AREA 6 : GORBACHEV

What happened after the fall of Khrushchev?

• His successor was Leonid Brezhnev, one of his own proteges. He soon gave up any idea of change. For the next eighteen years until Brezhnev died in 1982 the Soviet Union stagnated. Brezhnev was an invalid for years before he died.

• Brezhnev began to spend more on the arms race, because he believed that the Soviet Union had fallen behind the West. By the late 1960s he was already looking for ways of saving money.

• Brezhnev appointed Yuri Andropov to be the head of the KGB in 1967. Andropov wanted to attack corruption in the government and the party.

• However, Brezhnev promoted members of his own family to senior posts. This led to serious cases of corruption. His daughter and her lover and his sons were all involved.

• Andropov could, however, attack dissidents. Many were arrested in the 1970s and often put into mental hospitals. These included writers, poets and scientists.

• The economic problems of the Soviet Union continued and gradually got worse. There were permanent food shortages. 30% of government spending went into agriculture, but the Soviet Union could still only produce 65% of the wheat it needed.

• There were no real further attempts to introduce reforms.

• In 1981 Brezhnev, at the Twenty-sixth Party Congress, listed the reasons for the lack of success of the Tenth Five Year Plan. These included, lack of skilled labour, alcoholism, absenteeism and lack of effort on the part of civil servants who manned the vast organisation which tried to plan the economy.

• In agriculture there was little incentive for peasants to work hard and no money for investment in new machinery, fertilisers and technology.

• 20,000,000,000 roubles every year were spent on subsidies to keep prices down.

• In 1979 the Soviet Union became involved in a disastrous war in Afghanistan. It tried to support the Communist government against Muslim rebels. It was described as the Soviet Vietnam. The cost was enormous and ruined the Soviet Union. See ‘Superpowers’.

When Brezhnev died in November 1982 his successor was expected to be Konstantin Chernenko, but instead Yuri Andropov was chosen by the Politburo. Andropov was Head of the KGB from 1967 to 1982 and had attacked corruption. He was known as a reformer. However, in August 1983 he was taken ill and died in February 1984. Chernenko took his place. He was seventy-two and in poor health. He made few public appearances after becoming seriously ill in July 1984. Most people saw him as a stop-gap. He was, he died in 1985 and was replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Mikhail Gorbachev

What problems did Gorbachev face?

• The Soviet Union was bankrupt. Gorbachev desperately needed financial and technological aid from the West

• Industry was hopelessly inefficient. 40% of factories were working at a loss. 15% of the economy was on the Black Market. 10% of workers were drunk at any one time.

• Gorbachev had had no idea how serious the problems were before he became leader.

• Despite his slogans of Perestroika and Glasnost, Gorbachev had no real plans to deal with the problems. He worked from hand to mouth with no overall plan.

Gorbachev came to power with two slogans PERESTROIKA and GLASNOST.

• Perestroika referred to ‘economic restructuring’ in the Soviet Union. Gorbachev believed that the Soviet Union could only survive if the economy was completely rebuilt, doing away with the command economy which had existed since Stalin.

• Glasnost referred to new sense of ‘openness’, both within the Soviet Union and also with the West. The powers of the KGB were restricted and criticism of the government was allowed. Free elections were held in 1990.

Why did Gorbachev’s attempts at reform fail?

• Gorbachev had no real plans. He was making it up as he went along. Even he did not really know what Perestroika meant.

• It was too little too late. Gorbachev wanted to alter the system not change it. By the late 1980s shortages were so severe that this would not work. The problems he faced had been building up since the death of Stalin. The only serious attempt to solve them by Khrushchev had failed.

• Gorbachev knew that he needed help from the West, especially financial support from the G7 countries, which included the USA, Britain, West Germany, Japan and France. He believed that if he made concessions on arms, they would provide cash. He was wrong.

• Gorbachev tried to maintain the power of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, more and more people were tired of Communism, of drab lives with little food.

• Glasnost and Perestroika revealed one of the fundamental weaknesses of the Soviet Union; it was made up of many different peoples, cultures and nationalities. Only strict discipline and the Red Army had kept the Soviet Union together. By the late 1980s the Red Army was no longer being paid and Gorbachev was not prepared to use force to keep the Soviet Union together.

Why did President Gorbachev face many problems when he became leader of the Soviet Union in 1985?    (10) 

The Soviet people felt by the early 1980’s that standards of living in the Soviet Union were unsatisfactory.  The situation was made worse when in 1979 Brezhnev had ordered the invasion of Afghanistan embroiling the Soviet Union in an ongoing bloody war with the afghan guerrillas (the Mujahideen ).  Soviet military losses were immense and deeply unpopular with the Soviet people who were now seeing their country pulled into its own Vietnam! 

Soviet repression and censorship was also increasingly unpopular.  After the relative freedom of the Khrushchev years under Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko censorship increased and the number of dissidents (such as Andrei Sakharov) being persecuted for their beliefs remained high.

The Soviet Union was also falling behind in the nuclear arms race with the United States.  Quite simply the Soviet economy was not strong enough to keep up with Reagan's massive acceleration of the arms race, especially as the Soviet Union was way behind in computer technology.                      

