Mikhail Gorbachev Decade

The competition and increasing awareness on democratic rights did force the Soviets to stand back and make some major policy changes in 1980s. The Soviet Premier of the time Gorbachev tried to set some political and social reforms in the soviet society in order to ease the pressure and help Soviets to continue to survive in the international arena. Moreover, the Soviets did not only make shifts in their internal policies but also in their foreign policy understanding as well. For instance withdrawal from Afghanistan, signing of various nuclear deterrence agreements with multi parties including the US are some of the key changes that occurred in the 1980s. However, the reforms of Gorbachev did not prevent the Soviets to stop its collapse and eventually after a series of events in 1991 the Soviet Union formally announced its dissolution[7].

The December of 1991 marked the end of the Soviet Union—and with it, an entire era. Like the February Revolution of 1917 that ended tsardom, the events leading up to August 1991 took place in rapid succession, with both spontaneity and, to some degree, retrospective inevitability. To understand the demise of Soviet Union is to understand the communist party-state system itself. Although the particular happenings of the Gorbachev years undoubtedly accelerated its ruin, there existed fundamental flaws within the Soviet system that would be had been proven ultimately fatal. The USSR became a past chapter of history because it was impossible to significantly reform the administrative

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

In order for Reagan to succeed, [Reagan] used patience and negotiation to end the Cold War. During Reagan's presidency four USSR leaders attempted to negotiate with Reagan (“Children’s”). Reagan increased pressure on the arms race and waited until a deal could be settled that did not compromise the American people. After forty years the Iron Curtain fell, and the new deal settled the “superpowers first agreement to reduce nuclear weapons” (“Children’s”). The fall of the USSR was significant because it liberated millions of people living the impoverished lifestyle of communism. While modern-day Russia does not have a perfect government the end of the Cold War significantly made the world closer to ending

Mikhail Gorbachev is a foreign leader who worked with Reagan and also wanted to eliminate communism. If the Soviet Union collapsed, then all influences of communism would stop, which is what Reagan and Gorbachev wanted (Marsico, 84). The nation as a whole agreed that they did not want communism to spread beyond the borders of East Germany and seep into their culture. During the span of 1985-1988 five meetings between the Americans and the Communists negotiated issues of diplomacy. By the early 1980’s the Soviets had built up weaponry which was almost comparable to America’s weaponry, but as the decade went on the Soviets were unable to keep up (Marsico, 84). This inferiority pleased the American people. By 1991 the cold war had concluded. on June 12, 1987, Reagan asked Gorbachev helped to eliminate the oppressive influence that communism had outside of the soviet union (Marsico 85-86). He wanted to stop the influences so that communism would not spread any further than it already had. Standing beside the berlin wall, which separated East and West Germany, Reagan gave a speech which reminded every one of the differences between the two sides. General Secretary Gorbachev” Reagan challenged him, “if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the soviet union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate, Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!”

One of Reagan’s main concerns was the Soviet Union. Reagan stated, “The march of freedom and democracy...will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history ...”12 All through his term he worked to collapse the Union, to end the Cold War, and to tear down the Berlin Wall. Margaret Thatcher commented that “Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot”.10 Reagan set up the collapse of the Soviet Union in a couple of ways. First, he put more funds into the U.S. military, forcing the Soviets to do the same.11 second, he was confident that the U.S.S.R was crumbling and failing even when those around him believed that Communism was strong. Third, he was not intimidated by the Soviets and, while he respectfully met and listened to Gorbachev, he was not wavering and was determined. Even though many factors contributed to the fall of Communism, Reagan sped the process up and the Union officially fell apart in

Very recently, your newspaper held a poll nominating which US president to be the fifth face on the famous Mount Rushmore. The top choice was Reagan, along with others, including Lyndon B. Johnson and Andrew Jackson. I believe that Reagan does certainly deserve the honor- as a US president, Ronald Reagan changed the country, taking it out of its post-Carter economic and political gloom, won the Cold War without a bloody confrontation, and created more reforms for the economy, with an impressive increase in productivity and employment. He was the most successful president of the twentieth century.

