Exam Notes: The Fall of the USSR (1985-1991)

Introduction: Collapse of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)

• Key Events Leading to Collapse:
  • 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev elected General Secretary of the Communist Party.
  • Gorbachev's reforms weakened the Communist Party's hold on power.
  • Nationalism resurgence in Eastern Europe and within the USSR republics.
  • Power struggle between Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin (representing Russian nationalism).
  • August 1991: Failed coup by Party conservatives weakened Gorbachev.
  • Power shifted from the central government to individual republics, with Yeltsin/Russia playing a key role.
  • December 1991: Republics dissolved the Soviet Union.
  • Christmas Day 1991: Gorbachev resigned, marking the end of the USSR.
• 15 Republics of the Soviet Union (1985):
  • Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic
  • Estonia
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Belorussia
  • Moldova
  • Ukraine
  • Georgia
  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Turkmenistan
  • Kazakhstan
  • Uzbekistan
  • Kirgizia
  • Tadzhikistan

Economic Weaknesses and the Fall of the USSR

• Importance of Material Goods After 1953:
  • The Soviet government used the provision of material goods to legitimize its rule.
  • After Stalin's death in 1953, reduced terror meant public acquiescence depended on meeting material needs and welfare.
• The Novosibirsk Report (1983):
  • A 'For internal use only' document compiled by Tatyana Zaslavskaya.
  • Highlighted weaknesses in the Soviet economic system.
  • Drew attention to the growing crisis in agriculture due to state inefficiency and inflexibility.
• Politburo's Reaction:
  • Aging members largely ignored or didn't understand the report.
  • Gorbachev supported the report, recognizing the need for reform but lacking a clear solution.

Gorbachev’s Initial Economic Reforms: Discipline and Acceleration

• Key Reformer Promotions (1986):
  • Yegor Ligachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov brought into the Politburo.
  • Boris Yeltsin and Alexander Yakovlev promoted to the Central Committee.
• Policies Relating to Alcohol:
  • Legal drinking age raised to 21.
  • Reduced retail outlets for alcohol.
  • Vineyards destroyed and distilleries closed.
  • Vodka prices tripled.
• Impact:
  • Initial benefits, but tax revenues from alcohol fell markedly.
  • Budget shortfall occurred.
  • Illegal moonshine liquor production increased, often in unhygienic conditions.
  • Relying on workforce discipline and sobriety didn't address underlying economic problems.

The Twelfth Five Year Plan (1986-90)

• Weaknesses:
  • Construction projects led to overspending.
  • Outdated equipment in Soviet industry led to low productivity.
  • Slow adoption of new technology.
  • Imports of foreign technology drained foreign exchange.
  • Vast investment in agriculture without productivity improvements.
  • Focus on quantity over quality led to unusable products.
• Impact of Acceleration:
  • Did little to address fundamental weaknesses.
  • Encountered opposition from the Party and state economic planning apparatus.
• Superministries:
  • Established to improve coordination and reduce waste, rather than decentralizing economic decision-making.
• Chief Obstacles to Reform:
  • Reforms to be implemented by those whose privileges were threatened.
  • Resistance from the military to changes in investment priorities.
  • Threat to consumer goods due to increased industrial and military investment.
  • Growing deficit: from $2.4\%$ of GDP to $6.2\%$ between 1985 and 1986.
  • Gorbachev's failure to understand underlying economic problems.
  • Ongoing war in Afghanistan and increased defense spending due to USA's Strategic Defence Initiative (Star Wars) programme.
• Analysis:
  • Questions of whether Gorbachev was to blame for economic decline.

Economic Perestroika

• Designed To:
  • Fundamentally restructure the Soviet economy.
  • Introduce market mechanisms and private enterprise.
  • Revitalize the economy.
  • Incentivize production and provide greater flexibility.
• Encouragement of Joint Ventures:
  • Allowed foreign firms to establish businesses in the Soviet Union.
  • Moscow got its first McDonald's in 1990.
  • Hoped to introduce modern technology.
• The Law on State Enterprises:
  • Loosened state controls over wages and prices.
  • Weakened the authority of Gosplan.
  • Allowed an element of election in the choice of managers.
  • Factories could produce what they liked after meeting state targets.
• Legalization of Co-Operatives:
  • Allowed small-scale private enterprises to be established.
  • Could set their own prices.
  • Led to a flourishing sector in cafes, restaurants and small shops.
  • The term 'co-operatives' appealed to conservative elements in the Party.
  • Partly disguised the move to a more market-based economy.

