BEHIND THE SCENES OF POWER

Aleksandr Alekseyevich Ivanov runs the Interfax-Azerbaijan news agency today. But he gained his present prestige in society long before he started working in the media.

Very few people of the Soviet-era generation in Azerbaijan do not know the man who commanded the security guards of the national leader Heydar Aliyev up to the moment he quit the government of the Soviet Union.

This is the first time Aleksandr Ivanov is sharing his reminiscences about the remarkable politician. Each talk about him is original in its own way and filled with new facts. There is still a lot to be said. Ahead of the national leader's 92nd birth anniversary, Aleksandr Alekse-yevich [Ivanov] has kindly agreed to answer questions of R+ about Heydar Aliyev's personal qualities, his attitude to people around him and many other things.

- One can spend hours on end speaking about Heydar Aliyev. There are lots of books and articles assessing his work in different positions, his contribution to the development of modern-day Azerbaijan, his speeches and decisions… But you can possibly tell us about the most important things - Heydar Aliyevich's [Aliyev] human qualities, about things that are left outside history books and political materials. Which traits of his personality you would describe as major ones of his character?

- Indeed, you can spend hours on end speaking about Heydar Aliyevich. However it is not up to me to judge about him as an economist, political figure and nation builder. There are quite a lot of competent people who have said a lot on this subject. I see my contribution to assessment of the personality of Heydar Aliyev in doing another thing, namely, in telling the people, especially the young generation, what an outstanding personality he was. I was lucky to see Heydar Aliyevich's life, what is called "behind the scenes" of power.

I think the most important thing about his character was that he hated lies and unprofessionalism in the activity of his subordinates, his entourage. Whenever he saw that someone could not succeed in doing something for some personal reasons, he would do everything possible to understand a person and his attitude to such people was much better than to those who tried to cover up their failures with lies and false indicators. It was always better to tell him the truth than conceal something. Heydar Aliyevich also highly appreciated devotion but to a cause rather than a person. And he was always aware of this when he would choose a person for a position and entrust them with some responsibility.

- You saw him in different periods of his life. His Moscow period, for example, was very uneasy. But he always had to work a lot, often during trips, sometimes in very stressful situations. How did he organize his workday?

- At this point, getting back to the issue of his "off-stage life", I must say that in view of his extreme business, even that "off-stage life" did not belong to him alone. Heydar Aliyevich always worked a lot. His efficiency was just amazing. We were all much younger at that time but we often caught ourselves thinking that we were getting tired while Heydar Aliyevich was always a powerhouse of energy. And that certainly made us feel proud of him: for his trimness, concentration and energy. At nine o'clock in the morning he was already at work when working in Baku and in Moscow. He worked on Saturdays, too, having one day-off per week, coming back home at one, two or three o'clock in the morning. He always watched "Vremya" news bulletins at work. Interestingly enough, during our work in the Kremlin which started in 1982, we learned about their tradition to have a nap after lunch. It was quite understandable because many staff members, including Council of Ministers Chairman Tikhonov, were aged people at that time. A couple of weeks after Heydar Aliyevich's arrival, their service personnel asked me in surprise why he was not sleeping. That question certainly amused Aliyev…

Heydar Aliyev's timetable was normally very busy with all kinds of meetings, events, frequent talks with guests and delegations and business trips. In addition, while working in Azerbaijan as first secretary [of the Communist Party of the Soviet Azerbaijan], Heydar Aliyevich would make lots of trips to districts, especially, during the sowing and harvesting campaigns for cotton, grains and grapes.

By the way, during the trips to the districts, Heydar Aliyev was frequently accompanied by Ilham Aliyev who would come on holidays. He was quite a young boy of 17 or 19 - just the time to enjoy the sea, the sun and fruit but he wanted to do some travelling with his father. Heydar Aliyevich did not provide him with any special conditions. Ilham Aliyev did not travel with his father in his ZIL car but in a KGB escort car. According to security rules, a window in that car was to be open and roads at that time were far from those we have today. So by the end of a trip, all the dirt and dust from the country roads would settle on the security car passengers. There were no air conditioners in conference rooms in those times and the meetings would last for many hours. In a word, all that was just very difficult.

