Mikhail Gorbachev´s Glasnost and Perestroika Policies Contribution to the Collapse of the USSR

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

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.

Gorbachev told the Central Committee who elected him that when the people are elected, “the more consciencely they act, the more actively they support the party” (Steven White). With the knowledge of the past- information to define the good and the bad actions of the Soviet Union he believed the people would make a concerted effort in restructuring the economy and participating in reforming their country. Many a critic

The collapse of the communist Soviet Union ultimately led to the end of the cold war. The dissolution of the USSR in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. Thus highlighting the inferiority of communism and the superiority of western capitalism. The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, however, was a result of both domestic and international factors including policies established by both the US and the Soviet leaders, most importantly Gorbachev’s ‘New Thinking’ reforms combined with the hard-line approach of Ronald Reagan. It has also been argued that the collapse of communism in eastern Europe was inevitable due to its moral bankruptcy, as well as the growing economic pressures which ultimately forced the Soviet Union to

Another repercussion of the Soviet Union’s collapse was the failure of the economies of almost every new post-Soviet country. Most of the economies of the new Republics were left in shambles after the collapse. In Russia, people were not ready for the new economic freedom that resulted from the fall of Communism. Their unpreparedness led to inflation. “Inflation caused prices to go up three hundred percent in the first month, and 2,591 percent by the end of 1992.”( Russian Economy in the Aftermath of the Collapse of the Soviet Union) Just three years after the Soviet Union’s fall, Russia’s inflation rate had skyrocketed to 2591 percent, evidencing that Russians were not prepared for such a rapid evolution, going from a communist economy into a capitalist economy. All post-Soviet countries had the same economic fate as Russia, plunging into worse economic conditions than the United States suffered during its Great Depression. For example, in 1992, the Ukraine had almost a fifteen percent drop in its gross domestic production and Latvia suffered a 33 percent drop. (GDP growth) Many of these countries’ economies are still suffering as a result of the rapid evolution

Former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev presided over the disintegration of a country based on an uncompromising ideological dogma, the unlikely inheritor of Marxist/Leninist communist philosophy. The Soviet Union’s unwieldy economic superstructure left it vulnerable to Ronald Reagan’s aggressive economic/military policy, an approach based on the belief that a military build-up would force the Soviets to spend to keep pace, an effective strategy because it pushed the Soviet economy over the edge into ruin. The subsequent implosion ended communist domination in Eastern Europe and opened the way for democratic elements that radically altered the political landscape in Moscow. When the Soviet Union officially came to an end in 1993, it briefly recalled the end of tsarist rule in 1917, with the potential for the kind of chaos and violence that turned the Russian Revolution into a bloodbath. President Boris Yeltsin used the military to disband parliament but his call for new elections moved the country toward a more open, democratic form of government. Lacking any real background in representative government, Russia ultimately proved incapable of fulfilling the promise of democratic government and descended into a form of anarchy riddled by increasingly strong criminal elements. In recent years, the rise of Boris Putin, a new strongman in Moscow, helped restore a sense of order and allowed the resurgence of communist elements. The government that now holds power, and which

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

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

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.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who came from a longtime Communist party assumed office in March 1985. Once Gorbachev was in office, he introduced two new set of policies that he hoped would help the USSR become a more productive and prosperous nation. One of these new set of policies was known as, Glasnost, which also meant political openness. Glasnost eliminated traces of Stalinist repression, like the banning of books and the omnipresent secret police, and gave new freedoms to Soviet citizens. These freedoms included, political prisoners were released. newspapers could print criticisms of the government, and for the first time, parties other than the Communist Party could participate in elections. However, Glasnost would ultimately fail, because the public viewed it as a way for its leaders to cover up revealing past and recent atrocities, missteps by leadership, social and health failures of the USSR and the true extent of national economic problems.

This is a photo of Gorbachev giving a speech. Mikhail Gorbachev became Secretary General of the Soviet Union in 1985, until he resigned in 1991. Gorbachev was much younger than the previous leaders of the Soviet Union and had many ideas for reforms. After entering office, Gorbachev began to implement a wide range of reforms. He sought to correct many problems in the Soviet Union, including economic problems, the issues and history of harsh punishments against dissidents, and unrest among the different groups that made up the Soviet Union. Gorbachev began to encourage a culture of openness and honesty between the government and the Soviet people. This policy was known as "glasnost". Gorbachev also instituted a reform of restructuring the

On March 11, 1990 through December 25, 1991, an event happened that the world had been trying to cause for decades: the fall of the Soviet Union. Major steps had been taken the decade prior by Ronald Reagan that improved the US’s relationship with the USSR, even despite their frosty beginnings; after all, at the beginning of his presidency, Reagan called Konstantin Chernenko’s Soviet Union an ‘evil empire’ (Talbott 1). However, when George H.W Bush took office, he began by reevaluating his strategic policy to form his own plan, not by simply following Reagan’s policies from his time in office. The decade before, Gorbachev had loosened the reigns of Communism , so much so that it was being overthrown all across Eastern Europe, most notably with

How Perestroika/Glasnost Helped the Dissolution of the Soviet Union Perestroika and glasnost played an important part in shaping today’s Russia by its role in the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. Perestroika was the reconstruction of the Communist party and the economy, which Mikhail Gorbachev thought would fix the economic mess he came into. Perestroika also loosened government control over individual enterprises and businesses. Gorbachev also introduced glasnost which released government information and allowed more people to openly give their opinion about the Soviet government. In the book Russia’s

Because of the ideology of communism in governing the Soviet Union, its citizens were governed in a dictatorial manner. Citizens were not allowed to travel freely; they were also heavily spied on. The new generation and the links that the Soviet Union was making across the world led to demand for reforms in government. Therefore, the question that remains unanswered is, why did Gorbachev institute and implement policies for reforms. He first reformed the Soviet Union through individual freedom, transparency in bureaucracies as well as stimulating economic growth by implementing glasnost and Sinatra doctrine (Sakwa 10). The Sinatra Doctrine was aimed at allowing eastern countries to be autonomous and govern themselves. Gorbachev implemented this policy so as to allow the countries that were controlled by the Soviet Union to be independent. According to him, soviet countries gaining independence will be able govern themselves effectively and develop economically. The implementations of the Glasnost by Gorbachev were aimed at making soviet be in line modern and industrialized countries as well as making it freer. Glasnost advocated heavily on freedom of speech that soviet people were denied in the past. The Glasnost policy has been viewed to be the reason for the downfall of Soviet Union because Soviet Union citizens became more outspoken on government failures (Sakwa 12).

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.