Sergei M. Plekhanov
Encyclopedia
Sergei M. Plekhanov is a former Soviet Union
government adviser who served under the administration of Mikhail Gorbachev
. He is also the former Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada in Russia, specializing in Russian politics and Russia-United States relations. He is an associate professor of Political Science
at York University
in Toronto
, Canada
, a position he has held since 1993.
from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1968 and a Ph.D. in History from the Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada
of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. From 1988 to 1993 he was the Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada. He has taught as Visiting Professor at the University of California
, Irvine, and Occidental College
in (Los Angeles), and served as Soviet Affairs Consultant with CBS News
from 1988 to 1991. Plekhanov wrote the Russian subtitles for the HBO television film Stalin
in 1992 starring Robert Duvall
.
Since his arrival in Canada in 1993, he has been a frequent commentator on Russian and East European affairs for Canadian TV, radio networks and print media including TVO
's Studio 2
, The Agenda
, CBC News
, CBC
's Sunday Edition
and CTV News
. He has consulted Canadian and US governments on Russian affairs and testified at hearings at the Parliament of Canada
and US Congress.
in 1988. In January 1990, Plekhanov appeared on the air. Plekhanov's second banana to long- standing Soviet spokesman Georgi Arbatov as Deputy Director of the Soviet government's Institute on the USA and Canada. Some analysts watched closely every Plekhanov appearance from the beginning of 1990. Although every utterance toed the Gorbachev line, CBS has repeatedly failed to properly identify Plekhanov as an official of the Soviet government, which created some controversy.
In his first appearance, on CBS This Morning January 15, he was identified as Deputy Director of the USA and Canada Institute, but the screen read "Soviet Expert." When Dan Rather
interviewed him right after Bush's State of the Union address
on January 31, the screen read "Institute on the USA." The average viewer had no reason to believe the Institute was anything other than a typical private think tank. CBS
never noted it is an arm of the Soviet government. In Plekhanov's seven appearances on the CBS Evening News since his appointment as a consultant, CBS identified him once as a "Soviet political scientist" and six times as a "Soviet foreign affairs analyst." CBS did not once explicitly identify Plekhanov as a government official until the June 4 Nightwatch, when host Charlie Rose
introduced Plekhanov as a "Soviet expert on the United States," but his on-screen label read "Soviet Government Adviser."
Plekhanov has published widely on issues of post-communist transformations in Russia, Russian foreign policy, US-Russian relations, and American politics. A brief and selective list of his works:
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
government adviser who served under the administration of Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
. He is also the former Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada in Russia, specializing in Russian politics and Russia-United States relations. He is an associate professor of Political Science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at York University
York University
York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, a position he has held since 1993.
Education and career
Dr. Plekhanov received B.A. and M.A. in international relationsInternational relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1968 and a Ph.D. in History from the Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada
Institute for US and Canadian Studies
Institute for US and Canadian Studies - is a Russian think tank which is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences, specializing on the comprehensive studies of the United States and Canada....
of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. From 1988 to 1993 he was the Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada. He has taught as Visiting Professor at the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
, Irvine, and Occidental College
Occidental College
Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...
in (Los Angeles), and served as Soviet Affairs Consultant with CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
from 1988 to 1991. Plekhanov wrote the Russian subtitles for the HBO television film Stalin
Stalin (film)
Stalin is a Tollywood film directed by A. R. Murugadoss. It stars Chiranjeevi in the lead role and Trisha Krishnan, Prakash Raj, Sharada Urvashi and Khushboo in supporting roles. Anushka Shetty performs an item number in the film. Shooting for the film was done at various locations in India...
in 1992 starring Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....
.
Since his arrival in Canada in 1993, he has been a frequent commentator on Russian and East European affairs for Canadian TV, radio networks and print media including TVO
TVOntario
TVOntario, often referred to only as TVO , is a publicly funded, educational English-language television station and media organization in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario...
's Studio 2
Studio 2
Studio 2 was a daily current affairs newsmagazine on TVOntario in Ontario, Canada. The show won several Gemini Awards, and was hosted by Steve Paikin and Paula Todd , and first aired in 1994. TVOntario announced the program's termination on June 29, 2006...
, The Agenda
The Agenda
The Agenda with Steve Paikin is the flagship current affairs program of TVOntario, Ontario’s public broadcaster. The show practises what anchor and senior editor Steve Paikin calls "long-form" journalism. Each hour-long program tackles no more than two topics, and often only one...