Impact of Perestroika

• Evidence of Success:
  • Food production showed a small increase in its growth rate from 1 to $2\%$ during the period 1986-87.
• State of the Economy by 1989:
  • Massively in debt and approaching crisis point.
  • Gorbachev's promise of an improvement in consumer goods had not been achieved.
  • His reforms had made the situation far worse.
  • Strikes had increased, as workers protested over unpaid wages and food shortages (e.g., coal miners in the Don Basin).
• State Commission on Economic Reform (July 1989):
  • Recommended a move to a market-led economy.
• Reaction within the Party:
  • Split the Politburo.
  • Reformers wanted quick implementation.
  • Others, such as Ryzhkov, called for a more gradual transition.
• 500 Days Programme:
  • Proposed by Stanislav Shatalin in October.
  • Recommended a rapid move to a market economy.
  • Rejected by the Soviet government but accepted by the Russian Parliament.
• Final Economic Collapse:
  • Division between central Party leadership and national republics.
  • Soviet output declined by one-fifth between 1990 and 1991.

Interpretations of Gorbachev’s Economic Reforms

• Western Interpretation:
  • Liberal free-market economics are seen as the best way to achieve material growth.
  • Communism was inherently weak, and its economic failure was not surprising.
• Left-Wing Historians:
  • View Gorbachev's economic reforms more positively.
  • Soviet economic weakness was not insurmountable.
  • Economic failure alone would not have brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union.
• Factors in ’A Very Unfavorable International Climate':
  • War in Afghanistan
  • Falling oil prices
  • US embargo on imports of technology to the USSR
  • Collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe during 1989
• Hanson's Interpretation:
  • Economic stagnation weakened the Soviet state from within.
  • Gorbachev's reforms of decentralization, partial legitimization of private enterprise, and efforts to open up trade and investment were experimental and lacked a coherent plan.
  • Reforms failed to revive the stagnating economy.
  • Persistent economic decline undermined the USSR’s ability to function as a superpower and raised the risk of domestic unrest.
• Brown’s Interpretation:
  • Economic problems were a significant factor, but not the sole cause.
  • Prolonged economic failure itself does not lead to the downfall of an authoritarian regime.
  • Political liberalisation and democratisation under Gorbachev in the late 1980s weakened the mechanisms of control.
  • Economic dissatisfaction escalated into open unrest.
• Dallin’s Interpretation:
  • Combination of long-term structural issues and poor leadership decisions.
  • Growing disillusionment among the Soviet population, especially among the young and educated.
  • Central command model lost effectiveness, with growth rates sharply declining from the 1960s onward.
  • Prioritization of military spending (over $15\%$ of GNP) at the expense of public welfare and consumer needs.
  • Systemic weaknesses and leadership failures eroded faith in the system.
• Phillips' Interpretation:
  • Growing unpopularity of Gorbachev and the failure of his economic reforms.
  • Policies led to widespread disillusionment.
  • By 1989, many citizens no longer wanted to fix the system but to dismantle it entirely.
    The Glasnost and The Party`s Need to reform
  • Under Brezhnev the party apparatus and state had become too large and unmanegable and had grown to resemble power blocs of vested interests who competed with each other
  • Glasnost was Gorbachev's policy of openness that encouraged the population to put forward new ideas and show initiative.
  • Gorbachev was introducing glasnost to streamline the system of the party and state, whilst also taking the opportunity tpo remove those officials who were against the reform.

The Impact of Glasnost

* Key criticisms of the party invovled Complaints about poor housing, investigations of Soviet history revealed details of Stalin's mass terror, the famine of the 1930s and the Katyn Massacre. Even the more sensitive issue of the Soviet victory in the Second World War was discussed with the myth of the Great Patriotic War was undermined by revelations of the reckless waste of human lives. Environmental issues were a popular topic, promoted by exposés of the damaging impact on the Aral Sea of government irrigation schemes. 

