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Between 1985 and 1991 the USSR experienced tremendous political and social change resulting from the policies and programs of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. The momentum for continued change was jeopardized when Communist Party conservatives unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow Gorbachev in August 1991. The failed coup caused Gorbachev to lose what little control he had over the reform process, and the momentum of Soviet history passed to the Russian leader, Boris Yeltsin. The Communist Party was disgraced and repudiated. In December 1991, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus met in Minsk and proclaimed the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev appeared on national television and resigned as President of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, thus, went out of existence. Symbolically, the red flag that flew over the Kremlin for some 74 years was replaced by the Russian white, blue and red tricolor. New flags were raised on staffs across the other 11 newly-independent republics that once been part of the Soviet Union.
Born in 1931, Mikhail Gorbachev spent his youth in a small peasant village on a collective farm in the Stavropol region of southern Russia. His father was a combine driver for a machine tractor station. It was a turbulent time for Soviet agriculture. Stalin's collectivization was underway, and 1931 was the height of the attack on the Kulaks. Gorbachev's father, however, was a Party member whose loyalty to Stalin was apparently without question. During the war years, 1941 - 1945, Gorbachev was raised largely by his mother, his father having joined the army to fight the Germans. A bright student, young Mikhail joined the Komsomol (Communist Youth League) and spent his vacations and free time working in the fields. He graduated with honors from high school and won placement at the Moscow State University where he studied law. There he fell in love with Raisa Titorenko, a student of philosophy. They were married in 1954. After graduation in 1955, the Gorbachevs returned to Stavropol where, as an enthusiastic Party activist, he became an agricultural specialist. There they had their only child, a daughter. (Today there are two granddaughters.) In 1970 he was appointed first secretary of the Stavropol region (in effect, the regional governor). As a political figure, Gorbachev was committed to the wellbeing of his constituents and, unlike other party operatives, made himself available to them hearing and acting upon their complaints and concerns. He developed a reputation for professional commitment and incorruptibility that would work to his future political advantage. Under his guidance, the region's agricultural productivity increased, bringing him to the attention of the national leadership. Yuri Andropov, then KGB chief, was impressed with Gorbachev's honesty and worked to advance Gorbachev's career. In 1978 Andropov secured his appointment as the Central Committee's secretary for agriculture. In 1980 Gorbachev, at 49, became a full member of the ruling Politburo, the youngest member of that body. Still responsible for agriculture, Gorbachev now had the opportunity to make fact-finding missions abroad. It was on one such trip that he came to Western attention. Unlike other Soviet leaders when outside the country, Gorbachev seemed approachable, personable, and good humored. He enjoyed being in public and sharing the spotlight with other leaders. So impressed was British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that, looking to the future beyond Chernenko, she announced in a signal to Reagan and other Western leaders that "I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business with this man."
Mikhail Gorbachev died in Moscow on August 30, 2022. Prior to his death he lived in Moscow where he headed the Gorbachev Foundation, an international foundation committed to the strengthening and spread of democracy and economic liberalization. He was also the founder of Green Cross International, an environmental organization. On behalf of these causes, he led an active life traveling and speaking. In 2008 he was awarded the Liberty Medal by the United States National Constitution Center. In the same year he was honored by then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who awarded him the Order of St. Andrew, Russia's highest honor. His wife Raisa died of leukemia in 1999. Her legacy is the Raisa Foundation, an international organization that funds research for curing childhood cancer. Gorbachev's popularity waned over his last two decades as Russian President Vladimir Putin became increasingly critical of the policies that led to the demise of the Soviet Union.
What was the Soviet Union like before Gorbachev?
Before considering Gorbachev’s impact on the Soviet Union, it makes sense to recall what the Soviet Union was when he came to power.
Between 1917 and 1985 the USSR had been an authoritarian state under the dictatorial rule of the leadership of the Communist Party. Throughout most of its history, the Soviet regime was an all-pervasive and often brutal dictatorship. Its characteristic features included ...
... state-enforced ideological conformity to Marxist-Leninism, the socialist economic and political philosophies of Karl Marx
and Vladimir Lenin;
... rule by a small elite group of Communists, the Central Committee and Politburo of the Communist Party;
... state-ownership and control of all means of production, distribution, land, and capital;
... a centrally planned and controlled economy;
... a massive bureaucracy under the control of Communist Party operatives;
... state control of all education and information;
... a powerful state security system of secret police, the KGB;
... a powerful, well-armed, and well-trained military establishment.
