The Last Years Of The Soviet Union

Glasnost, also known as “openness”, was an ideal instituted by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. Gorbachev wanted for transparency in government actions in order to better inform the Soviet people. These actions looked to limit government censorship,

The many long-term internal causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union centralized around weaknesses in their economy. They had an inflexible central planning system, the inability to modernize, and the inefficiency in their agriculture production. Sometime around the 1970's the computer and automation revolution had emerged. This revolution took over the West, but practically missed the Soviet Union, except in the military sector (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) Gorbachev's goal in economic restructuring was to create a separation between the economic and the political. The major changes began with the legalization of private farming and business co-operatives, and the allowing of foreign company ownership over Soviet enterprises (Baylis &Smith, 2001) All of Gorbachev's ideas on economic restructuring backfired on him since the price levels were inconsistent, and a sense of social confusion about the future of their state was created.

This study will examine Gorbachev's understanding of the Glasnost policy and the role of Glasnost in Gorbachev's larger political reform program with the help of the Gorbachev Factor, by Archie Brown, and Gorbachev's Glasnost, by Joseph Gibbs.

Under Mikhail Gorbachev the Soviet Union underwent massive social, political and economic reform that drifted away from communist ideology and this ultimately lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union and failure of communism in Eastern Europe. This essay will focus on how the Perestroika reform and Glasnost policy programs as well as other external and internal pressures contributed to the failure of communism under Gorbachev. The aim of the Perestroika and Glasnost reforms was to restructure and strengthen the Soviet political and economic system and provide more freedom and democracy within the Soviet Union while strengthening Communism. However, these changes had achieved exactly what they aimed to prevent when they were first elaborated and led to the failure of communism and collapse of the Soviet Union. While focusing on the policies this essay will also focus on the major increase in nationalism that occurred in the Soviet Republics as a result of the Glasnost. External pressure from the western world was also a factor and the role that the United States and the Ronald Reagan administration played in the downfall of communism under Gorbachev will be examined. The essay will also discuss how the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the 1991 Coup d’état led to the failure of the policies and failure of communism.

Gorbachev's policy of Glasnost eliminated the strict censorship practiced for hundreds of years. Glasnost stands for openness, and Soviet citizens were now allowed to speak openly about their country's problems. Perestroika, or

His reforms were argued that they were not in the best interest for the Soviet Union. Gorbachev had barely skimmed the service of the ongoing issues with the economy. His intention was to improve the economic model of the USSR and not to try to turn it into a liberal government. His goals were to dismantle the Soviet Union appalling government and help the collapsing economy. It was not in his plan to destroy Russia. The citizens did not know how to respond to freedom. The country has been under Stalin’s totalitarian state for so long that they don’t know how else to act. People were scared because all they have ever known was to be watched and told what to do. Now the citizens have freedom to speak freely on what they think about the government and they don’t know how to do this. The reform had become more complicated than he anticipated as Gorbachev addressed in his speech. He was able to accomplish the elimination of a totalitarian system and pushed the Russian government into a better country. It did not happen overnight and it was hard work but the ultimate goal was to make peace with the surrounding nations, free the people, help the economy get back on their feet. Gorbachev’s reforms were a positive push in the right direction for the Russian government and people. It was his push and openness to change the way USSR felt about the West and the West to feel better about the USSR. It was his powerful leadership

Instead of increasing economic growth, Mikhail Gorbachev’s economic reform policies created the adverse effect, paving the road to economic crisis and series of events that would end with the Soviet Union dissolving. After attaining power in 1985, Gorbachev instituted, “perestroika, or “restructuring,” efforts to force the pace of growth combined with minor steps to redesign the administrative system” (Treisman, p. 16). The goal was to

Gorbachev’s efforts to transform the Soviet Union in the 1980’s started by him implementing policies that would bring about individual freedom, bureaucratic transparency. His efforts in order

