned perils of perestroika.

Gorbachev didn't Ugachev that he of the listen. IP u.i wr ,.4 a i 5 muot ooaiAcmv I kri mum Ww by VteAMi timwmiM Attorjih lu a Ic ipulr in U.ni' in the l.it., hci Us ill) ktill burvinu Uh UufchUf i4 Malta had ruM Completely imtd hi dU laMrihip, Ihtf tuilulKXi id humankind riprrt-clued Hire main Unt fwtrian hai unit mfviitul Sadly. Ih hVe capturm xlulhl reality Ihc resolution t.l kkalum and Iti ric ol be fi)ltlil claV ndc up of CIKI hurvaiKfaik. slely inu-reVvd in Ihi-ir ri (licit nil trraimic wJil-call)- a uhjUKlcd population. I nderundhly.

Malm hvtameihe hero, ihe run liijurc ul itu-w nrrx' Ithikt. Ihc guarantor ul thi-ir tlalui iur. Khrushchev, ihcn (iortvuhev irud lo kliai'iT I Mi- nomenklatura u-m and di tn. raitn- lie Inii almml caiitlit urdi-r inherited tnm Malm, The rvuli ul ihc latent rvliifmul at a the delinime an otcrall collar" ol ihe SoMcl tirm. the diluiiin ul Ihc Cum-munui I'art).

Ihc duintrijreiion ol ihc I urn. and Ihc current ethnic and puliiual turmuil hose Una! outcome can barely be predicted, Why did all Ihlt happen W'a the Soviet Inum an inmtiMially unviable construct, a moribund empire maintained cmluMvvly on lie hm ol an ideological mirage. hIkim evanescence a bound Hi lead tu the ultimate breakdown? VcKr lJK-chev's memoir, a document produced by a man directly involved in Ihc tribulations ol perettrtnka. pro. vide a significant and noteworthy viewpoint.

The main characteristic ol this volume, as Stephen Cohen rightly emphasizes In his perceptive introduction, is thai for the lirst time we have access to a primary-source testimonial about the making ol Mikhail Gorbachev! strategy, as well as the lierce infighting at the top ol the Soviet bureaucracy. There have been other memoirs, lor instance those ol rUluord Shevardnadze: and In Hons Yeltsin's case, the self-serving component, linked to his participation In Immediate political battles, made the volume more a political manifesto than a real memoir. l.lgachev. fur almost three years Mikhail Gorbachev's No. 2 man in the Central Committee's powerful Secretariat, is now retired.

For him. a political comeback Is most unlikely. His purpose Is to reflect on the dis-bandment of Sovlumm. and to find out whether a different strategy could have rescued IxTiln's legacy. To Llgochev's credit, he avoids the The long, La, A lop Soviet official, Vjpcr Ligailwv (UfiJ, tiiih Gorbachev at a party congras in 1986.

Ligachtv is now retired. much kupiorinl and admirvd i perktmal tragedy A traixly he cannot persuade himiw If lu attribute lu Gorbachev'! ps)cht-loKUal lla. but rather to what be perceive at an altmrei diabntical in-Ituc-ncerkerted on the general nx re-lary by Alenandt-r Yakovlev Ihc lal-It r. who krrved as the main thdjrui ol percklr0ik and who can be considered oncol the most tmphlsllcated member ol tiorbac hcv'i entourage, is I iiK lu-v' real nemesiit. Yakovlev is m-vii as the unscrupulous intrigut-r.

a cynical kcheini-r purpiisv was lo alienate tr-baihev Iroin the party aparatu. tu make him a pawn in the hands ul Ihc anil Nov let lorci- Yakovlev. the eminence (rise, Ihc manipulator and the moral adventurer, is indeed the lago ol this drama recounted by l.lgachev. When l.lgachev Indulges In sell-serving rhetoric. Yakovlev apinars as the embodiment of everything that l.lgachev loathes: capitulation In Iront ol the extremist, destructive forces: frivolous Ireatmenl of ideological principles: intellectualtsm, and liberalism.