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 paved the way to the end of the cold war. They accomplished this by

These beliefs tie into the ideas that changes to the Soviet Union were well under way prior to Reagan’s arrival to Washington D.C. Many also suggest that Reagan’s policies were limited only to the United States claim to victory in the Cold War and that they had no impact on the people of Eastern Europe. In addition, they also declare that Gorbachev’s policies were in favor of the people that were first handedly affected by the problems of communism and that Reagan’s actions were obsolete. Robert J. Allison, an involved writer that agrees with the belief that Reagan had little to do with the end of communism and that he and his administration should not be given full credit for the demise of communism, holds a strong, compelling opinion on how Mikhail Gorbachev deserves the credit for leading the people of Eastern Europe to freedom. Allison explains in his article “End of Cold War: Did Ronald Reagan Win the Cold War?” (History in Dispute 2000) that “What led the United States to victory is more accurately a

In the year 1981, the American, anti-communist Ronald Reagan became president of the United States (Doc 70, pg.426). During the first term of his presidency, Reagan expressed a great sense of danger and threat that was deeply embedded in his general convictions regarding the nature of communism, particularly, in the Soviet Union (Renshon and Larson, pg.15). However, Reagan eventually began to express alternative views in his second term of presidency. He significantly altered his perception of the Soviet threat and accepted the idea of possibly working together with the Soviet Union towards achieving peace (Doc 70, pg.427). This transformation is reflected though Reagan’s initial hatred towards the USSR, to his cooperation with Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit, their great attempts to negotiate at the Reykjavik Summit and finally their signing of the INF treaty. Ronald Reagan transformed from an essentialist who viewed the Soviet Union as “evil” and ruled by an ideology seeking world communism and absolute power, to an interactionist who viewed the tension between the United States and the Soviet Union in terms of mutual misinterpretation (Renshon and Larson, pg. 20). This change ultimately caused Soviet-American relations to significantly strengthen throughout the 1980’s as U.S President Reagan cooperatively worked together with USSR General Gorbachev, a leader who shared in the same goal of achieving a peaceful, non-nuclear world.

‘The Regan Reversal’ by Beth Fisher is one of the most intriguing political science works on the events leading to the end of the Cold War. In her book, ‘The Regan Reversal’, Fisher analyzes the shift from Regan’s hardline approach towards the Soviet Union to a call for dialogue and cooperation. Reagan looked, acted, and talked like an anticommunist, but in 1984, his stance marked a new period for United States and Soviet Union’s relationtions. Fisher’s work sheds a light on this period of transition and dialogue between Ronald Regan and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Speaking of Reagan’s policies of yesteryear, one of Reagan’s primary goals as president was to tear down the “Evil Empire.” In 1985, Reagan met with Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth leader of the Soviet Union in Geneva to initiate talks about bringing the two countries together. As soon as Reagan came to know Gorbachev a bit more, he realized that he was different from other Soviet leaders: he was charming and humorous (Noonan, 288). The two were not tense like with other presidents and Soviet leaders, they were able to talk earnestly. After many meetings, the two then eventually almost agreed to disarm all ballistic missiles in ten years. However, there was one caveat that Gorbachev said at the very end, “This all depends of course on you

In 1985, a new leader by the name of Mikhail Gorbachev came to the political forefront of the Soviet Union.  Reagan saw this as his final opportunity to completely destroy the threat of communism once and for all.  Reagan and Gorbachev met

Even as Reagan clashed Marxism in Central America but, the USSR was crumbling. In reaction to severe economic difficulties and rising political uproar in the Russia, the Premier ‘Mikhail Gorbachev’ took office in 1985 and then announced two strategies that redefined Russian’s association to the rest of the realm: ‘glasnost’ or political honesty, and ‘restructuring’ or economic development. Soviet impact in Eastern Europe diminished. In 1989 every former communist government in the county swapped its government with a non-communist any. In November of that year the “Berlin Wall” the utmost evident sign of the decades long Cold War was to end with demolished, just done two years after Reagan had defied the Russian premier in an address at Brandenburg