* What happened at Chernobyl involved an accident at Chernobyl nuclear power plant resulted in a wave of radioactive fallout drifting over much of northern Europe. 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 Soviet government's delayed admission of an accident had disastrous results for its own people with the evacuation of people living in toxic areas was delayed which added to the human cost of the accident which resulted in an increase in cases of leukaemia and birth deformities.

 *The Chernobyl affair reflected many of the weaknesses of the Soviet Union as The nuclear power plant was badly managed, it used outdated equipment, it had a poor record of health and safety, and its deficiencies were covered up by secrecy and evasion. It also did little to help Gorbachev's international reputation. 

 * By 1989, there were over 60,000 informal groups and clubs holding meetings, organising demonstrations and adding their voices to the call for political reform. However, instead of producing support for Gorbachev, glasnost resulted in a wave of criticism against the Party, much of it directed at Gorbachev for his weakness in pursuing radical reform. Many reformers in positions of power were now unwilling to defend the Communist Party of which they were members. 

Gorbachev’s Attempted Reforms of the Party

* Defining the Functions of Party and State involvingThe nomenklatura system, in which appointments and promotions within the state apparatus had relied on loyalty to the Party, had blurred the lines between the Party and the state and it was often the case that the personnel of one organisation held an equivalent position in the other. For example, in October Gorbachev became President of the Soviet Union as well as General Secretary of the Party which mirrored the situation lower down the hierarchy, where First Secretaries in each republic also held the position of Chairman of the regional Soviet. 

* Shifting Power from the Party to the Soviets involved Gorbachev allocating more finance to the Soviets in order to give them the resources to support their role. Deputies of the Soviets were also now to be elected for five years rather than two – this move gave them greater security in their post. 

* The party streamlining involved The departments of the Central Committee of the Communist Party were reduced from 20 to 9, and 6 new commissions were created. Additionally, in November 1985, Gorbachev created 'superministries' to co-ordinate economic planning with Five ministries were merged to create one 'superministry' for agriculture. 

* Corruption clamp down with Brezhnev's son-in-law, Yuri Churbanov was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment. In December 1986, Dinmukhamed Kunayev was removed from the position of First Secretary of the Party in Kazakhstan on grounds of corruption. His replacement was Gennady Kolbin, an ethnic Russian.

* The unintended consequence of Gorbachev’s actions in Kazakhstan saw the Kazakhs rioted in support of Kunayev seeing it as outside interference with order was only restored after several hundred protestors were killed. Gorbachev was responsible for both the sacking of Kunayev and the appointment of his successor with much of the blame for this incident was placed on his shoulders, acting as a warning to Gorbachev that reform of the Party was fraught with potential dangers. 

* In early 1987 at a meeting of the Central Committee, Gorbachev discussed the idea of secret ballots for multiple candidates, with In June, there was a limited experiment with multiple candidates in elections for local Soviets acting as a small but significant break with the practice of elections involving single candidates proposed by the Party. 

* The Nineteenth Party Conference of June 1988 saw Gorbachev announcing that the principle of multi-candidate elections would be extended to national level with elections for the new Congress of People's Deputies. 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 along with members of the Congress being allocated to the Party and other organisations, such as trade unions and the Union of Writers. 

* The limit of this with reference to democracy saw that Whilst the trade unions and Union of Writers gave their members a choice, the Communist Party nominated 100 candidates for its 100 seats. In some seats, voters could choose from 12 candidates, but the Communist Party was the only legal political party and, as such, could control the nomination process. 

* The March 1989 elections for the new Congress of People's Deputies gave the Soviet public a taste of democracy. While the form of democracy introduced in 1989 was very different to that of Western European democracies, it represented a significant change in the context of the Soviet Union as it had weakened irretrievably the power of the Communist Party. These reforms were criticised for being little more than tinkering with the system however the reforms were still certainly a step in the right direction. 

The Impact of Gorbachev’s failure to reform the party

* The failure of reforms to the Party left many reformers convinced that the solution was to move towards pluralism. 

* Pluralism involves A political system where there is more than one political party contesting elections. This would be a change from the one-party system used in the USSR and would open the possibility of a multi-party system whereby the Communist Party would have to earn its right to govern. 