As lor Gorbachev, he apears as the master procrasi motor, whose special skill was to carefully avoid direct clashes and let things happen before he would divide to do anything lo arrest their fatal denouement According lo l.lgachev. had Gorbachev listened lo his Cassandralike warnings, had he paid attention to his prophetic visions of the country's disintegration and mobilized Ihc "socialist-patriotic" forces, the Soviet I'nlon would still be there, a superpower committed to "noble and progressive ideals." Instead. Gorbachev preferred to politely gloss over these dire predictions, Indulging in his International glory and discounting his critics. I.I- tone of angry indictment ol Gorbachev and admits that, by IvhS, the old system was in such a deep crisis II desK-rotely required a major readjustment Neither a firebrand Stalin-isi nor a latter-day U-ninM, he iKks askance at anything not organized and controlled by the bureaucratic apparatus. His main reproach to the liitellitiiml radicals is thus one linked to his lifelong values.

I'nlike Gorbachev who eventually came to embrace a sell-styled version of "democratic humane socialism" closer lo Western social democracy than to llolshcvfsm l.lga-chev remains convinced that the system could and should have been maintained In its basic Institutional arrangements. The Issue for him, as for Yuri Andropov, in many respects his mentor, was to streamline the apparatus and eliminate corruption. and flawed, tsMf on cutm of fctta rr rVCftkAef IVm rni-'rur- iictkj 1 Ttsa Sridsea Medium County RuiHul Jame WaM 95 2 The Cart Jtrfw (tam $23 SO 3 I I teettvf Vom Mary M.t Clk $23 4 Oai-Jwi jansM cua $27 60 5 A Saaaon In Purgatory Donwnn Onne $22 6 Ilka Wale tor CHocoiale iMifhMl $1760 7 Star Wars: Last Command Tnoihy Zatui $2 1 95 8 la for Judmont Sue Citation 7 195 9 Anool Barbara Tartar Bradford $28 10 tbtatoin's Droam Alan bgbtman $17 NONACTION 1 Women Who Run With th Wotvea OariM Pftoia (ties $20 2 A Woman's Worth Marianne Williamson $17 3 The Way Things Ought to Bo Ruth limbeugh $22 4 Healing and the Mind Bill Movers $25 5 Beating the Street Peter Lynch $28 6 Harvey Penkfc'a Little Red Book Harvey Perucfc Bud Snraka 19 7 The Real Anita Hill David Brock $24 95 8. Thinking Out Loud Anna Quindlen $22 9. Turmoil and Triumph George P.

Schultr $30 10. Conduct Unbecoming Randy Sbilts 56 95 I MASS MARKET 1. Jurassic Park Michael Crichton 55.99 2. The Pelican Brief John Grisham $6 99 3 The Firm John Grisham $5.99 4. Darkest Hour C.

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$5.95 2. Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey $9.95 3. On the Pulse of the Morning Maya Angelou $5 Great Good Food Julee Rosso $19 Life's Little Instruction Book H. Jackson Brown Jr. $5.95 Not for Sale at Any Price Ross Perot $5.95 Teaching Your Children Values Linda Eyre $11 8.

A Return to Love Marianne Williamson 12 9. A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley 5 12 10. The T-Factor Fat Gram Counter Jamie Pope-Cordle 1. 95 Book Readings BARNES NOBLE 720-730 Lancaster Ave, Bryn Mawr; 215-520-0355. S.A.

Paolantonio, author of Frank Rizzo, will read. Free. 7:30 p.m. Wed. BORDERS BOOK SHOP 1727 Walnut St; 215-565-7400.

Poets fropneis presents poets Lily Bita and Mike Stanton. Mon. The Rittenhouse Writer's Group will host a reading. Tue. Marianne Williamson will read from Woman's Worth.

