Impact Of Gorbachev's Reforms

Impacts of Gorbachev’s reforms

Internal conflicts in the communist party

Knowledge of soviet history

freedom of speech

new positions in government

Internal conflicts in the communist party

Reforms divided the Communist Party into the more traditional Communist hardliners, more moderate members and the most radical Communists who supported attempts to reform the system.

Knowledge of soviet history

Public knowledge about Soviet history, such as what the government had done during the Great Terror, shocked the population and led to the even greater unpopularity of the government.

Freedom of speech

Freer media led to the most important organ of the government, the Communist Party, being undermined.

new positions in government

Gorbachev created the position of ‘President’, which had not previously existed in the Soviet Union. He thought this would give him more legitimacy, but the position was not elected.

Newly elected politicians had much more authority than him.