Architect amidst the Ruins (Russian: Архитектор у развалин, other versions: Архитектор развалин - 'The Architect of the Ruins', Архитектору развалины - 'To the Architect of the Ruins') was an open letter by Gennady Zyuganov, then a relatively little known party functionary (later leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation) to Alexander Yakovlev, the ideological founder of perestroika, who was also known as the "architect of perestroika". The letter was published in the hardline communist newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya on 7 May 1991. The letter argued that perestroika caused disintegration of the state, that democratization resulted in a "war of legislation", glasnost turned out to be a weapon in the psychological war against the Soviet people, and that a new alliance of obscuran