Throughout the Cold War the Soviet Union went through numerous changes in leadership. Throughout the transformations one key element remained remarkably consistent as each successive leader promised drastic changes and reforms from the predecessor and his regime; however, from 1945 to 1985 the legacy of Stalin’s

In late 1991 the Soviet Union collapse and the result was the creation of 15 separate countries. The last leader of the Soviet Union was Mikhail Gorbachev whom came into power in 1985 and had plans for reform. One of the plans allowed market forces to dictate demand and decisions while still being controlled by the government. That plan was called perestroika. The other was called Glasnost and allowed the people to have freedom of speech. Mikhail believes that these plans would save the Soviet Union while it actually did the opposite. The Glasnost plan allows the people critique the government with the fear of punishment. Aggression from the west was also a factor in the fall of the Soviet Union. The countries from the west especially the US

In the midst of the Cold War which spanned from 1945-1991, Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev took power in 1985. The main goal of President Gorbachev was to revitalize the communist party, and in his attempts to do so, he aided in bringing the Soviet Union to its demise. President Gorbachev’s plan was to introduce four different programs to completely revitalize Russian government, and while almost all of his programs ended in failure, he successfully changed many of the ideas of the nation. President Gorbachev wanted to “adapt the communist system to new conditions rather than to usher in

Perestroika was an attempt to restructure the Soviet government and economy. In actuality, perestroika did little to revive the Soviet economy. In fact, it left stores in 1989-90 the emptiest they had been in 30 years (“Grinding down Gorbachev”). As perestroika failed, glasnost - intended to create openness and participation in favor of Gorbachev’s reforms – instead led to the public expressing their dissatisfaction with Gorbachev. Thus, Gorbachev’s reforms resulted in change he did not intend and undermined his power. During the annual May Day parade in 1990, Gorbachev was ridiculed by the crowd, which was then televised to the entire nation (Gaddis, 252). This was the first time a Soviet leader had been so publicly humiliated. But who could blame the Soviet people? For the first time, their closed off society was open and it shone a spotlight on the cracks in the Soviet system. The ugly history of Soviet failures and cover-ups, as well as the West’s higher standard of living, was now transparent and the Soviets could not help but feel betrayed by their government. At the same time, perestroika saw little success and the angry public rallied against Gorbachev. In addition to the aggrieved public opinion, Gorbachev’s political opponents were free to openly criticize and degrade

This attitude showed as Gorbachev rose through the ranks of the Politburo about 25 years younger than most of the other politicians. He was vibrant, young, personable and always smiling which resembled characteristics of a western politician. In light of this Gorbachev still believed he was the savior for the country and the communist system that he still believed in. According to Victor Sebestyen, “Mikhail Gorbachev was a communist through and through. He did not seem then like the man who would do more than anybody else to destroy communism”, signifying that Gorbachev was not distancing himself from the communist label that was bestowed upon the Soviet Union. Simply put, Gorbachev wanted to challenge the interpretation of communism as a system because he believed that the state of the Soviet Union did not reflect a true communist state in accordance with Marx, which would inturn have an affect on Soviet relations with the west.

Gorbachev thus decided to first implement a reform he called glasnost, political openness. This severely cut down on the repression within the Soviet Union, allowing Gorbachev new opportunities to implement his reforms across the nation (“Fall of the Soviet Union”, history.com).

The eventual demise of Communism in the USSR was a direct consequence of the Soviet Union’s failure to adapt to the changes occurring in the world during the 1920’s to the 1940’s. Unlike Communist China, the USSR failed to place economic growth ahead of political reform. In this regard, Russia was unsuccessful in establishing a national identity and in instituting a stable government through popular consent of its people. Moreover, Communist Russia failed to create a national identity, ignoring the multitude of ethnic minorities existing in the USSR. Arguably, the future stability of the two previously conventional Communist countries, will reflect their ability to develop a market economy, establish a stable government, and be recognized and involved on a global scale.