Why Did Mikhail Gorbachev Reform The Soviet Union?

One can easily admit that the Party had failed to properly economically plan the needs of each state. The Soviet Union economy was complex and massive, it became an impossible task for the state planners to manage, as they did not want to grant and create more managerial levels that would proceed to the local level resulting in failed timely attempts to the constant changes the economy was going through. Since the Soviet economy was based on state planning, it failed in encouraging innovation and motivating productivity. Managers would also alter numbers in order to produce the quotas that they were required to meet. The growth of the Soviet economy had been in a constant decline since the 1950’s and this progressed to the 1980’s. This was a clear sign that the Soviet economy was in need of a complete economic overhaul. Gorbachev succeeded power in March, 1985 and became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. His main goal was to revive the Soviet economy, and he strongly believed that success was tied to loosening the governments control and creating a system that included less government intervention and more freedom to allow private initiatives. This new market economy would allow for private enterprise, which what Gorbachev believed would create more innovation. For the first time since 1920’s, individuals were able to own and create businesses.

However, it is true that Gorbachev did not fully comprehend the significance nor foresee the ultimate effect of his reforms. An evolutionary leader who saw the pressing flaws of the old system, he genuinely believed in and pushed for a workable model of socialism based on the Soviet experience and within the existed framework of the party-state. As the reforms went further and deeper, however, the

Although he seemed to be steering the Soviet Union in the right direction, his people and colleagues still viewed him critically. He had begun to realize that a state could not be run with a lot of "brain-washed helots". He shifted the economy as to raise the standard of living. This in turn began the development of individual thinkers, Soviets with a mind of their own. In order to allow this new wave

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

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

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

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.

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

Looking to restructure their communist economy to an economy with capitalist principles, the policy proposed reducing the direct involvement of the Communist Party in the country’s governance as well. However, marginal increases in the production of consumer goods and a failure to significantly improve standards of living fueled dissent. Furthermore, the underwhelming performance of this transitional system facilitated blowback by conservatives who wanted the communist model to return as well as the liberals who wanted to move even further from communism models. In the end, such unpopularity debilitated both Gorbachev and the USSR as a whole, paving the way for the collapse of Gorbachev’s administration and the USSR, a failed coup, and ultimately Boris Yeltsin’s rise to

By the time of the 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev take over control of Soviet Union. He was the Soviet Union’s last leader. “ This split the scientific community up into factions and promoted conflict. It permitted him to intervene and take sides whenever deemed necessary” (Martin McCauley. The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union). The country was in a state of serious inactivity, with severe economic and political dispute, which were required to be fix and conquered. Knowing this deep in mind, Gorbachev initiated a policy of reform. First ,he proposed a policy of freedom of speech. Next, he started a plan of economic reform known as perestroika, rebuilding. However, Gorbachev did not noticed that by offering people complete freedom of speech, he was unintentionally released emotions and political feelings that had been hold up for decades. Also, it seemed to be exceedingly powerful when brought out into the open. Moreover, his policy of economic reform did not have the obvious results he had anticipated for and had publicly conjectured. The Soviet people eventually utilized their recently granted freedom of speech to criticize Gorbachev for his deficiency to boost the economy.

Mikhail Gorbachev had served as the general secretary for the Communist Party. When he gained power over the country, Gorbachev found out there was a lot more kept from him while in office than what he knew of such as the Afghanistan war was expensive and was becoming unsuccessful, military spending was high. His slogan for the foreign policy was “New Thinking” which was based on solving global issues. Gorbachev helped the Soviet Union gain more of an acceptance among the nations to show that there is more to Russia than what has been portrayed. This ongoing press was to show that he will run the country different than shown in the past. This slogan ultimately was the collapse of communism all together and brought an

change was in the lower levels and was had an emphasis on politics instead of

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.