In world affairs, the Soviet Union historically conducted its foreign relations according to two guiding principles ...
...1) the preservation and security of the USSR; and
... 2) the international spread of the Communist Revolution.
The result was the historical exercise of Soviet power and ambition on a global scale. Since 1945 Soviet foreign policy has reflected suspicion of and confrontation with the capitalist nations of the West, as evidenced in the Cold War relationship with the United States. The Cold War rivalry has been reflected in some 45 years of ...
... an antagonistic relationship over an ideologically divided Europe (Germany, Berlin, Eastern Europe);
... a massive military build-up centered primarily on weapons of mass destruction – nuclear bombs, long-range strategic
missiles, submarines, bombers;
... spending untold billions on defense to enhance global influence;
... maintaining allies through mutually defensive alliance systems – NATO, the Warsaw Pact;
... pursuing ideological and economic ambitions globally in regions of strategic importance - the Middle East, East Asia,
Africa, and Latin America.
What made Gorbachev so different?
In March 1985 Gorbachev was named General Secretary of the Communist Party by the Party’s Central Committee following the death of Konstantin Chernenko. Unlike the dour old men (Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko) who had ruled before, Gorbachev was a relatively young 54 years old. He appeared to have an engaging personality and a refreshing flair for public relations. As General Secretary, Gorbchev held the highest position of authority in the Party and, therefore, in the state. It was clear that he would make some changes in the Soviet system, but few realized just how far his reforms would go.
Seeing the Soviet system as moribund under the stifling burden of bureaucratic complacency and the stagnating effect of economic planning and controls, Gorbachev gradually introduced a program of wide-reaching reforms. Intended to revitalize the nation, Gorbachev's programs were based on three principles:
1) Glasnost "Openness" allowing of greater freedom of thought, speech, and press to encourage popular criticism of what does not work and thus stimulate movement to what does work in all aspects of Soviet life.
2) Perestroika "Restructuring" restructuring of the Soviet economy to stimulate initiative and growth through revision of the state planning and control systems that had been put in place by Stalin in the 1930s. Such reforms might include cautious movement to private enterprise and a market economy.
3) Demokratizatsiya "Democratization" reforming the political system to bring the Soviet people more actively into the political process and to make the political system more responsive to the popular will.
Gorbachev's reforms were not without criticism. Hard-line Communist conservatives saw his programs as dangerously threatening to Marxist-Leninism and even to the wellbeing of the state. Bureaucrats and factory managers, comfortable under the old system, feared the public accountability encouraged by glasnost. The security police (KGB) and military leaders feared Gorbachev's reforms might cause the breakdown of public order and weaken Soviet defenses. More extremist reformers, both within and outside of the Party, criticized many of Gorbachev's programs as too cautious and not far-reaching enough to do any good. Most vocal among Gorbachev's radical critics was the popular Moscow Party boss, Boris Yeltsin. Moving with initial caution, Gorbachev made judicious changes in the top-levels of Party leadership, replacing both conservative and radical critics with men more in sympathy with his reforms. New men took positions of authority in the KGB and military general staff. The Georgian Eduard Shevardnadze was named Foreign Minister replacing the conservative Andrei Gromyko who had served as Foreign Minister since 1957. Gromyko was named to the largely ceremonial office of President in which he served until his death in 1989.
Gorbachev's Reforms
As this is not a comprehensive history of Gorbachev’s administration, the following is simply an overview of the major reforms instituted between 1985 and 1991. The reforms are most impressive and give the mistaken idea that Gorbachev accomplished everything with ease. One must understand that many of these changes were very controversial and required of Gorbachev a great deal of difficult negotiation and convincing of both political allies and opponents. Some of the reforms worked well. Others caused tremendous difficulty and placed great strain on the Soviet system and people. All the reforms rested on a very fragile foundation and could have easily been undone.
Gorbachev’s political reforms included revisions of the Soviet Constitution that permitted multicandidate elections at the local, regional, and national levels. A new structure of national government was created with a strong presidency separated from the legislature. A new national parliament, the Supreme Soviet, would hold actual power to debate and legislate. A freely-elected Congress of People’s Deputies was created to ratify constitutional changes and debate national policy. In a very controversial challenge, Gorbachev called for reform of the Communist Party itself. The Party was urged to end its political monopoly and reform itself as a broad-based democratic movement.
