Perestroika

In the 1980s, the promise of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms shook the Soviet Union to its foundations. Even before becoming General Secretary of the Communist Party in March 1985, Gorbachev---the youngest Politburo member by far---had been voicing his slogans of perestroika(reforming), glasnost (openness) and uskorenie (investment and technological change). He urged the nation to overcome its slow economic growth, its low investment rates, and its lax workplace discipline that was inherited (from what he termed) "the era of stagnation" under General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. Mikhail Gorbachev's reform slogans did become real programs but, it took time. [Text continues at bottom of page]

Initially, Gorbachev's reforms consisted of restrained measures against corruption and alcohol abuse. However, as his advisors exposed more cracks in the Soviet economy (including enormous resources consumed by the military-industrial complex), Gorbachev quickly realized the old system must be reformed lest it take-down the entire nation. The April 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, a national deficit crisis, and compounding military losses in the Afghanistan War helped push Gorbachev into abandoning his earlier restraint. By 1987, he was likening perestroika to "a revolution." When it was joined by glasnost, democratization, and "new thinking" in foreign policy, the combination sped far ahead of economic reform.

Glasnost allowed public and mass-media discussion of the Soviet Union's problems both present and past. Exposing the nation's problems led to a soul-searching that rapidly delegitimized the Communist Party's rule. Democratization brought halting but real change to an electoral process previously limited to formulaic single-candidate elections. In 1989, multiple candidates contested seats in elections for a new Congress of People's Deputies. The contest elevated Gorbachev to the new office of President of the USSR. In foreign policy, new thinking represented a radical shift. Recognizing that military expenditures limited the prospects of reform, Gorbachev walked away from the Cold War competition with the West. He worked to reduce international political tensions by negotiating rapid reductions in conventional and nuclear forces. His partnering with Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Helmut Kohl, and others in the NATO alliance made him an international celebrity. From 1988 to 1989, Gorbachev curbed resources and military troops allocated to Afghanistan and instead, he organized an end to the war. Around this period, he signaled that he would take a hands-off approach to popular, democratic movements developing in Eastern Europe. As a result, communist regimes from Berlin to Sofia folded one-by-one in a matter of weeks.

However, Gorbachev could not translate his international success into popularity at home because the reforms of perestroika proved unsuccessful. Ending government monopolies and price controls gave way to skyrocketing consumer costs. The resulting inflation put basic goods beyond the reach of the average Soviet citizen. Subsidies on food and consumer products proved difficult to end without harming producers who were also financially supported by the government. While Gorbachev and his advisors spoke of workplace democracy and giving workers a stake in their enterprises, there was no precedent for turning around a state-owned, centrally planned economy. As a result, Gorbachev's reforms were confronted by entrenched institutional powers, doctrinal restrictions, and a conservatism among political and managerial elites.

Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign tried to correct social ills afflicting families and workers but it also slashed tax revenues and plunged the government into greater deficit. Moreover, his economic reforms were launched amid an unfavorable international environment. Exploiting the high prices that resulted from the petroleum price shocks of 1973 and 1979, the Soviet Union boosted gas imports instead of relying on long-term investment and technological innovation. As world prices for oil and natural gas fell during the 1980s, the Soviet Union's foreign exchange earnings were sharply cut.

Soviet citizens, who had enjoyed stable living standards up to 1985, felt the ground shift underneath them. Economic contraction, inflation, constant shortages, organized crime, and societal plagues indicated that the foundations of the Soviet Union were quickly fracturing. In addition, glasnost helped bring about the rise of nationalist movements within the Soviet Union that challenged Moscow's dominance. By the end the 1980s, the republics of the USSR were either heading towards autonomy or declaring outright independence. In March 1990, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence while Estonia followed suit that May.

As the USSR unraveled, politically conservative interest groups moved against Gorbachev. Their plan culminated in the August 1991 coup to oust him in the name of stability. Having failed in the face of widespread popular resistance in the streets of Moscow, the coup attempt ruined not only the faltering prestige of the Communist Party, but also that of Gorbachev himself. Boris Yeltsin (President of the Russian Republic) and a group of national leaders quickly moved to dissolve the Soviet Union and abolish Gorbachev's office. He acquiesced in December 1991 when he resigned.