- His work in Moscow was perhaps even more intensive as its scale was much larger…

- Being first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, Heydar Aliyevich supervised more than 20 ministries, committees and divisions of nationwide importance. And those were agencies of absolutely different specializations, such as, for instance, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Transport Construction and others. You know that now we have the Emergencies Ministry. In Soviet times, Aliyev in his post was a "manager for emergencies" as he was entrusted with the duty to lead government commissions when something happened somewhere. Heydar Aliyevich made an invaluable contribution to the construction of BAM [Baikal-Amur Mainline] which is now Russia's most important transport artery. None of high Communist Party executives had visited the BAM until Aliyev came to head the commission in charge of BAM construction. Heydar Aliyevich was aware that his arrival to get a first-hand idea of what had been done on the BAM construction site would help to get the work off the ground. The trip lasted more than 10 days and in hard conditions. For the first time ever, a conference of the Council of Ministers and the heads of all nearby regions and districts was held at some depth in Severomuysky tunnel. Having workwear - high boots and quilted jackets - they all went down knee-deep in ground water… This is the way his perseverance, will and professionalism helped to get the construction project off the ground.

- What helped him maintain efficiency? It is known that Heydar Aliyev was fond of sports. Is it true that he was doing his best to do sports every day?

- Yes, it is. We always waked him up using the intercom system. It was sometimes so uncomfortable and unpleasant to wake him early, especially when we had to wait for his reply for a long time. But Heydar Aliyevich would always pick up the receiver and say: "Good morning". While staying in his residence in Ganclik, he briskly walked for about 40 to 45 minutes. Then he would do special exercises supervised by a coach and then would go to an indoor swimming pool. While in Zugulba [resort] in summer, he used to walk down to the seaside and spent a long time, at least 50 minutes, swimming. Heydar Aliyevich was a very good swimmer. The same sports schedule was taken along to Moscow when we moved there on 7 December 1982. The temperature was below zero there but he went out for a walk the very next morning. That helped him keep in shape and energize himself for the whole day.

- His phenomenal memory has gone down into legend. Do you think it was a genetic predisposition or the result of his self improvement?

- It was both self improvement and his talents. Yet he never ranked his knowledge on a subject above that of experts in relevant domains and he would not hesitate to ask questions. For example, we were accompanied on a trip by Kaleriya Kislova, chief editor of the "Vremya" news bulletin. Having listened to his prepared material, she corrected a wrong accent made by Aliyev in some word. Heydar Aliyevich took the error into account and then repeated that word in his speech 15 times. By the way, his speeches were always prepared for him as main points and the rest was his own improvisation. Heydar Aliyev had a very good memory for names, dates and faces. Having seen someone only once and then encountering the person in some other place he would say: "How do you happen to be here, it seems you lived in Ucar…" At such moments, people would be amazed at his memory.

- For any politician, especially one of Heydar Aliyev's calibre, it is important to have a safe haven, that is a family. What did family mean to Heydar Aliyev?

- In that family, the people constantly took care of each other and observed traditions. However, because of his tight schedule, Aliyev could not give much of his time to children. Sundays were a time of relaxation for all of them when they had dinner and walked together. The relations between Heydar Aliyevich [Aliyev] and [his wife] Zarifa Azizovna were an example to follow for the young people of today. They loved and respected each other very much and always addressed each other in public by first name and patronymic. She took care of him, helped him and worried about him. It was our rule when we would arrive at any place to let her know the first thing that everything was all right. When we were staying in their country house, she would always ritually pour out water behind the departing car of Heydar Aliyevich. She was a very courageous woman. Once Zarifa Azizovna and I were aboard a plane on a special flight from Moscow. Immediately after the take-off, an emergency happened. The situation was very hard; we spent an hour circling over Moscow and seeing ambulances and fire engines gathering at the airport and the Vnukovo highway being blocked. We were bidding farewell to life - such thoughts were crossing my mind. But I did not hear a single complaint from Zarifa Azizovna and not a word of worry about herself. She only worried about Heydar Aliyevich and their children: what would become of them when they learned about it. Even when she was seriously ill, she never looked uncared-for when he was coming home: she was always well-dressed and always with a smile on her face. Of course, the death of Zarifa Azizovna had a strong impact on Heydar Aliyevich and their children. Those were hard days for all of us… 

- How did Heydar Aliyev treat his subordinates?