* liberals versus conservatives with The terms liberal' and 'conservative' refer to those either in favour of reform or against it. On the ‘conservative’ side of the debate there were die-hard Stalinists like Andrei Gromyko, and on the ‘liberal’ side were radical reformers such as Yeltsin on the other. However, it is inaccurate to suggest that individuals where either ‘liberals’ or ‘conservatives’ as it was often the case that individuals considered each reform on its own merits – for example some pushed for economic reform but remained against political change, and most saw the need for change but disagreed over the pace of that change. For example, Ligachev, who had been a ‘liberal’ force for change when he joined the Politburo in 1985 became increasingly concerned about the speed of change and was generally considered to be a ‘conservative’ when he was removed from office in 1990. 

* Yeltsin attacked Gorbachev's approach to reform at a Plenum of the Central Committee in October 1987 as being too slow with Yeltsin being subsequently sacked as Party First Secretary in Moscow and then removed from the Politburo in February 1988. In March 1988, whilst 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 as well as Ligachev, and other hard-line communists in the Party used the letter as an opportunity to attack the pace of reform with the sentiments being supported, not just by die-hard Stalinists such as Gromyko, but also by some of Gorbachev's own appointees such as Viktor Chebrikov, 

 *Although factions within the Party were prohibited, informal groupings started to emerge during the elections for the Congress of People's Deputies. Reformers such as Yeltsin formed an Inter-Regional Group, and conservatives worried about upholding the territorial integrity of the Soviet Union formed Soyuz. 

* Article 6 of the Soviet Constitution 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 enshrining the one-party state and therefore became a symbolic target for critics who wished to push towards real democracy with It being hugely significant that Article 6 was revoked in March 1990 ending the Party's monopoly on power as other political parties could now be established to contest elections. Furthermore, the opinion of Gorbachev from conservatives within the Communist Party was futher weakened as they had viewed the Article as non-negotiable. 

 *The communist party being powerless by the end of 1990 saw that Elections to local Soviets saw Communist candidates defeated across the country with in Leningrad the opposition securing 60% of the seats. Additionally in the non-Russian republics, support for national groups grew, especially in the Baltic States as well as Yeltsin scoring a victory for his newly formed grouping, Democratic Platform, in the elections for the Russian Congress of People's Deputies and in June, he dramatically resigned from the Communist Party further weakening the power of the party. 

* Historians generally agree that the failure of Gorbachev to reform the Communist Party damaged his authority and that of the Party. Western historians generally view Gorbachev's political reforms as well-meaning whilst unlikely to have ever brought success. 

* 'essentialist’ historians take the view that communism and the Communist Party were impossible to reform because they were 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 whilst More recent historians question the inevitability of failure and argue that whilst Gorbachev’s political reforms were potentially workable, they failed due to being undermined by both conservatives and liberals within the Party.

* Gorbachev’s reforms led to the disintegration of the Communist Party’s power and authority, which ultimately caused the rapid collapse of the Soviet Union. In particular, the consequences of glasnost quickly spiralled beyond Gorbachev's control by relaxing censorship, the Party had lost its grip on the mass media which exposed social problems previously concealed by the government, undermining public confidence in the Soviet system. 

* Volkogonov’s interpretation see that Gorbachev’s goals were not attainable restructuring the Communist system whilst leaving intact the foundations laid by Lenin, was a logical impossibility that Gorbachev could not do and as a result he quickly lost control over his process of democratic reforms. Whilst it was not Gorbachev who directly brought about the disintegration of the Communist system, he did nothing to prevent it from happening. 

The Resurgence of Nationalism Role in the Collapse of the USSR?

* The Brezhnev Doctrine declared by Brezhnev in 1968, declared that the Soviet Union would intervene militarily in any communist country where it deemed socialist rule was threatened 'Whenever internal and external forces hostile to Socialism try to reverse the development of a Socialist country towards the restoration of capitalism... this becomes the concern of all Socialist countries' with The Doctrine being formulated after the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968 to prevent the Czech communist government introducing liberal reforms in response to popular protests.