Wed. Events are free and 7:30 p.m. BORDERS BOOK SHOP 1001 Baltimore Pike, Springfield; 215-543-8588. Susun Weed will discuss her book Menopausal Years: The Wise Woman Way. Free 5:30 p.m.

Mon. CITY BOOK SHOP 1127 Pine St: 215-592-1992. Open reading. Wed. Poetry with Edward Francis.

Thu. Tne Clear Thoughts Poetry Circle with Kevin Brown, Frank Freeman and Susie Bradford. Fri. Events are free and at; 7 p.m. STEVE'S COMIC RELIEF 2114 South Eagle Rd, Newtown: 215-579-9225.

Scott McCloud, ahor of Understanding "tdmics, will discuss his book. Free. 7 p.m. Fri. hev alarmuitf letters "llial it at lt bat he hu-MumI Inder Sta lin, you wtiuid bate li tour head for a Iciirr like that I nd.

Khruh ihc. )ou wituld have been lirrd I ndcr lirrrbbev. ou would bate bcrn made an am Salvador lo Africa And under tiorbai hcv. you were ki re ply lnofrd Ctuilrary lu I he Malm- IM rt tiunarict, ko haielul Gorba chev, li'oi hrv cnid crt the tint vtae of leieMrtNka in have bn itecekkanr and putime one llie irou- bU-s ktarted hen Gur bathe became a ln- ol the Yakovlev- lnplfid forte! and ht louih with the party for people like Ya kut lev. Yeltsin and Shetardnade.

once Ideological and ollllcal klaUart ol Sotlellsm. converted lo Western-it) Ic pluralism, (jgachev ha noth ing bui trnrn "Having betrayed their faith once, they will continue switching and lying lorrver iJgachcv's world one of simple. almost rustic value patriotism, the exaltation of the Kussian peasant's virtue, the egalitarian Ideal ol early lA-ninism, the commitment tu the central plan as the magic sotuuon lo Ihc economic troubles He his vicwk ith passion and candor, with out tear that he may look outmoded or even reactionary. In hi! days ol retirement, contem plating the binh pangs ol the new democracies In whai used to be an Ideological empire, he is like a visi tor from another age. or perhaps like a relic ol Ihe limes when the IVIit-buro was the earthly substitute lor an omniscient and omnipotent God.

In defense ol IJgachev, one can say that he does not try lu pose as somebody else. I'nlike born-again Russian democrats, l.lgachev speaks his genuine mind He lought lor his cause with a certain sense of dignity. A ItoMievik traditionalist, personally uncorrupt. he is as much a part ol contemporary Kustlan history as Gorbachev and Yellsin. I'nlike them, however, he speaks lor Ihe millions ol bureaucrats for whom the Soviet Union had been a sacred place.

No surprise therefore that his tone Is olten one of mourning: The Soviet I'nlon is dead, and people like l.lgachev arc political orphans. Vladimir Tismaneanu is associate prolossor ol politics al the University ol Maryland (College Park) and aulhor, most recently, ol "Remvenling Politics: Eastern Europe From Stalin lo Havel," published by Free Press. in 1979 and shot four years later at age 29 for a murder that Chikatilo committed. In 1991, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation "rescinded" the sentence imposed on the dead man. The Russians also were able to interview Chikatilo during the trial, a session in which he revealed that his parents told him that his older brother, Stepan, was kidnapped and eaten by starving Ukrainians during the Stalin-induced famine of the early 1930s.

Lourle's book Is the best of this troika, reading like a good police procedural woven with warmth and dark humor a difficult task with such a revolting tale. The chapters devoted to Kostoev's interaction with Chikatilo are particularly good. Lourie makes the Russian prosecutor a compelling character, reminding me a bit of the dour, intrepid Porfiry Rostnikov in Stuart Ka-minsky's Russian detective novels. Obsessed with the case, unhappy to have recently quit smoking, Kostoev lets his protective nature appear as he cautions a young woman he sees jogging along a dark path near a lesopolosa site. "You should run where it's light," says Kostoev.