The Soviet economy was also suffering.  There were high levels of corruption, while in order to keep pace with the acceleration of the arms race by Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s (especially the Star Wars programme) the government spent even more money on defence than consumer products.  Soviet life in the 1980’s was therefore becoming ever drabber and if you wanted anything it made most sense to try to get it on the thriving black market. 

The Soviet economy was therefore extremely weak.  There was almost no investment, exports were down and it was by no means certain how much longer the peoples of the Soviet Union would accept such a dreary lifestyle. 40% of factories were running at a loss and 30% of the state budget went on subsidies to keep down prices.

Overall then Gorbachev faced many problems when he became leader of the Soviet Union in 1985.  The economy was stagnating, the Americans were pulling ahead dramatically in the arms race and his three immediate predecessors (Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko) had been too frail to do anything to revive Soviet prestige.  President Reagan had not yet met with a Soviet leader making the tensions of the cold war even worse, while there was growing discontent with the drabness of Soviet life and a yearning for western goods from Levis to fast food and an increasing desire for freedom of speech.  The war in Afghanistan was also proving a disaster and something would have to be done to stop this as well.  Gorbachev’s priorities were thus to try to regain the confidence of the Soviet people, pull out of Afghanistan and, most importantly, get a deal with the Americans so that he could divert some of the money being used to compete with the Americans into rebuilding the Soviet economy.           

Why did Gorbachev introduce the policy of ‘Glasnost’?                (4)

Gorbachev introduced Glasnost (openness) in order to encourage Soviet citizens to discuss the problems and challenges facing the Soviet Union in the 1980’s.  At one level he hoped this would make his government more popular since people were desperate for a relaxation in censorship but more importantly Glasnost would encourage people to see just how much the system really did need reforming.  Glasnost would also ensure that people became more involved in the running of their country and hence more committed to seeing it succeed.  In short, once there was Glasnost there would be an immediate demand for Perestroika.    

Why did President Gorbachev introduce Perestroika after 1985?  (6)  

When Gorbachev became general secretary of the communist party in 1985 it was clear that something would have to be done to reform the Soviet economic system.  Too much state planning and the obvious falsifying of official statistics of production had led to stagnation and a lack of initiative amongst workers and managers.  Perestroika would allow an element of competition into the work place and it was hoped that this would stimulate recovery and so lead to an improvement in the living and working conditions of the Soviet people. 

Gorbachev also needed to reinvigorate the Soviet economy if it was to have any chance of competing with Ronald Reagan’s United States of America.  After all Reagan had decided to escalate the arms race and if Gorbachev failed to improve the economy it was clear that the Soviet Union would lose the Cold War!          

Describe the key features of Glasnost and Perestroika        (10)   

Glasnost basically means openness.  This meant that Gorbachev allowed more freedom of expression in the Soviet Union.  Newspapers were given more freedom to print what they wanted, while the practise of locking dissidents away in mental hospitals or sending them into internal exile was stopped.  Andrei  Sakharov, for example, was released from internal exile and allowed to return to normal life.  Protest meetings were also allowed, while eventually in 1989 elections to a new congress of peoples’ deputies were allowed in which candidates other than those from the communist party could stand!  Western politicians, including Margaret Thatcher, were even interviewed on Soviet Russian television!        

Describe the key features of ‘Perestroika’                                     (5) 

Perestroika (restructuring) was an attempt to reform the slow moving and cumbersome Soviet economy before it collapsed.  It encouraged a measure of free enterprise and small private firms were allowed to compete with those run by the state.  Gorbachev hoped that such competition would encourage an increase in efficiency and productivity throughout the economy and so reinvigorate Soviet society.  It was a clear reaction against the centralised planning of the Stalin years. 

 What were the successes and failures within the Soviet Union of ‘Glasnost’ and ‘Perestroika’ under President Gorbachev?                 (15) 

When Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union in March 1985 the country was bankrupt. Gorbachev soon realised that he had to act very quickly and with the support of the West. Glasnost and Perestroika were intended to save the Soviet Union and communism by convincing the West that the Soviet Union was capable of change. They were also intended to provide the Soviet people with the incentive to work and save their country.

The reforms that Gorbachev introduced, in particular Glasnost and Perestroika, did not have the effect that Gorbachev had wanted! For one thing, Gorbachev himself had little idea of any overall plan. He only discovered the real state of the Soviet economy when he became leader. His only real principle was that he had to work as quickly as possible.

Glasnost certainly did allow people a greater freedom to discuss the problems of the system.  However as a result of this Soviet citizens tended to complain ever more loudly about the system rather than, as it had been hoped, knuckling down and trying to reform the system themselves! 

At the same time Perestroika did encourage the introduction of competition in industry, however the reforms proceeded very slowly and certainly not quickly enough to pacify the Soviet people who wanted change fast.  The economy was also harmed by the Armenian earthquake and the nuclear explosion at Chernobyl which led to vast amounts of money having to be used in clean up operations rather than being used to get the economy going again. 