• What happened in Poland in 1980-81 and what might this suggest about Soviet control? - In order to avoid a Soviet invasion, the leader of the communist government in Poland, General Jarulzelski, imposed martial law to supress popular protests which took place in 1980-81. - As a result of the events in Poland, Gorbachev decided that he would not uphold the right of the USSR to intervene in the affairs of other socialist countries – suggesting that the Soviet Union was loosening its control over its satellite states.

  • March 1985, at the funeral of the Soviet leader, Konstantin Chernenko, Gorbachev met with every leader of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe and declared that he would not intervene in their internal affairs with they now being free to choose their own path of socialism.

  • Supporting satellite states had become increasingly expensive which was approximately $40$ billion every year with Gorbachev believing that this money could be better used to promote domestic reform, and he hoped that many would follow his lead in economic reforms – he had a genuine belief that this was the way to rejuvenate socialism.

  • The consequences of ending the Brezhnev Doctrine involved Some governments in Eastern Europe attempting to reform, in response to the new Soviet lead, as well as increasing the pressure for change from the public. For example, in 1989 Hungary adopted a multiparty system and Polish elections returned a non-communist government as well as It Posing a particular problem for those Eastern European leaders who wanted to resist reform as they could no longer rely on Soviet military intervention to back up their regimes.

  • The Gorbachev reforms spiralling out of control in Poland saw that The communist government faced pressure from the independent workers' organisation, Solidarity, in 1989, and decided to allow it and any other political groups to stand in elections, with in the general elections that followed, Solidarity being able to defeat the Communist Party in a landslide victory and in the face of this lack of support, the Polish Communist Party collapsed as an organisation.

  • In Hungary the pressure for reform came from within the Communist Party, and in 1988 Janos Kadar, the hardline leader since 1956, was sacked with The government, now dominated by reformers, decided to allow other political parties to contest elections.

  • Gorbachev's visit to East Berlin in October 1989 encouraged those who wished to push for reforms and mass demonstrations took place on the streets of East German cities – this pressure for reform became unstoppable. Egon Krenz, who became East German leader in October 1989, refused to sanction widespread repression and, amid the growing chaos, decided to open access across the Berlin Wall. On 9 November, the Berlin Wall, the symbol of Cold War Europe, was dismantled by people power.

    *November 1989, the communist regime in Czechoslovakia was forced to make concessions in response to public demonstrations calling for reforms. As a result, an organisation called Civic Forum emerged to co-ordinate the campaign to get rid of the communist government. Under severe public pressure, the communists caved in, reforms were introduced, and in December 1989 Václav Havel, a leading playwright and opponent of communism, was elected President.

    *Romania`s support for the regime collapsed whenDemonstrations against the communist government started at the end of 1989 with Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romania's leader, using the army to open fire on the demonstrators, but this simply increased the unpopularity of the regime. By December even the army was unwilling to support Ceausescu, and he was forced to flee Bucharest by helicopter – his arrest and subsequent execution on Christmas Day sealed the end of communism in Romania.

    *These regimes collapsed becauseNationalism played a significant role in mobilising people power against Soviet-imposed communism and ultimately in the collapse of these regimes In areas where the power of the people had been less significant, such as in Hungary and Bulgaria, reformers within the ranks of the Communist Parties had taken the lead in asserting national independence. ,

Nationalist Sentiments Within the USSR

* Nationalist feelings were created by Gorbachev’s policies towards the satellite states, which weakened the power of the Soviet Union, provided opportunity for different nationalities within the USSR to assert their independence and It was clear that his policies had changed the relationship between Russians and the national minorities within the USSR.

*Increased nationalist feelings were a result of Environmental factors inSoil erosion due to the diversion of rivers had destroyed large parts of Central Asia as well as industrial pollution being a major concern in the Baltic republics. These issues provided a focal point for local people to rally against the central government in Moscow causing increased hostility in the outlying parts of the Soviet Union to the Communist government, where damage was greatest.

- Insecurity of Party leaders was significant factor since Party leaders were often those who felt most threatened by Gorbachev's economic and political reforms as Brezhnev's policy of 'trust in cadres' had left local communist leaders in positions of power and privilege which meant that they had been able to built-up sizeable powerbases and wealth through corruption, and whilst Brezhnev had left them alone, Gorbachev's reforms now threatened their cosy lifestyle. It was tempting for them to lend their support to popular local concerns (nationalism) to maintain their position which was often fuelled by Culture and language.