A sweeping series of social reforms included laws that relaxed state censorship and permitted greater freedom of speech, press, and public information (television, radio, print media, and films). Restrictions on public worship and the practice of religion were ended. State controls over education were relaxed by permitting greater academic freedom and academic reevaluation of Marxist-Leninist ideology in both textbooks and classroom teaching. The ugliest of the Stalinist legacies, the notorious gulag system of state prison and labor camps, was abolished. Thousands of political prisoners were rehabilitated and released. Additional laws permitted greater freedom of travel outside the USSR for Soviet citizens.
Reforms reflective of Gorbachev’s commitment to Perestroika were intended to end the rigid Stalinist state controls and enable transition to a market economy. Limited private enterprise was permitted through the establishing of small private businesses called “cooperatives.” Individuals would be allowed to sell or lease their houses. In order to stimulate greater incentive and productivity, factory managers and collective farm managers were allowed greater business autonomy in the operation of their enterprises, freeing them from the restrictions of state planning and controls. It became possible for farmers to own land. State subsidies (price-controls) on consumer goods and some foodstuffs were ended in order to allow market prices to stimulate and regulate productivity.
Gorbachev and Foreign Policy
Gorbachev called his philosophy of foreign policy "New Thinking." It was based on the idea that the economic reconstruction and revitalization of the Soviet Union could not take place if the USSR were locked in an ever-escalating arms race with the United States. The Soviet economy, already overextended and barely functional, simply could not generate enough money to finance continued military buildup.
Consequently, the Gorbachev years were witness to the most momentous events in the history of Soviet foreign policy since World War Two. Negotiations with the United States were accelerated and resulted in significant strategic and conventional arms agreements. Soviet military forces ended their decade-long intervention Afghanistan. The Soviet hold on Eastern Europe weakened and collapsed. Germany was reunified. Soviet military forces began withdrawing from Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was dissolved. In the last years before its own demise, the USSR served as a partner in the UN coalition that went to war against Iraq and in co-sponsoring with the US an international conference to seek peace in the Middle East. Some of what happened was the intended outcome of policy. Some was the result of Soviet inability to control forces turned loose by glasnost and perestroika. With it all came the end of over forty years of global confrontation and crisis with the United States. In 1990 Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. If Mikhail Gorbachev had a legacy to the world, it was the end of the Cold War.
Achievements and Results of “New Thinking” in Soviet Foreign Policy
The 1987 INF Treaty with the US on the mutual elimination of all intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
The ending the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, 1979-1989.
The rejection of the Brezhnev Doctrine of direct Soviet military intervention in Eastern Europe.
The 1989-1990 ending of the Soviet domination over Eastern Europe.
The collapse of Communism in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania.
The 1990 reunification of Germany.
The “end of the Cold War” as symbolically declared at the 1989 Malta Summit.
The gradual removal of Soviet armies from Eastern Europe.
The 1990 Conventional Forces (CFE) Treaty restricting conventional weapons systems in Europe.
Gorbachev receiving of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Peace.
Cooperation with the US through support for UN actions in the 1990-1991 Gulf Crisis and Gulf War against Iraq.
Cooperation with the US in the 1991 START I Treaty calling for mutual reduction and destruction of strategic nuclear weapons systems.
The 1991 ending of the Warsaw pact defensive alliance system.
Gorbachev's Reforms: Overall Impact
The impact of Gorbachev's reforms was profound. The new freedoms were exciting. The Soviet Union was on an irreversible path away from the stifling effects of traditional Communist ideology and control. In the West, the charismatic Gorbachev was seen as a modern Peter the Great, bringing his people out of oppression and political subservience to free enterprise and democracy. His foreign policy had freed Eastern Europe and sought a partnership with the US to end the Cold War. The Soviet Union was being remade as an enlightened and progressive force in a new world. There was, however, another disturbing side to the picture. Peter the Great was an absolute monarch who never lost control of the Russia he was reforming. Gorbachev did. Glasnost, perestroika, and democratization were as a genie released from its bottle. Once out, Gorbachev could not direct them to the ends he envisioned. The result was four-fold: the seemingly general breakdown of the Soviet economy altogether; popular rejection of the Communist Party as the guiding force behind all aspects of Soviet life; the fatal fracturing of the Soviet Union; and increased dissatisfaction with Gorbachev among hardline conservatives within the Communist Party, the KGB, and the military high command.
