Gorbachev : The Soviet Revolution

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.

Blaming Gorbachev for the Collapse of the Soviet Union On December 5 1991 the Soviet Union was declared officially non-existent, radically changing the world’s economic and political environment. On the 10 February 1991 Heydar Aliyev spoke in Parliament warning of his anticipation that the Soviet Union was to collapse, “The Culprit to be blamed is Gorbachev”. There is no doubt Gorbachev played a prominent role in the fall of communism in the USSR and the collapse of the USSR itself, as well as acquiring the responsibility for ending the Cold War, a major post-war tension. What I will endeavour to conclude in this essay is the extent to which Gorbachev was responsible for the USSR’s downfall

When Mikhail Gorbachev became Secretary of the Communist Party, he had to deal with an ailing and frail Soviet Union. The country had entered a state of serious economic decline and the Soviet people, discontent with their political party, looked to Gorbachev to solve their problems. Spurred by patriotic duty, Gorbachev introduced democratic reforms known as perestroika and glasnost. These sought to free businesses and Soviet peoples from harsh government regulation and censorship, respectively. While Gorbachev believed these policies would strengthen the Soviet government, this was not the case. Perestroika did not do anything to

Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of a government that was set up to make reform impossible and a stagnant economy. Due to these two hurtles Gorbachev tried to improve the Soviet Union. But his improvements would only make the Soviet Union’s problems worse. He did this by introducing two knew polices. These polices were called Glasnost and Perestroika. Glasnost was a policy put into effect for political openness. Through Glasnost Gorbachev hoped to eliminate Stalinist repressions, such as banning books and the secret police. It gave new freedoms to the Soviet citizens. Through the Glasnost policy political prisoners were released. The Soviet Union newspapers were now allowed to print criticisms of the government, something had not been allowed under communism. Probably the most important change brought on by Glasnost was that other political parties, besides the communist party were now able to participate in

Prior to his rise to power, Joseph Stalin’s early life had a large impact on his future as a leader of the Soviet Union. Stalin was born into a dysfunctional family in Gori, Georgia on December 21, 1879 (Joseph Stalin pbs.org). His real name however, was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. Then changed his last name to Stalin because he combined the Russian word stal, which means steel, and Lenin, the name of the Soviet Union leader at the time (jewishvituallibrary.org). In keeping with his strong name, Stalin contracted and even survived smallpox at a young age, but with the only remaining evidence being a facial scar from where the smallpox where it had formed at. Stalin was sent to a seminary in Tiflis, now known as Tbilisi, to become a priest. However, Stalin never completed his education and soon became involved in the city’s active revolutionary circle ,

Nikita Khrushchev also referred to as Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was a significant historical leader in history, especially in the cold war. He had a great impact during the cold war because he did many so much improvements and progress for the Soviet Union nation. Nikita Khrushchev job during the cold war, was he led the Soviet Union, he aided the Soviets also known as the U.S.S.R. Also, he served as a premier. Khrushchev was born in a small Russian village named kalinovka on the day April 15, 1984. He worked as a pipefitter, this was before he went into politics as he was a young man. He first worked with the communist party around 1918, and then eventually became better and took over as the leader of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev would like to reduce the violent from producing nuclear arms. He likes to transform the Soviet to be stronger again. During that time, the Soviet almost collapse. He would like to do agreements with the United State and try to meet than have the world.

During the Cold War Ronald Reagan made a speech said in 1982 about the Soviet Union, saying, “We're approaching the end of a bloody century plagued by a terrible political invention, totalitarianism”, this meant that the Soviet Union used a political invention that takes control of public life (Ronald Reagan). At first, Ronald Reagan thought that the Soviet Union desired war, but when he talked to Sir Winston Churchill, Churchill said, “I do not believe that Soviet Russia desires war. What they desire is the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines, but what we have to consider here today while time remains is the permanent prevention of war and the establishment of conditions of freedom and democracy as rapidly as possible in all countries", this meant that the Soviet Union wanted to control the world and spread communism all around the world (Ronald Reagan, Sir Winston Churchill). Also, Reagan’s strategy was to do military build up then reduce Russia’s nuclear weapons (We The People.org). When Ronald Reagan met Gorbachev in a meeting, the first thing they did to stop the Cold War is by signing the INF treaty which reduced 50% nuclear weapons in Russia, but all of nuclear weapons in America were to be wiped out (Atomic Archive.com). In their other meeting in Reykjavik Summit in the Hofdi House, Reagan and Gorbachev talked about human rights until Reagan asked Gorbachev for his SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative), Gorbachev refused to give his SDI because of his fear of imbalance power (The Reagan Vision). This is how Gorbachev and Reagan reduced Cold War tensions to the point where communism and the Cold War was falling