The process of independence for the Baltics went as such through dates:

• 1988: Popular Fronts were established in all three republics between April and October. Intellectuals formed Sajudis (movements), becoming mass organizations calling for native language and cultural tradition protection, soon demanding independence. Over $75\%$ of Lithuania's population being ethnic Lithuanians helped give the movement strength and unity.

• 1989: The anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Pact was marked with a mass demonstration for independence in August. Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians formed a human chain across the three republics as a show of independence.

• 1990: Popular Fronts won a majority in elections to the Supreme Soviets in all three Baltic republics. Lithuania declared independence, with Vytautas Landsbergis proclaiming Lithuania an independent state in March. The other two republics followed, an illegal move challenging the Soviet government.
  The Soviet government reacted

• declaring a state of emergency and imposing direct control from Moscow in November 1988, it achieved little other than making tensions in the area worse. - The Soviet government's initial response to nationalist demonstrations and declarations of independence in the Baltic republics illustrated the lack of a clear strategy – the result was the confusion that resulted in deaths during the Soviet army's storming of the television tower in Vilnius in January 1991.
  Nationalism's limits
  *referendum of 1991 indicated popular support for maintaining the Soviet Union in all the republics outside Georgia and the Baltic republics.

The Role of Russian Nationalism

• Yeltsin and his fellow reformers were happy to encourage Russian nationalism as a method of undermining the Soviet leader and the Communist Party. - Yeltsin's encouragement to the national groups of the non-Russian republics to 'take as much sovereignty as you can stomach' was an example of this strategy of undermining the Soviet government. - Yeltsin used the support for Russian nationalism to try to undermine Gorbachev's Union Treaty and called for a much looser arrangement, a Commonwealth of Independent States made up of the former Soviet republics.

How Far Were Gorbachev and Yeltsin Responsible for the Collapse of the USSR in 1991?

