The Revolutionary Change Of Eastern Europe

Mikhail Gorbachev has greatly contributed to the collapse of the USSR that has consequently leaded to the end of the cold war. He came to power in 1985 as the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and resigned in 1991 as the president of the Soviet Union ending the existence of USSR. During this time, Gorbachev’s actions such as the creation of “perestroika” and “glasnost” policy, the ending of the Afghanistan war, the agreement of reunification of Germany and finally the contribution to the Malta summit were very significant and brought the cold war to it’s end and USSR towards it’s collapse.

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.

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

The Soviet Union, which was once a world superpower in the 19th century saw itself in chaos going into the 20th century. These chaoses were marked by the new ideas brought in by the new leaders who had emerged eventually into power. Almost every aspect of the Soviet Union was crumbling at this period both politically and socially, as well as the economy. There were underlying reasons for the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and eventually Eastern Europe. The economy is the most significant aspect of every government. The soviet economy was highly centralized with a “command economy” (p.1. fsmitha.com), which had been broken down due to its complexity and centrally controlled with corruption involved in it. A strong government

Milestones: Gorbachev had many awards and accolades during his lifetime, but none were as great as becoming the General Secretary of the Politburo in 1985. Mikhail wouldn’t stop at just that, he felt that the country could be better, be greater than what it was at the current moment in time. Gorbachev realized that the Soviet Union's economy and country morale was seriously suffering from the excessive spending on nuclear weapons during the Cold War. During his time as General Secretary he had a strained relationship with American president Ronald Reagan.

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

The Soviet Union was none the less held together by "…powerful central institutions, pressure for ideological conformity, and the threat of force." (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) Therefore, these new reforms could not overpower the previous ‘seventy years' of soviet rule.

Under the badge of democratization, restructuring has now encompassed politics, the economy, spiritual life, and ideology.” Both Regan and Gorbachev struggled to get along with one another as well as agreeing on the development of a Strategic Defense Initiative. Reagan wanted this, while on the other side, Mikhail did not. When it came down to it Gorbachev ended up agreeing with Reagan in the year of 1987, making it the first ever mutual agreement on nuclear weapons reduction. With everything he was doing Mikhail ended up becoming the first president of the Soviet Union on March 15, 1990 with election coming from the Congress of People’s Duties. His leadership skills and his help he contributed to the overall betterment of the world were so good that he ended up winning a Nobel Peace Prize. In the year of 1991 Mikhail was captured in a coup by Prime Minister Pavlov whom he had hired to help him balance power with Yeltsin; all because he wanted more power. When he had returned home people didn’t trust him due to the fact that they thought he was working with the coup leaders. The Soviet Union in turn crumbled in the late year of 1991, making Gorbachev hand over his power to the Yeltsin and resign as

Thus it is not surprising that revolutions broke out and finished almost at the same time. The second was nationality factor, where during the WWI and WWII people of Eastern Europe had immigrated from one to another country leading the blurred national differences among them and this “common nation” sense helped them to resist altogether. During the Soviet period life expectancy immensely decreased, in contrast infant mortality increased, “They promised bread, but produced food shortages and rationing”.( Molloy P., pp.28-29) Ronald Reagan announced that Soviet system starves its own population; all these speeches were closely listened by Eastern Europeans because of mass media. Television and radio spread among the people of East Europe the desire to get free; they were able to connect the western channels and could compare the differences between two systems. They began to demand being part of western community rather than

Stalin’s aims in Eastern Europe epitomise Soviet aims because of the fact that his policies set the tone for Soviet policy toward Eastern Europe and his policies were still influencing Soviet Society when Gorbachev came to power. His alienation of Eastern Europe from the West was both ideological and practical in nature. Stalin wished to undermine Slavic western sentiments and construct and autarkic socialist regime governed from Moscow. The shift in the traditional site of socialist power away from Germany was accompanied by a manipulation of the theoretical

“Should we talk about this as a revolution?” (Ash. p. 113). This question became an common discussion of topic throughout the entire essence of the fall of Communism within the countries of Eastern Europe. Though there were many small and large countries that saw Communism fall in the later 1980s, journalist Timothy Ash informs of four specific revolutions that occurred in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague. Two specific ones that modern historians often recall are the revolutions that occurred in Berlin and Prague in 1989. These two revolutions have not only made lasting impressions upon the current economic and political status of within these countries, but they have also shaped the way that historians think today about the aspects of

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).

Mikhail Gorbachev has gained adequate fame because he was the last and the first founding president of the USSR republic. As a leader, he acted in a new era of history without the need for past theoretical support. As the first president of USSR, Gorbachev transformed the Soviet Union from socialism to another political regime. He transitioned the economy of USSR from a planned centralized economic system towards a free market economy leading to increased competitive trade. In the history of the Soviet Union, no political leader had dealt with such turmoil. The country was headed towards an uncertain future. Studies indicate that Gorbachev was essential in both domestic and global affairs (Gorbachev, 19b).

When Mikhail Gorbachev took the helm of the Soviet Union in March of 1985, he began the process of introducing reforms such as glasnost, perestroika, and democratization into the Soviet system. Glasnost, or openness, encouraged the free flow of ideas and information, but this flow came at the price of many people losing their fear of the Communist party. Perestroika, or economic restructuring, was designed to jumpstart the sagging Soviet economy by injecting a small amount of capitalism into the Soviet command economy; however, that small drop only served to destabilize the economy and create more stagnation. Finally, democratization pushed the U.S.S.R. in a more democratic direction by allowing for multi-candidate elections, but this

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.