Impact of Gorbachev’s failure to reform the Party

What did many reformers feel the solution was to the failing reforms?

Pluralism

What is 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.

How did Gorbachev’s failure to reform increase divisions within the Party?

It alienated both ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives’ in the Party which undermined the authority of Gorbachev who struggled to find common ground between them.

How did Gorbachev’s failed reforms alienate reformers?

There was an increasing realisation that the Party would not carry through the reforms that were needed especially.

What reformer in particular felt alienated and what did he do?

Yeltsin →At a Plenum of the Central Committee in October 1987 Yeltsin openly attacked Gorbachev’s approach to reform as being too slow and was subsequently sacked as Party First Secretary in Moscow and then removed from the Politburo in February 1988.

How did the hard-line communists strike back against Gorbachev?

In March 1988 while Gorbachev was on a diplomatic trip to Yugoslavia a letter was published in the newspaper Sovetskaya Russia by an unknown communist. The letter complained about the constant undermining of the work of Stalin and attacked glasnost. This was worrying for Gorbachev was the sentiments were supported by some of Gorbachev’s own appointees.

How did factions start to develop?

Factions within the Party were prohibited but informal groupings started to emerge during the elections for the Congress of People’s Deputies.

How did the elections lead to political opposition and the formation of factions? What were these factions called?

Yeltsin formed an Inter-Regional Group during the elections for the Congress of People’s Deputies.

Conservatives worried about holding the USSR together formed ‘Soyuz’

What was Article 6 of the soviet constitution?

It enshrined the one-party state and stated 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’

When was Article 6 abolished and why?

March 1990→ Gorbachev was under pressure from reformers such as Andrei Sakharov who wanted to push towards real democracy. The abolition of article 6 meant that other political parties could be formed.

How did the removal of article 6 affect the Leningrad elections?

The opposition got 60% of the seats.