• What do ‘intentionalists’ argue about the collapse of the Soviet Union? - ‘intentionalists’ focus on the role of individuals in the collapse of the Soviet Union, in particular the involvement of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. - This approach is common in Western historiography and reflects the prevailing attitude of liberal values in the West that see individuals and freedom as important.
• What do ‘structuralists’ argue about the collapse of the Soviet Union? - ‘structuralists’ tend to focus on the structures (political, economic and social) that restrict the ability of the individual leader to do as they wish. - They see Gorbachev and Yeltsin as constrained by the organisations and movements that they belonged to and represented and argue that if Gorbachev and Yeltsin had not existed, it would have made little difference to the course of history as someone else would have taken their place with the same results.
• What do social historians argue about the collapse of the Soviet Union? - Social historians tend to view history from the point of view of the ruled rather than the rulers. - They draw attention to the experiences of the population and the accumulation of pressure they put on the rulers. - This approach draws attention away from the role of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, and instead focuses on the people who made up their supporters and opponents – particularly the role of the Soviet elites, desperate to retain their power and influence, and the rise of nationalism have been highlighted by social historians.
  INTERPRETATIONS OF GORBACHEV’S RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE COLLAPSE OF THE USSR
• How is Gorbachev remembered in the West? - In the west Gorbachev is remembered as the Soviet leader who had the courage to end the Cold War and make the world a much safer place. - He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 and was also celebrated in the West as the leader who dismantled a repressive communist system.
• How was Gorbachev seen within the Soviet Union? - In the USSR Gorbachev was despised and considered as either a failed reformer or the person who destroyed the Soviet Union and, with it, Russia's importance as a superpower in world affairs.
• How did Gorbachev’s lack of vision lead to the collapse? - Gorbachev did not have a clear idea of how to solve the economic problems of the USSR. - This meant that whilst he was well aware of the underlying weaknesses of the economy (particularly in agriculture), he was much less certain of the right solution to these problems. - On becoming General Secretary in 1985, Gorbachev implemented a series of uncoordinated policies to address the issue of productivity and the slowdown in economic growth, but when these failed to produce the results he expected, he continued to experimented with equally ineffective methods.
• How did Gorbachev’s naivety lead to the collapse? - Most of Gorbachev’s policies had unintended results and he can be criticised for making naive assumptions about their likely impact. - The level of resistance from within the Party to his economic reforms was more than he expected, but his experience of how the Party worked in the regions of the USSR should have prepared him for this. - He launched glasnost as an attempt to encourage support for his reforms from outside the Party, but it seems that he did not consider the possibility that glasnost would open the floodgates for attacks on the central position of the Party and himself as General Secretary.
• How did Gorbachev’s lack of a powerbase lead to the collapse? - Gorbachev's measures to reduce the power and role of the Communist Party left him, as its leader, exposed and as a result he was attacking the base of his own power without ensuring an adequate replacement. - His position as President of the USSR was a poor substitute, especially as he had refused to put the post to a popular election in 1990, a time when he would probably have won. - This was a contrast to the approach of Yeltsin, who used popular support and elections to buttress his growing power against Gorbachev.
• How did Gorbachev’s foreign policy lead to the collapse? - Gorbachev’s decision to end the Brezhnev Doctrine was based on the naive assumption that this would allow the communist states of Eastern Europe to reform and become regimes based on popular support. - He had not anticipated the rapid collapse of communist governments in Eastern Europe in 1989, nor the impact this would have on nationalist groups within the USSR.
• How did Gorbachev’s insensitive handling of national minorities lead to the collapse? - At key moments in the final years of the USSR, Gorbachev made decisions that were ill-judged and harmed the relationship between the central government and the government elites in the republics. - For example, his decision to replace Kunayev with the ethnic Russian, Kolbin, in Kazakhstan in 1986 inflamed tensions in the republic and his handling of the ethnic clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh was hesitant. - Additionally, when the Soviet government declared a state of emergency and imposed direct control from Moscow in November 1988, it achieved little other than making tensions in the area worse. - The Soviet government's initial response to nationalist demonstrations and declarations of independence in the Baltic republics illustrated the lack of a clear strategy – the result was the confusion that resulted in deaths during the Soviet army's storming of the television tower in Vilnius in January 1991.
• How did Gorbachev’s inconsistency lead to the collapse? - Gorbachev often gave mixed messages in his speeches, for example is his speech in November 1987 to commemorate the anniversary of the Revolution, he both praised Stalin's qualities as a leader whilst also condemning his real crimes – he was trying to appeal to the die-hard Stalinists in the Party, but he alienated the more liberal reformers. - Critics of Gorbachev accused him of moving position from supporting and promoting reform on the one hand to reining it in and giving in to the conservatives in the Party on the other – for example during December 1990, Gorbachev removed reformer Vadim Bakatin from his position as Minister of the Interior and replaced him with hardliner Boris Pugo, and another reformer, Nikolai Ryzhkov, the vice-president of the USSR, was replaced by Gennady Yanaev – this move to the conservatives resulted in the resignation of Eduard Shevardnadze, the Foreign Minister and another key reformer. - The consequence of Gorbachev's seemingly ever-changing position made him enemies on both sides – on the conservative side, it was a factor in persuading the plotters of the August Coup of
• How did Gorbachev’s indecision lead to the collapse? - At key moments Gorbachev was hesitant and postponed making crucial decisions. - For example, during the Chernobyl nuclear accident, he hesitated for several days before releasing information to the Soviet public and foreign press. - Additionally, he often made poor choices in personnel that did little to strengthen his position such as in May 1990, when Yeltsin stood for Chairman of the Congress of People's Deputies for the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic), Gorbachev supported Alexander Vlasov, a dull and uninspiring choice who provided too obvious a contrast with the more charismatic Yeltsin.
• What does Dallin argue about Gorbachev’s role? What did it lead to? - Gorbachev's actions had led to a string of weaknesses consisting of destabilisation, delegitimation and disintegration - With this decline in Soviet power and institutions, Soviet citizens had to find alternate focal points for their identity resulting in an increase in nationalism.
  IN DEFENCE OF GORBACHEV
• What does historian Ronald Suny argue about Gorbachev’s responsibility? - Historian Ronald Suny believes that Gorbachev's error was to attempt economic reform, democratisation and decolonising the republics all at the same time. - He argued that whist each policy had merits, the impact of all three at the same time proved too much for the Soviet state to withstand and there is no denying that the combination of these policies put an enormous strain on the system of