Perestroyka and the Further Refinement of the Decision-Making Mechanism
When Mikhail Gorbachev ascended to occupy the chair of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1985, the decision-making mechanism in the field of arms control became a subject of radical improvements. These improvements concerned both the personalities involved in arms control activities and the role and weight assumed by the various agencies in the process.
After Dmitri Ustinov became Minister of Defense of the CPSU, the Central Committeeapparat was excluded from arms control decision-making. This situation remained unchanged until Lev Zaykov was nominated as the Secretary on Defense Issues of the Central Committee. From that moment on, all the papers of the Big Five were signed (or "introduced" to the Central Committee) by Edvard Shevardnadze, Viktor Chebrikov, Sergey Sokolov, Lev Zaykov, and the new VPK Chairman Yuriy D. Maslyukov. Starting in October 1986, the name of Lev Zaykov became the most prominent on this list for arms control purposes.
In the Central Committeeapparat, the Department of International Relations was invited into the decision-making process to parallel the Defense Industries Department, along with Anatoliy Dobrynin, the new Chief of this department and
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