"What goddamn business Is it of yours?" she retorts. "When your cervix is on the pavement it will be my goddamned busi-. ness!" replies the detective. Inquirer Washington correspondent Steve Goldstein covered the former Soviet Union from August 1986 until February 1990. was permitted.

It was either-or. And the "ors" were the victims. With a system like that in place, it was simple to organize and run the state. But on Aug. 20 and 21, 1991, it broke down.

The coup that had been intended to end Gorbachev's rule had failed. Gorbachev returned to Moscow, being told again and again that he was returning to "a different city" or even a "different country." The slave mentality that had plagued Russian poets since the days of Pushkin had come to an end. Gorbachev seemed to agree. Of course, it was not really true. Russia was still Russia.

The system had not really changed. At least not yet. A at Russian serial killer HUNTING THE DEVIL By Richard Loon HarperCollins. 263 pp. $22 7 Jt.

1 If inertia and nepotism. The radicals, whom he mi vehemently lambastes, arc therefore seen as irresMinsible wrec kers, gravedig-gers of an otherwise rclormahle system- "(ontcmporary radicals, or pM-udodi'iniKTuis. are seeking lo re-pluce economic and political systems, lo turn around our social development, and lo move toward capitalism, which entails I he Impoverishment ol the majority and the enrichment of the lew. The aims the radicals set for themselves make them right-wing. antlsoclallst forces." This Is Mgochcv's Inescapable mind-set: a Munlchocan world that poses the "healthy" forces of soclulism against the dark, tenebrous knights of capitalist restoration.

The socialist heaven versus the capitalist inferno. But what is particularly refreshing hunt for a Since Chikatilo's arrest in late April 1992, three books have been hurried into print, as TV and film companies competed for screen rights. All the media world loves a mass murderer. Hunting the Devil reads most like a thriller, with alternating chapters on Chikatilo and Gen. Kostoev, a dashing, handsome Muslim father of five who ultimately obtained the murderer's confession.

Richard Lourie, a Russian scholar who fortunately doesn't write like one, traces Kostoev's development as a prosecutor as Chikatilo heads down his murderous path. On Sept. 13, 1984, a week after his 15th murder, Chikatilo was arrested by Lt. Col. Zanasovsky and another detective, who noticed him prowling bus stations women.

and approaching In The Killer Department, Robert Cullen's vision Is through the lens of Burakov, a blocky, classic Russian cop. With his background as a former Moscow correspondent for Newsweek, Cullen gives the story useful historical context. His use of colloquial Russian words adds authenticity to the narrative, but Cullen's prowess as a reporter tends to overwhelm the emo tion of the story and turn lt into a documentary account. Burakov wound up rousting nearly the entire gay community in Rostov, so convinced was he that the killer was homosexual or had a sexual disorder. Curiously, The Killer Department begins with a Andrei Chikatilo's victims gruesome Who and how caught? 52 met ends.

was he was he Andrei Chikatilo, left, was in a cage during his 1992 trial. Right, Inspestor Viktor Burakov helped track Chikatilo. THE KILLER DEPARTMENT By Robert Cullen Panthaon. 272 pp. $22 COMRADE CHIKATILO The Psychopathology of Russia's Notorious Serial Killer By Mikhail Krivich and Ol'gert Ol'gin Barricade Books.

288pp. $20 Reviewed by Stave Goldstein On Oct. 14, 1992, in the historic Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, a 56-year-old grandfather was convicted of torturing, murdering, dismembering and, in some cases, eating 52 young women and children over a 12-year period in what is now known as the world's worst skein of serial murders. Restrained within a steel cage in the courtroom, shaven-headed Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo. wearing a souvenir shirt from the 1980 Moscow Olympics, protested his innocence even as the list of his crimes, taken from his confessions, was read in nauseating detail.