Quite simply Perestroika and Glasnost had raised the expectations of the Soviet people, but these expectations were not being realised.  A Macdonalds might be opened in Moscow and US pop CDs might for the first time be available to Soviet citizens, but such new consumer goods were not available in large enough numbers to satisfy public demand and discontent accordingly rose.   

However as well as not going far enough for some Soviet citizens, others felt these reforms were much too radical.  Glasnost had led to grumbling, youth protest and the questioning of authority, while Gorbachev’s free market reforms had not done anything to reinvigorate the economy.  His foreign policy had also allowed the old satellite countries, like Poland and Hungary, to get their independence and by 1990 the old Soviet empire had crumbled into almost nothing.  Soon after the constituent parts of the Soviet Union such as Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine were allowed their own measure of self-government. Some old military and KGB figures saw Gorbachev’s policies as the root of all the Soviet Union's problems and in August 1991 tried to overthrow him in a coup.  He had introduced dangerous new reforms which had led to the destruction of the old Soviet empire and would have to be stopped!  Clearly Gorbachev's reforms had annoyed everybody.  For some Gorbachev had gone too far, for others he had not gone far enough!                 

However Glasnost and Perestroika did have some successes.  They made Soviet citizens less willing to accept centralised planning and government censorship and it was these qualities that made it so difficult for the august 1991 plotters to succeed.  In short five years of Gorbachev's reforms had made Soviet citizens much less likely to accept repression and so they rose up in support of Boris Yeltsin, the plotters failed and on December 31st 1991 the Soviet Union was officially dissolved.  Perhaps this was the lasting achievement of Glasnost and Perestroika?        

Explain why the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991                             (15)

Gorbachev came to power in 1985 determined to save the bankrupt Soviet Union and communism. He realised that that would only be possible if he made sweeping changes and won support from the West. He, therefore, promised reforms, in the hope of winning over the Soviet people and almost immediately began arms limitation talks in the hope of gaining financial aid from the West.

Gorbachev promised a very great deal and yet his reforms did not deliver as much as he had promised. In fact there was very little improvement in the economy or in the living conditions of ordinary Soviet citizens.  There was still a shortage of basic commodities like soap and toothpaste made worse by the fact that factory owners, free to produce what they wanted, neglected low profit products. The economy was also not helped by a slump in oil prices and the devastating impact of Chernobyl and the Armenian earthquake.  The fact that Soviet military spending was too high (even after the arms control agreements with President Reagan) also helped to discredit Gorbachev.                                          

Glasnost was also to prove Gorbachev’s undoing.  He had hoped that it would encourage freedom of expression and that this would then rally support around his government.  Instead it led to grumbling about Gorbachev himself and demands for yet further reform especially the ending of one party rule by the communist party.

In 1988 Gorbachev made clear that he would not stand by the Brezhnev Doctrine.  This had laid down that Soviet troops had the right to intervene in any eastern bloc country in order to restore order.  As Gorbachev informed the United Nations in December 1988, ‘the use or threat of force can no longer and must no longer be an instrument of Soviet foreign policy’.

As a result of this the people of eastern Europe began to overthrow their communist governments.  First there was Hungary and then Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.  However it was not only the countries of the eastern bloc that wanted independence.  The Soviet Union was made of fifteen different states of which Russia was only the greatest, and in 1990 they began to up their demands for independence.  Russification had long been hated and they now saw the opportunity to also win their independence in much the same way as the satellite states of eastern Europe were able to do!

As part of his reform strategy Gorbachev had allowed the constituent parts of the Soviet Union a measure of self government and so now they demanded he allow them total independence.  The first to demand that Soviet troops withdraw were Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia (the Baltic states), while elsewhere in the Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia calls for independence reached a peak.  Even Russia, under its new president, Boris Yeltsin, urged the dismantling of the Soviet Union and independence for its constituent parts.                            

Gorbachev was now faced with opposition from all sides.  Communist hard-liners believed that he had been responsible for the breakdown of the Soviet empire, while radicals blamed him for not granting full independence to the constituent parts of the Soviet Union.  Indeed they pointed out that 14 people had been killed when Gorbachev had ordered Soviet troops to attack the television tower in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.      

The trigger for the collapse of the Soviet Union was the August 1991 coup.  In August 1991 hard-line communists seized control of Gorbachev, whilst he was holidaying at his country dacha.  They immediately announced that they would restore order and halt Gorbachev’s reforms.  However the new Russian leader, Boris Yeltsin, was having none of this and utterly condemned the coup.  Standing on a tank he called on the Soviet military to mutiny and for the workers to overthrow the coup.  His brave stance worked and the coup collapsed. Gorbachev was reinstated but he had clearly been upstaged by Yeltsin. 

In the following months the fifteen member states of the Soviet Union all declared their independence and in December 1991 Gorbachev resigned as general secretary of the communist party.  In its place the commonwealth of independent states, with Boris Yeltsin’s Russia by far the biggest and most influential nation.  The nationalities had won! 

The Soviet Union collapsed because Gorbachev failed to keep his promises of reform and in the end did not receive any financial aid from the West. All of his policies angered some element of soviet society and none pleased everyone. His attempts to preserve the Soviet Union and the Communist Party proved to be his downfall. They could not be preserved.

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