Description
For South Africa, it paved the way towards ending a longstanding hostile international isolation and brought normalisation of diplomatic relations.
For Russia it meant the end of Communism but the rise of Putinism.
Gerrit Olivier, South Africa’s first ambassador in the new Russian Federation (1991-1996), tells the story of the enriching events in Moscow as he experienced firsthand during his term: the fall of the once powerful Soviet Union; of Soviet Communism; President Mikhael Gorbachev but also of the Cold War and the resurrection of Russia under Putin.
The author: Gerrit Olivier hails from the Karoo town of Oudtshoorn. He holds a PhD in International Politics from the University of Pretoria, the first one of its kind ever to be awarded by a South African University. After holding the position of professor of Political Science and International Politics at the University of Pretoria, he joined the South African diplomatic service in 1983, serving as the country’s first diplomatic representative in the Soviet Union and first Ambassador to the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan. In 1996 he was appointed at the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) as director of the Centre for European Studies. During his academic career, he received research grants from the SA Human Science Research Council, the British Council, the Deutsche Akademische Austauchdienst (DAAD), the American and the Taiwanese Governments and was visiting fellow at the Centre for International Politics at Harvard University and the Moscow Institute for Diplomacy and International Relations (Mgimo). He is the author of numerous academic books and articles, a regular commentator on radio and television and the writer of newspaper articles on topical international issues
