Svetlana Savranskaya is a Senior Research Fellow of the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and since 2001 the director of the Archive's Russia programs.

Thomas S. Blanton is Director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Vladislav Zubok is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. Among his publications are Anti-Americanism in Russia: From Stalin to Putin (with Eric Shiraev, Palgrave Press, 2000); Zhivago’s Children: The Last Russian Intelligentsia (Harvard University Press, 2009); The Idea of Russia. The Life and the Works of Dmitry Likhachev (I. B. Tauris, 2016).

“Figuring out why it happened so fast and so peacefully will occupy historians forever, and a new 700-page collection of documents will be essential to their understanding. Masterpieces of History: The Peaceful End of the Cold War in Europe, 1989 is a treasure trove of the most secret discussions by leaders of the Soviet Union and the West that year, and the first time they’ve all been pulled together. Publication of the 122 documents, and hundreds more online, is the climax of a 15-year effort by the National Security Archive, the contemporary-history research project at George Washington University.”

Preface and Acknowledgements Foreword by Anatoly S. Chernyaev Foreword by Jack F. Matlock, Jr. Acronyms Chronology of Events “The Logic of 1989: The Soviet Peaceful Withdrawal from Eastern Europe” by Svetlana Savranskaya “U.S. Policy and the Revolutions of 1989” by Thomas Blanton Dialogue: The Musgrove Conference, May 1-3, 1998 Document No. 1: Transcript of Mikhail Gorbachev’s Conference with CC CPSU Secretaries, March 15, 1985 Document No. 2: Diary of Anatoly Chernyaev regarding the “Vladimirov” Article, July 5, 1985 Document No. 3: Memorandum from Anatoly Chernyaev to Aleksandr Yakovlev on Germany and Eastern Europe, March 10, 1986 Document No. 4: Speech by Mikhail Gorbachev to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 28, 1986 Document No. 5: Notes of CC CPSU Politburo Session, June 13, 1986 Document No. 6: Memorandum from Mikhail Gorbachev to the CC CPSU Politburo on Topical Questions regarding Collaboration with Socialist Countries, June 26, 1986 Document No. 7: Notes of CC CPSU Politburo Session, July 3, 1986 Document No. 8: Transcript of CC CPSU Politburo Session, November 13, 1986 Document No. 9: Notes of CC CPSU Politburo Session, January 29, 1987 Document No. 10: Proposal from Georgy Shakhnazarov to the CPSU for a Partial Soviet Troop Withdrawal from the CSSR, March 1987 Document No. 11: Report on Mikhail Gorbachev’s Visit to Czechoslovakia, April 16, 1987 Document No. 12: Notes of CC CPSU Politburo Session, May 8, 1987 Document No. 13: Report on Mikhail Gorbachev’s Visit to Romania, June 4, 1987 Document No. 14: Report on Eduard Shevardnadze’s Visits to Bulgaria, Hungary, and Yugoslavia, July 9, 1987 Document No. 15: State Department Intelligence and Research Report: “Economic Reform in the USSR and Eastern Europe,” September 16, 1987 Document No. 16: Notes of CC CPSU Politburo Session, November 19, 1987 Document No. 17: Memorandum from Robert Gates, “Gorbachev’s Gameplan: The Long View,” November 24, 1987 Document No. 18: Telegram from Rozanne Ridgeway to All European Diplomatic Posts, “Eastern Europe: Invitation to the Dance,” December 1987 Document No. 19: Notes of CC CPSU Politburo Session, March 10, 1988 Document No. 20: Record of Conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and Lazar Moisov, March 14, 1988 Document No. 21: Notes of CC CPSU Politburo Session, March 24-25, 1988 Document No. 22: Record of the Main Content of Conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and Gustáv Husák, April 12, 1988 Document No. 23: Record of the Main Content of a Telephone Conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and János Kádár, May 19, 1988 Document No. 24: Comments from Georgy Shakhnazarov on Viktor Kulikov’s Report at the Warsaw Treaty PCC, May 25, 1988 Document No. 25: National Intelligence Estimate 11/12-9-88: “Soviet Policy toward Eastern Europe under Gorbachev,” May 1988 Document No. 26: Notes of CC CPSU Politburo Session, June 20, 1988 Document No. 27: Speech by Mikhail Gorbachev at a Dinner with Wojciech Jaruzelski, July 11, 1988 Document No. 28: Record of Conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and Józef Czyrek, September 23, 1988 Document No. 29: Preparatory Notes from Georgy Shakhnazarov for Mikhail Gorbachev for CC CPSU Politburo Meeting, October 6, 1988 Document No. 30: Diary of Anatoly Chernyaev regarding a Meeting between Mikhail Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl, October 28, 1988 Document No. 31: Notes of a Meeting between Mikhail Gorbachev and Foreign Policy Advisers, October 31, 1988 Document No. 32: Summary of Conversations between Károly Grósz, János Berecz, Miklós Németh, Mátyás Szurös and Aleksandr Yakovlev, November 10-11, 1988 Document No. 33: CIA Intelligence Assessment, “Gorbachev’s September Housecleaning: An Early Evaluation,” December 1988 Document No. 34: Diary of Anatoly Chernyaev on the Situation in the Baltics, December 10, 1988 Document No. 35: Transcript of CC CPSU Politburo Session, December 27-28, 1988 Document No. 36: Record of Conversation between Aleksandr Yakovlev and ....

“The National Security Archive … deserves the highest praise for its dedication to work and truth, and for overcoming numerous obstacles created by bureaucrats and other excessively cowardly and greedy custodians of the truth about the past.” (From the Foreword)

—Anatoly S. Chernyaev, adviser to Mikhail Gorbachev, author of My Six Years with Gorbachev