Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (born 02.03.1931 in the Volga Region, Stavropol Territory) is a Soviet statesman, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (1985–1991) and former President of the CCCP. His efforts to democratize the political system and decentralize the economy led to the collapse of communism and the collapse of the country in 1991. Partly because he completed the era of post-war Soviet domination in Eastern Europe, in 1990 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Publicity policy
The decision to allow multi-party elections and create a new form of government in the Soviet Union began the slow process of democratization, which ultimately destabilized communist control and contributed to the collapse of the country.
When Gorbachev became president of the USSR, he faced conflicting domestic political pressure: Boris Yeltsin and supporters of pluralism advocated democratization and rapid economic reform, while the conservative party elite wanted to frustrate them.
The policy of glasnost gave people new freedoms, especially freedom of speech, although they were not comparable to what was in Western democracies. But in a country where censorship, control over speech and suppression of criticism of the government were previously central to the system, this was a radical change. The press became much less controlled, and thousands of political prisoners and many dissidents were released.
Gorbachev’s goal of pursuing a policy of publicity was to put pressure on conservatives inside the CPSU who opposed his economic restructuring, and he also hoped that thanks to openness, debate and participation in public life, the Soviet people would support his initiatives.
In what year did Gorbachev become President of the USSR?
In January 1987, the leader of the Communist Party called for democratization: the introduction of such democratic elements as the election of several candidates into the political process.
In June 1988, at the XXVII Congress of the CPSU, he launched radical reforms aimed at reducing party control over the state apparatus.
In December 1988, the Supreme Council approved the creation of the Council of People's Deputies as the new legislative body of the Soviet Union, adopting the relevant amendments to the Constitution. Elections were held throughout the country in March and April 1989.
But in what year did Gorbachev become President of the USSR? The necessary amendments were introduced on March 15, 1990. Prior to this, the head of the Soviet Union was formally the Chairman of the Supreme Council. Although the head of state was to be elected by direct secret ballot by all citizens of the country, as an exception this right was delegated to the III Congress of People's Deputies. 03/15/1990 Gorbachev was elected President of the USSR and took the oath on the same day.
Power concentration
Gorbachev became President of the USSR as a result of his election at the Congress of People's Deputies. Although the outcome was in his favor, serious weaknesses were revealed in his power base, which ultimately led to the collapse of his political career at the end of 1991.
The procedure for electing Gorbachev as President of the USSR in 1990 was significantly different from other “elections” previously held in the Soviet Union. Since coming to power in 1985, Mikhail Sergeyevich has made considerable efforts to start the political process in the country, pushing through legislation that eliminated the Communist Party’s monopoly on power and forming the Congress of People’s Deputies. Elections were held by secret ballot.
But why did Gorbachev become President of the USSR? He faced criticism from both the reformers and the conservative communists. For example, Boris Yeltsin criticized him for the slow pace of change. On the other hand, the conservatives were shocked by the departure from Marxist principles. In an effort to advance his reform agenda, the Secretary-General led the movement to amend the Soviet Constitution, including a section on the creation of a new, stronger presidential power, which had previously been largely symbolic.
Victory or defeat?
During the Congress of People's Deputies, Chairman of the Supreme Council M.S. Gorbachev was elected President of the USSR for a five-year term. He tried very hard for the Congress to give him the necessary two-thirds of the votes. Gorbachev threatened to resign several times if he did not receive a constitutional majority. If he had not received the necessary votes, he would have had to run a general election campaign against other candidates. Gorbachev believed that this would lead to chaos in an already unstable country. Others attributed this to his fears of losing. The result of the final vote gave him a minimal margin. The candidate received the required majority plus 46 votes.
The date when Gorbachev became the President of the USSR - 03/15/1990 - was the beginning of the countdown of his short stay in this post.
Although this was undoubtedly his victory, the election clearly demonstrated the problems that he faced while trying to formulate an internal consensus supporting his program of political reforms. M. S. Gorbachev became the President of the USSR, but by 1991 his critics criticized him for the terrible economic performance of the country and the weakening of control over the Soviet empire.
New Thinking Abroad
In international affairs, Gorbachev sought to improve relations and trade with the West. He made close contacts with a number of Western leaders - German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, US Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who once said that she likes Mr. Gorbachev and that you can have a business.
On October 11, 1986, M. Gorbachev and P. Reagan met for the first time in Reykjavik, Iceland to discuss the reduction of medium-range missiles in Europe. To the great surprise of the advisers on both sides, they agreed to withdraw such systems and establish a global limit for them in the amount of 100 warheads. This led to the signing in 1987 of the Treaty on the Elimination of Short and Medium-Range Missiles.
In February 1988, M. Gorbachev announced the withdrawal of troops from the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The operation was completed the following year, although the civil war continued when the Mujahideen tried to overthrow the pro-Soviet regime of Mohammed Najibullah. It is estimated that between 1979 and 1989, 15 thousand Soviet citizens were killed as a result of the conflict.
In the same 1988, M. Gorbachev declared that the Soviet Union would abandon the Brezhnev Doctrine, leaving the countries of the Eastern Bloc to determine their own domestic policies. Non-interference in the affairs of other Warsaw Pact states turned out to be the most important of Moscow’s foreign policy reforms. In 1989, when communism collapsed, this led to a series of revolutions in Eastern Europe. With the exception of Romania, popular protests against pro-Soviet communist regimes were peaceful.
When Gorbachev became President of the USSR, the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with the Vatican, and a final settlement agreement was signed with Germany. In addition, an investigation was launched into the murders of Polish prisoners of war in Katyn.
