The fate of Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev is truly unique material for a fascinating narrative. Front-line soldier: fought on the Volkhov Front, was seriously wounded. Party official: went through all the steps of the career ladder - from an instructor at a provincial regional committee to a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Scientist: graduate student of the Academy of Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, intern at Columbia University (USA), Doctor of Historical Sciences, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, director of a large academic institute. Diplomat: served as USSR Ambassador to Canada for ten years. “The Architect of Perestroika” - this is how Yakovlev began to be called in the second half of the 1980s, when he, together with M. S. Gorbachev, was actively involved in the process of reforming the party and the state. An active ally of democratic power: in the 90s, the Kremlin entrusted him with a number of responsible posts in the new Russia. And almost every life stage of this long biography raises questions. Among them is this: was Yakovlev an “agent of influence,” as many Russian politicians believed during perestroika and the 1990s? What is his real role in the tectonic processes that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, a change in the social system? The author of this story, candidate of historical sciences Vladimir Snegirev, tried on the basis of archival documents, printed sources, interviews with A. N. Yakovlev’s associates and his personal experience to answer these and other questions, to trace the hero’s path from the beginning of his party career to the collapse of the CPSU.