The Rise of Leonid Brezhnev saw a return to “Stalin” type leadership within the Soviet Union, many of the social reforms that

The economy could not keep pace with the United States. The standard of living for Soviet citizens were steadily declining since the 1970s (Miller 2016, 17). The military was embroiled in the Afghanistan conflict which was producing massive causalities for the Soviet public and consuming scarce resources for its military that was needed for domestic consumption (Gaddis 2007). Secondly, the Soviet Union was plagued by appointing leaders who had fought in World War II, but with Gorbachev, they appointed a younger generation to take the mantle of leadership of the Soviet Union (Gaddis 2007). Gorbachev announce his economic restructure, Perestroika, and openness of the government, glasnost. Perestroika started the process of introducing market based principles into the operation of the state (Miller 2016, xii). State industries were allowed to determine output based on the will of the consumers as along as the orders from state bureau were fulfilled. Individuals would have the ability to own small-scale businesses and the property rights of those businesses would be respected (Miller 2016, 89). It also introduced competition in terms of foreign trade by allowing each ministry to pursue policies in their direct control when dealing with foreign companies and nations (Miller 2016, 71). The last major element of this would be allowing foreign investment by coupling Soviet resources such as

Khrushchev was born on April, 15, 1894 in Kalinovka, a small town near the Ukraine border. He joined the communist Bolsheviks in 1918, which was more than a year after they seized power in the Russian Revolution. During the Russian Civil War, his first wife died of typhus, leaving him with 2 children. He remarried and had four more kids.

In WWII the US fought alongside Russia. Russia, however, was communist ever since the Russian Revolution in 1917. The Russian Revolution also brought to the surface USSR (United Soviet Socialist Republics). The USSR was the only real controlling party of Russia from 1917-99. Because of the anti-communist tension of the US, the US did not recognize the legitimacy of the USSR until 1934. So even though the US fought alongside USSR in WWII, there was always a sort of mistrust.

It also emerged from the war as a world superpower along with the United States. In turn the Soviet Union began taking an active role in the United Nations as well as in other major international and regional organizations. Since Stalin did not name an heir, a factional power struggle broke out within the party upon his death in 1953. Nikita Khrushchev emerged as first secretary. By the beginning of 1956, Khrushchev was the most important figure within the Soviet leadership. Khrushchev denounced Stalin and launched a campaign to ease the repressive controls over the Soviet party and society, but Khrushchev faced significant opposition in the Presidium which threatened much needed economic reform. One of his great achievements was the release of Stalin political prisoners held within the Gulags. Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary in 1985 with high hopes of fixing the crumbling Soviet political and economic structure. , Gorbachev implemented the perestroika program to improve living standards and worker productivity and glasnost, which freed public access to information after decades of government regulations. This reinvigorated détente allowed Gorbachev to develop a strong relationship with President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) of the United States. Gorbachev attempted to restructure the Soviet system into a less centralized state. On December 8, 1991,

In the late 1980’s, the Soviet Union had a struggling economy. Gorbachev did attempt reforms as he felt the government losing legitimacy with the people and even the party as people lost confidence in the communism. Two reforms are glasnost (the openness of public debate) and perestroika (institution reforms). However, they went snowballed, moving faster and expanding more than planned as people used these reforms to weaken communist control.

By the late years of the 20th century it became clear that the Cold War had ended with the eventual disbandment and collapse of the Soviet Union. This was commonly attributed to several different factors. During the Reagan Administration, it became clear that the Soviet Union could no longer sustain a full scale cold war. Economic troubles within the country as well as the waste of resources on conflict in areas such as Afghanistan ran the Soviet Union dry of expendable resources. There were also many humanitarian issues that had to be dealt with in the USSR. Mikhail Gorbachev cut further into an already dwindling defense budget in favor of social programs to help the people of his country. The relations between the USSR and the US in the mid