The weakening of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe actually ended the Cold War, for which 10/15/1990, 7 months after M. S. Gorbachev was elected President of the USSR, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Economic disaster
Although Gorbachev’s political initiatives led to greater freedom and democracy in Eastern Europe and the CCCP, his government’s economic policies gradually brought the Soviet Union closer to disaster. By the end of the 1980s, a serious shortage of basic foodstuffs (such as meat and sugar) forced the introduction of a war distribution system using food cards, which limited each citizen to a fixed amount of food per month. When Gorbachev became President of the USSR, the state budget deficit grew to 109 billion rubles, gold and foreign exchange funds fell from 2 thousand to 200 tons, and foreign debt grew to 120 billion US dollars.
Moreover, the democratization of the USSR and Eastern Europe irreversibly undermined the power of the CPSU and Gorbachev himself. The weakening of censorship and attempts to create greater political openness caused an unforeseen effect of awakening long-suppressed national and anti-Russian sentiments in the Soviet republics. Calls for greater independence from Moscow’s authority were getting louder, especially in the Baltic republics of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, which were annexed to the USSR by Stalin in 1940. National movements were also activated in Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The reforms ultimately allowed the socialist republics to secede from the Soviet Union.
Independence movements
On 10.01.1991, President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev presented the ultimatum to the Supreme Council of Lithuania, demanding to restore the legitimacy of the Constitution and annul all anti-constitutional laws. The next day, he approved the Soviet army’s attempt to overthrow the Lithuanian government. As a result, at least 14 civilians were killed and more than 600 injured in Vilnius on January 11-13. The strong reaction of the West and the actions of the Russian democratic forces put the president and the government of the USSR in an awkward position, as news appeared about the support of the Lithuanians from Western democracies.
Gorbachev’s reaction to growing republican separatism was the development of the Union Treaty, which created a truly voluntary federation in an increasingly democratized Soviet Union. The new treaty was supported by the Central Asian republics, which needed prosperity and economic power and the markets of the USSR. However, more radical proponents of change, such as President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, became increasingly convinced of the need for a quick transition to a market economy and were more than happy to contemplate the disintegration of the Soviet Union if it was necessary to achieve their goals.
In contrast to the warm attitude of the reformers towards the new treaty, conservative apparatchiks, who still had influence within the CPSU and the military leadership, were against everything that could lead to the collapse of the USSR. On the eve of the signing of the Union Treaty, the Conservatives struck.
August putsch
In August 1991, hardliners in the Soviet leadership launched a coup in order to remove Gorbachev from power and prevent the signing of a new Union Treaty. During this time, the president spent 3 days (August 19-21) under house arrest at a dacha in the Crimea, while an unsuccessful attempt to restore party control failed and he was not released. However, upon his return, Gorbachev discovered that neither the Union nor the power structures subordinate to him, but support Yeltsin, whose disobedience led to the collapse of the coup. Moreover, the Secretary-General was forced to dismiss a large number of members of the Politburo, and in some cases to arrest them. Detained for high treason was the “gang of eight,” which led the coup.
Gorbachev strove to preserve the CPSU as a single party, but wanted to move it towards Social Democracy. The contradictions in this approach — the praise of Lenin, the admiration for Sweden’s social model and the desire to support the accession of the Baltic states by military force — were quite complex. But when after the August coup, the CPSU was banned, Gorbachev did not have an effective power base outside the Armed Forces. As a result, Yeltsin won, promising more money.
The collapse of the USSR
In early December, the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus met in Brest to form the Commonwealth of Independent States, in effect announcing the demise of the Union.
12/25/1991, President of the USSR Gorbachev resigned, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved, and Yeltsin became president of the Russian Federation.
People around the world watched in amazement at this relatively peaceful disintegration of the former communist mono-state.
In a farewell speech, former USSR President Gorbachev said the recent creation of the CIS was the main motive for his resignation. He expressed concern that citizens of a great power are being deprived of this status, and the consequences of this can be very difficult for everyone. Gorbachev said that he was proud of his achievements. According to him, he led the transition of the Soviet Union to the path of democracy, and his reforms directed the socialist economy towards a market economy. He stated that the Soviet people now live in a new world in which there is no Cold War and an arms race. Recognizing the mistakes made, Gorbachev remained adamant and said that he did not regret the policy that he pursued.
Heritage
Mikhail Gorbachev is still highly regarded in the West for ending the Cold War. In Germany, for example, they give him credit for the reunification of the country. However, in Russia his reputation is not high, since it is believed that he led the USSR to collapse and, therefore, he is responsible for subsequent economic difficulties. However, polls showed that most Russians were pleased with the result of Gorbachev’s main legislative legacy - perestroika and the freedoms resulting from it.
According to many, this is not the only reason the Cold War ended. The war in Afghanistan has been going on since 1979, depleting the resources of the Soviet Union. These and many revolutionary or reformist movements in the satellite states of the USSR, primarily in Afghanistan and Poland, greatly influenced his ability to act and maintain order. Some insist that the arms race led to a significant increase in Soviet military spending, which, together with the cost of Afghanistan, the country simply could not afford. Moreover, when Gorbachev came to power, the CCCP economy was seriously destroyed, and this reality may have had a decisive influence on Gorbachev’s liberalization decisions. But in the end, according to analysts, these attempts to “open” the Soviet Union were too insignificant and belated, and satellite states responded accordingly, ending the era of the Cold War.
Critics in Russia are convinced that there was no serious economic crisis in the USSR. They consider Gorbachev an incompetent politician who initiated the wrong reforms, and accuse him of destroying the state.
Although it can be argued that when Gorbachev became President of the USSR, he sought to liberalize him and never wanted the collapse of the Soviet state, his contribution to the world on a global scale, however, outweighs the critical remarks, no matter how fair they may be.