SPOKES IN THE WHEEL 347Boldin proved strangely lethargic in facilitating international commu-
nication. The result was that Soviet delegations sometimes had to
conduct talks without having received the usual guidelines.^49 Probably
Boldin was being deliberately unhelpful out of dislike for the conces-
sions being made to the Americans. Gorbachëv also failed to reform
the Party Defence Department. Its head, Oleg Belyakov, was regularly
obstructive to Zaikov.^50 Belyakov had a protector in Oleg Baklanov,
who was the Central Committee secretary with responsibility for
military industry. Baklanov, with his courteous manners and the slight
Ukrainian burr in his accent, treated his staff with consideration; he
was well known for an aversion to drinking parties.^51 He applied a
personal sternness to the projects of disarmament. Gorbachëv remon-
strated with him at the Politburo on 3 March 1988: ‘And you, what
kind of money are you gobbling up? Level one of your rocket: how
much does it cost? You only need to spit into outer space and it costs
billions . . .’ Baklanov refused to give way. The days were gone when a
subordinate had to hold his tongue.^52
Grumbles about Gorbachëv’s foreign policy were heard at a
Central Committee plenum in May 1988 when Kornienko urged
the desirability of reverting to the objective of strategic parity.^53 He
was obviously attacking Gorbachëv’s idea that ‘sufficiency’ should be
the goal. As Deputy Head of the Party International Department he
was showing unprecedented truculence. Shevardnadze was angry at the
speech, and it took Yakovlev to restrain him from rebutting Kornienko
on the spot.^54 This proved wise. No one supported Kornienko and the
commotion faded. Shevardnadze tried to raise the pace of change. At
the Politburo on 20 June he demanded a reduction in military budget
in favour of projects devoted to ‘the well-being of the peoples’. Gor-
bachëv ignored him on this occasion even though he agreed with the
case that he was making.^55 Shevardnadze was rampant. He told an
open colloquium at his ministry in July that the confrontation of com-
munism and capitalism was no longer the vector of global politics.
Ligachëv disliked what he heard. Ambassador Matlock was also pres-
ent – itself a sign of changed times – and declared his delight, pausing
only to ask whether he had understood Shevardnadze correctly to the
effect that America and the USSR should become partners rather than
enemies.^56
On 30 September Gorbachëv made further progress by easing
Gromyko out of the Politburo. It was over a year since ‘Gloomy Grom’
had produced a paper criticizing recent changes in the philosophy of