*Gorbachev's political reforms

What had the whole apparatus of Party and state become?

huge and unmanageable

Under Brezhnev, what had the party grown to resemble?

grown to resemble power blocs of vested interests who competed with each other - This rivalry was wasteful and the competition between different branches of administration had led to corruption and nepotism

What was the need for reform highlighted by?

the impact of glasnost

What did glasnost start as?

a method of getting new ideas to revitalise the Communist Party and re-engage the population with the Party

What did glasnost descend into?

an open attack on the Party’s corrupt practices

Key criticisms of the Party: what were there popular complaints about?

poor housing

Key criticisms of the Party: what did investigations of Soviet history reveal details on?

Stalin’s mass terror, the famine of the 1930s and the Katyn massacre

Key criticisms of the Party: what was the myth of the Great Patriotic War was undermined by?

revelations of the reckless waste of human lives

Key criticisms of the Party: what was the popular topic of environmental issues promoted by? 

exposes of the damaging impact of government irrigation schemes on the Aral Sea

What was it difficult for Gorbachev to do once glasnost had started?

difficult for Gorbachev to call a halt to glasnost once it had started, even if he had wanted to

What convinced Gorbachev that glasnost was essential?

The Soviet government's response to the Chernobyl nuclear accident of April 1986

What did The accident at Chernobyl nuclear power plant result in?

a wave of radioactive fallout drifting over much of northern Europe

Government response to the Chernobyl nuclear accident of April 1986?

No official announcement was made by the Soviet government until it was forced to respond to urgent calls for information, after scientists in Scandinavia picked up readings of unusually high radioactivity in their air space

The results of The Soviet government's delayed admission of an accident?

disastrous results for its own people. An evacuation of people living in toxic areas was delayed, adding to the human cost of the accident. The result was an increase in cases of leukaemia and birth deformities

What weaknesses of the Soviet union did the Chernobyl affair reflect (5)?

the nuclear power plant was badly managed, used out-dated equipment, had a poor record of health and safety, and its deficiencies were covered up by secrecy and evasion (to Gorbachev, the whole affair seemed to provide an urgent justification for glasnost)

By 1989, why was the Soviet population much more politicised?

due to glasnost

How many informal groups and clubs holding meetings, organising demonstrations and adding to the call for political reform were there?

over 60,000 informal groups and clubs

Instead of producing support for Gorbachev, what did glasnost result in a wave of criticism against?

the Party, much of it directed at Gorbachev for his weakness in pursuing radical reform

What were Many reformers in positions of power were unwilling to defend?

the Communist Party - of which they were members -making it no surprise that some leading reformers decided to resign from the Party

Gorbachev’s 4 attempted reforms of the Party?

defining the functions of Party and state, shifting power from the Party to the Soviets, streamlining the Party and a clampdown on corruption

What did Gorbachev seek to separate?

Party and state - not an easy task, as the lines between the two had become blurred

When did he attempt to separate Party and state?

at the 19th Party Conference 1988

What caused the blurring between the functions of party and state?

the nomenklatura system

In the nomenklatura system, what did appointments and promotions within the state apparatus rely on?

loyalty to the Party - so it was often the case that the personnel of one organisation held an equivalent position in the other (State/Party)

An example of the personnel of one organisation holding an equivalent position in the other - Gorbachev and lower down the hierarchy?

Gorbachev became President of the Soviet Union, as well as General Secretary of the Party and First Secretaries in each republic also held the position of Chairman of the regional Soviet

How was shifting power from the Party to the Soviets attempted?

by allocating more finance to the Soviets, in order to give them the resources to support their role

What gave deputies of the Soviets greater security in thier post?

Deputies of the Soviets were to be elected for five years rather than two

Streamlining the Party - what were the departments of the Central Committee of the Communist Party reduced from 20 to?

9

Streamlining the Party - how many new commissions were created?

6

Streamlining the Party - when did Gorbachev create 'superministries' to co-ordinate economic planning?

November 1985

Who was one of the leading casualties of the clampdown on corruption?

Brezhnev's son-in-law, Yuri Churbanov, who was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment

Who were Attacks on corrupt Party officials popular with?

the public, but caused a lot of resentment within the Party

When was Kunayev removed from the position of First Secretary of the Party in Kazakhstan on grounds of corruption?

December 1986

Who replaced Kunayev?

Kolbin, an ethnic Russian

Kazakhs response to the replacement of Kunayev?

Seeing this as outside interference, Kazakhs rioted in support of Kunayev - Order was only restored after several hundred protestors were killed

Why was much of the blame for this incident was placed on Gorbachev’s shoulders?

Gorbachev was responsible for both the sacking of Kunayev and the appointment of his successor - acted as a warning to Gorbachev that reform of the Party was fraught with potential dangers

Democratisation?

an attempt, by Gorbachev, to get more people involved in the Communist Party and political debate

In early 1987, what idea did Gorbachev discuss at a meeting of the Central Committee?

the idea of secret ballots for multiple candidates - and in June, there was a limited experiment with multiple candidates in elections for local Soviets

When did Gorbachev announce that the principle of multi-candidate elections would be extended to national level with elections for the new Congress of People's Deputies?

