Anatoly Sergeevich Chernyaev (May 25, 1921 – March 12, 2017) was a Russian politician and writer, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR, who became foreign-policy advisor to General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986-1991.

In 1961, he joined the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, where he became a senior analyst.

In July 1941, after Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union, Chernyaev, barely 20, joined the Red Army as volunteer and was sent to the front.

His main focus was international communist movement, which gave him an opportunity to travel extensively in Europe and meet with many prominent leaders of the Eurocommunism.

Chernyaev was shocked by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and thought of retiring from the Central Committee, but decided to stay on hoping for a reform from within the system.

In 1972 he started writing an almost daily diary documenting the internal life and work of the highest Soviet political organs.

[7] In 1985 Chernyaev welcomed the accession of Mikhail Gorbachev as new General Secretary of the Politburo of the CC CPSU, the top Soviet leader.

[12] In 2004, Chernyaev donated his diaries from the Gorbachev period to the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which has published portions of them in English translation; according to the editor, "One can confidently say that every bold foreign policy initiative advanced by Gorbachev in the years 1985-1991 bears Chernyaev's mark on it.