, CBC News
CBC News
CBC News is the department within the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on CBC television, radio and online services...
, CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
's Sunday Edition
Sunday Edition
Sunday Edition is a Sunday morning radio show on CBC Radio One, hosted by Michael Enright. As the title might imply, the program was originally simply the Sunday edition of This Morning, which Enright co-hosted until the Sunday program became a separate entity in 2000.Its subject matter is wide...
and CTV News
CTV News
CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name CTV News is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations , which are closely tied to the national news division...
. He has consulted Canadian and US governments on Russian affairs and testified at hearings at the Parliament of Canada
Parliament of Canada
The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch—represented by her governor general—the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and...
and US Congress.
CBS News 1988-1991 and controversy
Plekhanov became a Soviet politics consultant for CBS NewsCBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
in 1988. In January 1990, Plekhanov appeared on the air. Plekhanov's second banana to long- standing Soviet spokesman Georgi Arbatov as Deputy Director of the Soviet government's Institute on the USA and Canada. Some analysts watched closely every Plekhanov appearance from the beginning of 1990. Although every utterance toed the Gorbachev line, CBS has repeatedly failed to properly identify Plekhanov as an official of the Soviet government, which created some controversy.
In his first appearance, on CBS This Morning January 15, he was identified as Deputy Director of the USA and Canada Institute, but the screen read "Soviet Expert." When Dan Rather
Dan Rather
Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...
interviewed him right after Bush's State of the Union address
State of the Union Address
The State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President of the United States to the United States Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and his national priorities.The practice arises...
on January 31, the screen read "Institute on the USA." The average viewer had no reason to believe the Institute was anything other than a typical private think tank. CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
never noted it is an arm of the Soviet government. In Plekhanov's seven appearances on the CBS Evening News since his appointment as a consultant, CBS identified him once as a "Soviet political scientist" and six times as a "Soviet foreign affairs analyst." CBS did not once explicitly identify Plekhanov as a government official until the June 4 Nightwatch, when host Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose
Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993...
introduced Plekhanov as a "Soviet expert on the United States," but his on-screen label read "Soviet Government Adviser."
Current positions and written works
- Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, York UniversityYork UniversityYork University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
- Coordinator of the Post-Communist Studies Program at York Centre for International and Security Studies (York UniversityYork UniversityYork University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
) - Senior Associate of the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of TorontoUniversity of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
Plekhanov has published widely on issues of post-communist transformations in Russia, Russian foreign policy, US-Russian relations, and American politics. A brief and selective list of his works:
- Co-editor, with Harvey Simmons: Is Fascism History? Selected papers presented at the conference held at York University 28-29 October 1999. Toronto: Centre for International and Security Studies, York University, 2001
- Co-author and co-editor, with John Logue and John Simmons: Transforming Russian Enterprises: From State Control to Worker Ownership. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995
- Co-author and co-editor, with John Logue and John Simmons: Preobrazovanie predprijatij. Amerikanskij opyt i rossijskaja dejstvitel'nost' ( "Enterprise Reform: The American Experience and the Russian Reality") - a revised and updated Russian edition of the above. Moskva, Veche-Persej, 1997)
- “Organized Crime, Business, and the Russian State”, in: Felia Allum, Renate Siebert (ed.). Organized Crime and the Challenge to Democracy. New York and London: Routledge, 2003
- “Civil-Military Relations in Post-Soviet Russia: Rebuilding the “Battle Order”?” (with David Betz), in: Natalie Mychajlyszyn, Harald von Riekhoff (ed.) The Evolution of Civil-Military Relations in East-Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003
- "NATO Enlargement As An Issue in Russian Politics", in: Jacques Levesque (ed.) The Future of NATO: Enlargement, Russia, and European Security. Toronto: McGill-Queens University Press, 1999
- "Soviet Perceptions of Long-Term Western Developments, Goals and Constraints", in: Klaus Gottstein (ed.) Mutual Perceptions of Long-Term Goals. Can the United States and the Soviet Union Cooperate Permanently? Campus Verlag - Westview Press, 1991
- “Political Consciousness of Right Radicalism”, in: Eduard Batalov and Yuri Zamoshkin (ed.). Political Consciousness in the USA: Traditions and Modernity. Revised and expanded edition. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1984