- I can tell you about myself as a case in point. In 1985, when Gorbachev became the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he together with his wife decided that all chief security guards should be replaced just for no reason. Later Heydar Aliyevich told me that he had been called by senior officers of the 9th Directorate of the KGB and told that Ivanov should be replaced. They did not explain why, just said that it was an order from above. Aliyev called General Viktor Chebrikov, the KGB chairman. Chebrikov replied that he did not know any reason behind that order and that he had already replaced his security chief. So Heydar Aliyevich had to settle my issue with Gorbachev. He said that he felt responsibility for me, that he had taken me away from my home and that he could not dismiss me without good reason. As a result, all of the 20-plus members of the Political Bureau replaced their security chiefs and I was the only one who stayed there…

Zarifa Azizovna also treated people very warmly and never imposed any social restrictions. She would never have dinner without making sure that all of us had had our meals.

- A politician is a person spending most of his time wearing a suit. Requirements to appearance were quite strict, especially in Soviet times. What was Heydar Aliyevich's attitude to his clothes and his appearance?

- One interesting experience is related to clothes. Once I saw light-coloured Finnish-made summer suits that had just appeared in Moscow. I showed them to Zarifa Azizovna and she suggested buying one for me so as to see Heydar Aliyevich's reaction. When I put the suit on, my then boss reprimanded me and said that Aliyev would not like it also. But I did not change my clothes. I thought that I was looking okay with a shirt, a tie and my pistol covered by the jacket… On that morning I had been in one district to check the current situation. At half past seven I arrived at the carriage. Heydar Aliyevich greeted everyone and got into the car. The moment the door was shut, he said: "What a hipster you are! Call Volodya (his tailor) and bring that suit of yours". Thus, this kind of suits of beige, greenish and bluish colours appeared in his wardrobe. Then everyone started dressing this way. And they were extremely useful during our trips to Angola, Korea, Mozambique and Vietnam.

- It is a difficult mission to provide security for such a big politician and official. It calls for attention, professionalism and concentration on a specific task. There are many moments related to your work in your memory but perhaps there were some funny occasions? As we know, Heydar Aliyevich appreciated a sense of humour and also liked joking.

- Note that he has a smile on his face in most of his pictures. You can rarely find a different photo. Heydar Aliyevich was very photogenic and, by the way, one occasion demonstrating his sense of humour and tact is connected with photography. It so happened that Aliyev had no artistic photo portrait. A well-known Soviet photographer, Eduard Pesov, asked me to talk Heydar Aliyev into coming to his photo studio to take his photo. We decided to go there on a day-off. Aliyev asked me not to let anyone know this, so that we could quickly and secretly go there and back. But it was absolutely impossible because security was organized very seriously in the Kremlin. One could not drive out in a car without notifying the duty officer. When Zarifa xanim died, Heydar Aliyevich would often go to Novodevichy Cemetery and asked to have no security guards there. But it is easy to secretly place a detail there. When we were going to the photo studio, I had also warned my fellows that it was a "cemetery-style" security operation so that they all kept out of sight. We were driving in a good mood. When we drove into the yard we saw a whole "parade": the first secretary of the district committee of the party, the KGB chief and the police chief. Still in the car, Aliyev gave me a talking to, saying that he had asked me to have nobody around. When Heydar Aliyevich came out of the studio, I was certainly alone. As we were driving back, I was feeling down and he certainly noticed that and told me that, well, you can do things when you want to. I replied that in that case all documents approved by the Political Bureau on providing security for government officials and guests in the USSR should be amended. He asked in a joking tone: "Well, if I go somewhere privately, although I will certainly not do so, but nonetheless, what would you be doing in that case?" I replied that I would be sitting on the fence. Thus he diffused the tension with a joke, although he could have left it as it was… This also speaks volumes about his character and his attitude to people.

- Thank you very much for your interesting interview.