At the Nineteenth Party Conference of June 1988

What was The Congress was set up to provide?

an independent, supervisory role over the government - and was part of Gorbachev's attempts to separate the functions of Party from state

Who was the only legal political party?

the Communist Party - could control the nomination process - still enough to engage the population in the process though

When did the elections for the new Congress of People's Deputies take place?

March 1989

What did the elections for the new Congress of People's Deputies give the Soviet public a taste of?

democracy - he form of democracy introduced in 1989 was very different to that of western European democracies but it represented a significant change in the context of the Soviet Union

What did this move towards democratisation weaken?

It had weakened irretrievably the power of the Communist Party

Despite being a step in the right direction, what were these reforms criticised for being?

criticised for being little more than tinkering with the system

What did Gorbachev become increasingly frustrated with?

his failure to change the mind-set of conservative Party members - He had hoped that his reforms would act as a key method of increasing the involvement of the population with politics and strengthen support for his economic reforms

What solution did the failure of reforms to the Party leave many reformers convinced was the only option?

the solution was to move towards pluralism

What possibility did Pluralism open up?

the possibility of a multi-party system whereby the Communist Party would have to earn its right to govern

Pluralism?

A political system where there is more than one political party contesting elections. This would mean a change from the one-party system used in the USSR

Examples of Gorbachev’s failure to reform the Party impacting the unity of the Communist Party (5)?

Increasing divisions within the Party, Alienating reformers, Alienating conservatives, The development of factions and The abolition of Article 6

Who did Gorbachev's failure to bring substantial reform of the Party alienate?

both liberals' and 'conservatives' in the Party. The increasing divisions undermined the authority of Gorbachev, who struggled to find common ground between them

Alienating reformers - For the more radical reformers, like Yeltsin, what was there an increasing realisation of?

there was an increasing realisation that the Party would not carry through the reforms they felt were needed and desired

When did Yeltsin openly attacked Gorbachev's approach to reform as being too slow?

at a Plenum of the Central Committee in October 1987

Consequently, What happened to Yeltsin in February 1988?

sacked as Party First Secretary in Moscow and then removed from the Politburo

Alienating conservatives - when did the hard-line communists in the Party attempted to strike back and gain some control over events?

March 1988

How did the conservatives attempt to strike back and gain some control over events?

While Gorbachev was on a diplomatic trip to Yugoslavia, a letter was published in the newspaper Sovetskaya Russia by an unknown communist, Nina Andreeva - complaining about the constant undermining of the work of Stalin and attacked Glasnost for its demoralising impact

Who took the initiative and used the letter as an opportunity to attack the pace of reform?

Ligachev, who was acting as leader in Gorbachev's absence

What was extremely worrying for Gorbachev?

he fact that the sentiments were supported, not just by die-hard Stalinists, such as Gromyko, but also by some of Gorbachev's own appointees, such as Chebrikov

What was the impact of democratisation for liberals and conservatives?

to open up the possibility of both sides appealing to the wider public for support

Although factions within the Party were prohibited, what started to emerge during the elections for the Congress of People's Deputies?

informal groupings

What did Reformers, such as Yeltsin, form?

an Inter-Regional Group

What did conservatives worried about upholding the territorial integrity of the Soviet Union form?

Soyuz

When the Congress met, what did these groups form?

a sort of unofficial opposition to the government

If the Communist Party could not be reformed then what was one logical conclusion to this?

to end the political monopoly of the Party

What did Article 6 of the Soviet Constitution state?

that the Communist Party held the position of "the leading and guiding force of Soviet Society and the nucleus of its political system, of all state organisations and public organisations"

Why did Article 6 become a symbolic target for critics who wished to push towards real democracy?

This Article enshrined the one-party state

One of the leading critics calling for the ending of Article 6?

Sakharov

Who was the Article non-negotiable for?

For conservatives within the Communist Party

When did Gorbachev finally repeal Article 6?

March 1990 - thus ended the Party's monopoly on power. (Other political parties could now be established to contest elections)

Why was the Communist Party powerless By the end of 1990?

Elections to local Soviets had seen Communist candidates defeated across the country

What percentage of seats did the opposition secure In Leningrad?

60%

In the non-Russian republics, what did support for grow?

support for national groups grew, especially in the Baltic States

Who had Yeltsin scored a victory for, in the elections for the Russian Congress of People's Deputies?

formed grouping, Democratic Platform

When did Yeltsin free himself from ties to the Party and to socialism?

In June 1990 - when he dramatically resigned from the Communist Party

In practice, what had power shifted from?

the centre to the regions

What do historians generally agree about the failure of Gorbachev to reform the Communist Party?

that it damaged his authority, and that of the Party

What is there debate over?

whether this left him severely weakened

What have Western historians have generally viewed Gorbachev's political reforms as?

well-meaning, although unlikely to have ever brought success

What view do So-called 'essentialist' historians take?

that communism and the Communist Party were impossible to reform because they were, in essence, incapable of producing anything other than a totalitarian state, where freedom was not allowed and a one-party state could only be sustained through force

What has more recent research questioned?

this inevitably of failure, viewing Gorbachev's political reforms as potentially workable, but undermined by both conservatives in and liberals within the Party