Breakdown of the Soviet Economy: While perestroika's promise of the benefits of a market economy was generally welcomed, unexpected problems caused growing popular disillusionment. The Soviet system was unprepared for any form of legal free enterprise. The reduction of state subsidies meant rising prices. As wages and pensions remained largely under state controls and, therefore, unchanging, Soviet citizens for the first time began to experience the results of inflation. Unemployment, virtually - and officially - unknown in the USSR before Gorbachev, became increasingly commonplace. With the relaxation of central planning and controls, industrial plants and other state businesses found themselves for the first time having to compete in order to survive and remain in operation. With reductions in state orders for military equipment, factory managers in related industries found themselves having either to cut back production or convert to producing consumer goods. Adjustment was both baffling and difficult. Managers lacked the understanding and skills necessary to function outside of state controls. It was unclear as to what aspects of business operation were free of controls and which remained under some form of state regulation. There was no body of commercial law providing guidelines for contracts and other forms of business practice. There was no practical experience with independent business initiative, incentive, or concern for quality of production or service. There was no independent banking system able to provide credit for businesses seeking to expand or convert. Likewise there was no credit available for entrepreneurs needing capital to start new business enterprises ("cooperatives") of their own. There was no stock market through which new private enterprises might be financed. Foreign investors seeking business opportunities in the USSR did not know with whom to contract - the central government? - the regional government? - the municipal government? Those state controls that remained in place could not work in both a command economy and a free market. Corruption, already a problem under the old system, increased as factory managers and officials cut deals to stay in business. Poverty and begging became more evident as the unemployed and pensioners found state welfare far too little to live on. Disturbing incidents of random street crime increased. A Soviet "Mafia" took advantage of corrupt officials and police to intimidate and influence. Those who succeeded under the new changes were resented by those whom the changes hurt. The newly successful entrepreneurs justifiably flaunted their wealth with new foreign luxury cars, mansions, and imported Western fashions. A small class of Soviet millionaires emerged. Western business experts were invited to the USSR to advise and assist in the economic transition. To many, it seemed that capitalism had become more important than socialism and that Gorbachev was betraying the principles of Lenin's revolution.
Increased popular dissatisfaction with Gorbachev spread as people reacted to the failure of Gorbachev's economic reforms to improve the quality of life. In fact, the lack of an effective program to implement perestroika caused major disruptions in the Soviet economy's ability to produce and deliver needed foodstuffs and consumer goods. In an alarming demonstration of labor's discontent, Siberian coal miners went on strike in July 1989. Gorbachev was forced to make concessions of higher wages and improved conditions, but these did not come and walkouts continued. The harvest of 1990 was one of the largest in recent Soviet history yet there were chronic food shortages throughout the country. Soldiers and students had to be transported to the countryside to help bring in the crops. Crops rotted in the fields or in warehouses because the Soviet transport system, minimally adequate at best, and now without the controls of the old Stalinist system, was unable to move the produce to markets. Food stores in the major cities virtually ran out of food. The city of Leningrad, brutally besieged by the Germans during World War Two, gratefully accepted donated food shipments from West Germany. Because of widespread miners' strikes, fuel for heating homes and businesses became scarce. With transport in chaos, Soviet hospitals ran out of needed medical supplies and consumer goods disappeared from store shelves.
Rejection of the Communist Party: Popular discomfort with the economic problems caused by perestroika did not, however, mean renewed support for the Communist Party. Gorbachev's political reforms enabled non-Communist candidates to challenge Communists in elections, and the result was general rejection of the Communist Party. The Soviet people enjoyed their newfound political voice and exercised it at the polls. Non-Communist reform mayors were elected in Moscow and Leningrad, the nation's two largest cities. Communists were voted out of power in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Georgia. In June 1991, Boris Yeltsin was overwhelmingly elected President of the Russian Republic in the first free popular election ever held in Russia. (Earlier in 1990 Yeltsin had been chosen as President by the Russian Supreme Soviet.) In a symbolically stunning demonstration of the popular rejection of Communism, the people of Leningrad overwhelmingly voted to restore that city's original name, St. Petersburg.