A judge and a two-person jury ruled that the former 25-year Communist Party member murdered and mutilated 21 boys, 14 girls and 17 women in Rostov and other cities from 1978 until 1990, while working as an officefactory worker and schoolteacher. This was the stuff of American nightmares, of screaming tabloid accounts of mass murderers Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy Jr. Such unspeakable horrors were unknown in Russia, or at least unreported, because the Kremlin routinely suppressed news accounts of crimes that might reflect poorly on the socialist state. Russian law enforcement authorities admitted that, fearing adverse publicity as well as panic, they had charged, convicted and executed the wrong man before finding Chikatilo in November 1990. Officials also admitted to arresting Chikatilo in 1984, but they released him when blood and semen tests proved inconclusive.

For more than a decade, Chikatilo, the father of two, preyed on trusting or defenseless individuals whom he lured down dark forest paths, where he crushed them with his 200-pound bulk, raped them and slashed them with a foot-long hunting knife. Often, Chikatilo related, he gouged out his victims' eyes, cut off and gnawed on their sexual organs, nipples or tongues, and filled mouthaand other orifices with dirt. 1982 murder, four years after the original killing. Cullen helps us understand the killer, as much as Is possible, through the psychologist brought In by Burakov to coax a confession from the deeply warped Chikatilo. "The whole thing the cries, the blood, and the agony gave me relaxation and a certain pleasure," said the killer.

In their introduction to Comrade Chikatilo, Russian authors Mikhail Krivich and Ol'gert Ol'gin said they wanted "to be first at the finish line" with their account of the lesopolosa, or Forest Strip Murders. The problem is, it shows. A bit of Chikatilo's confession here, a bit of investigation there, and background on the killer everywhere. The narrative reads in well, dismembered fashion. One fascinating chapter is devoted to Aleksandr Kravchenko, arrested lessness that were permitted are immense and unforgivable." Stalin's crime, as envisaged by Remnick, was to decree a system that justified the use of terror to enforce' his power.

The task of the party was to believe in the terror and enforce it on the public. The terror was what counted. It brooked no challenge. If a citizen thought it mistaken, he was wrong and paid for his wrongness with his life or a long period of penal servitude. The syslem was one of great simplicity, required little training in its execution, merely depending on a horde of "watchers," internally on the lookout for victims.

No argument Judge Leonid Akubzhanov said the impotent Chikatilo dismembered people "to give himself the illusion of having performed a real sexual act. He received sexual satisfaction after he knifed a person and saw blood, when a victim suffered." "I was like a crazed wolf," Chikatilo said in his confession. Newspapers dubbed him the "Forest Strip Killer" for his chosen dumping ground, and in the months leading up to his trial, Russians were diverted from their economic woes by the horror of the tale of serial murder. There are two stories here: the history of the killer himself, and of those who ultimately caught him. Twice he was detained and questioned by police in 1978, after his first murder, and six years later when a detective saw him at a bus station randomly approaching young women.

Although police found rope, wire and a long knife in his briefcase, Chikatilo was released after the second arrest because his blood sample did not match that of the suspected murderer's. Still, Chikatilo fit the killer's profile. He had twice lost teaching positions for molesting children, frequented bus and train stations, and lived near the main killing ground. Frustrated by antiquated forensic methods and, occasionally, by their own bungling the police finally came back to Chikatilo after compiling a list of more than 40 suspects. Gen.

Issa M. Kostoev, chief of Russia's Department for Investigating Crimes Against the Person, emerged as one hero. So did Inspector Viktor Burakov, the main chief of the investigation. A third key figure was Lt. Col.

Alexander who arrested Chikatilo Vn 1984. Russia, a nation mired' in misery RUSSIA from F1 about making the study of Soviet history his profession," said Serge Ivanov, a Byzantine historian. The door to history in the Soviet Union was opened by Gorbachev in 1987. On the anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution, he said: "It is perfectly obvious that the lack of the proper level of democratization of Soviet society was precisely what made possible both the cult of personality and the violations of the law, arbitrariness and repressions of the '30 "The guilt of Stalin and those close to him before the Partv and the people for the repressions and the law iiiimii.