MOSCOW, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Russian ideologist Alexander Yakovlev, the father of perestroika and glasnost, has died following a lengthy illness at age 81.
Rossiya television announced Yakovlev's death Tuesday but did not provide details on the cause of death.
Yakovlev, a doctor of history, had been a member of the Communist Party since the 1940s and in 1987 joined the Politburo where he was among the political reformers in the Soviet leadership and was among former President Mikhail Gorbachev's top advisers.
Conservatives managed to oust him from the Politburo in 1981, two days before the August coup that pushed Gorbachev from power.
Yakolev served as Russia's ambassador to Canada from 1972 to 1983 and from 1983 to 1985 he headed the Russian Institute of World Economics and International relations.