Between 1985 and 1991, some four million Communists resigned from the Party. Their dissatisfaction came from frustration with the Party's reluctance to commit itself fully to reform. Most dramatic were resignations by significant leaders. Yeltsin resigned from the Party in 1990, and former Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze resigned in the summer of 1991. In fact, Shevardnadze announced his intention to join with other leading reformers to form an opposition party. On the eve of the August 1991 coup, there was speculation that the Communist Party would split into Leninist and democratic factions and that Gorbachev himself would be compelled to commit to one side or the other.
The Fracturing of the Soviet Union: Gorbachev's reforms changed the way many Soviets thought of themselves in relation to the concept of the Soviet Union. The territorial extent of the modern Soviet Union was the result of centuries of Russian expansion over neighboring peoples and cultures. Thus, the Soviet Union was a multi-national state with each of its 15 constituent Soviet Socialist Republics being largely representative of the nationality or ethnic group dominant in that republic. In the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (the official Soviet name for Russia) alone there were (are) some 89 ethnic groups.
Glasnost, perestroika, and democratization had a profound impact on the USSR's constituent republics. Sensing a weakening of Soviet central control, the republics began to demand greater autonomy over their economic and political life. Seeking to control and develop their own resources and to direct their own political decision-making, they became aggressively assertive of their own identities as states. Several permitted multiparty elections and voted the Communists out of power. By 1990 the largest republic, Russia, and all others but Georgia had declared their sovereignty and claimed supremacy of their own laws over those of the central government. In 1990 the three Baltic Republics (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) declared their independence, prompting serious crises for Gorbachev. As the world watched, Gorbachev imposed economic sanctions on the breakaway Baltics, particularly Lithuania. Suffering from lack of needed supplies of fuel and other vital materials, the Baltic states "suspended" their declarations of independence. Soviet troops used armed force against separatist demonstrations in Georgia (April 1989) and in Lithuania and Latvia (January 1991). A serious outbreak of ethnic violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan in early 1990 required direct intervention by the Soviet army. With Gorbachev's relaxation of restrictions against religious practices, there was an increased restlessness within the large Muslim population of the USSR’s Central Asian republics.
In November 1990, Gorbachev attempted to stem the separatist movement among the republics by presenting them with the draft of a new treaty forming the Union of Sovereign Soviet Republics. This Union Treaty was to replace the existing constitutional relationship of the republics to the central government with a new "voluntary" federal relationship. Concessions to the republics' demands for greater economic and political independence were part of the treaty, but it remained initially vague on aspects of federal power-sharing, the ratification process, and legal secession.
In March 1991, Gorbachev put the future of the Soviet Union to the people in the form of a referendum. The question to be answered was: "Do you consider it necessary to preserve the USSR as a renewed federation of equal, sovereign republics in which human rights and freedoms and freedoms of any nationality (people of all ethnic groups) will be fully guaranteed?" Intended to show separatist leaders that there was popular support for preserving the USSR, Gorbachev's referendum proved controversial and inconclusive. While some 70% of those who voted approved, six republics refused to hold the referendum within their territories. Other republics amended the question or added additional points for consideration. Russia, for example, asked its voters if the Russian president and mayor of Moscow should be chosen through popular elections.
The Conservative Reaction: Faced with the threatened breakup of the Union and the hardships of shortages of food and other essentials in the winter of 1990-1991, there were increased signs that Gorbachev had swung over to the forces of "law and order." Military leaders advised Gorbachev that the army would act if the country were thrown into civil disorder. In January 1991, Soviet "black beret" riot troops brutally attacked a crowd outside of Lithuania's major television broadcast center killing some 20 unarmed civilians. A week later black berets killed another five persons in the Latvian capital, Riga. Under intense criticism from the United States, Gorbachev denied responsibility for the violence. In other matters, the KGB was given increased authority to crack down on those suspected of taking advantage of the shortages to hoard food and illegally profit from high prices. Such measures were seen as an effort by Gorbachev to placate the conservatives and retain their support. That his actions failed to do so was evident in conservative attempts to overthrow Gorbachev in the summer of 1991.
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The image of Gorbachev is from Wikipedia.
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Sources for the Soviet Union under Gorbachev
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