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– “... Meant that the SU felt able to step in and re-impose its
https://sovtime.ru/rulers/gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–) became
a general secretary of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union in March 1985.
He led his nation on a new course. His
program introduced “perestroika” and
“glasnost”. This policy based on changes
in economic practice, internal affairs and
international relations. Gorbachev’s
actions finished into the 1991 collapse
of the Soviet Union, which divided into
15 independent republics.
interpretation of “socialism” whenever this seemed to be under
attack.” → What was the Brezhnev’s doctrine?
2. Islamic fighters, opponents of the pro-Soviet government. →
Dissident.
3. The protests in Prague were referred to “Prague Spring”.
The protestors demanded liberal reforms and democratic freedoms,
to the Communist Party these activities were “co unter-revolutionary”
in nature. → “Prague Spring”.
4. 1964–1982 → The Brezhnev doctrine in...
5. “The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a socialist state
of the whole people, expressing the will and interests of the workers,
peasants, and intelligentsia, the working people of all the nations and
nationalities of the country.” (Opening article) → What was the focus of this
Constitution?
6. Opponents of the regime. Dissident activity in the SU: Soviet
radicals demanded the same kind of freedoms and liberties than the West
enjoyed. → Dissident.
7. Major unrest in Hungary → 1980.
8. Alexei Kosygin and Prof. Evei Lienerman → Who is
the Lieberman Plan associated with?
PART 2
91
In five years, Gorbachev’s program of reforms brought an end
to the Cold War (1991). He resigned on December 25, 1991. Mikhail
Gorbachev was born on 2 March 1931 in a family of peasants,
in the southern Russian province of Stavropol Kray. He became active
in the Communist Party and studied law at the Moscow State University.
At the university he met and married Raisa Titarenko. The couple had one
daughter – Irina. Gorbachev returned to Stavropol after university and
worked as a regional Communist Party member. Gorbachev received
the second higher education in the field of agriculture and began to rise
through the ranks of the provincial Communist Party. He became known as
a regional modernizer and reformer and in 1978 he was sent to Moscow
and appointed to the agricultural central committee. Gorbachev was
promoted to the Soviet Union’s executive committee, the Politburo
for the short time.
In 1985 after three old leaders died one by one for a short period,
Gorbachev – a protégé of former Soviet leader Yuri Andropov was
appointed as a General Secretary and head of the Soviet Union. When
Mikhail Gorbachev became a new leader of the USSR in March 1985, it
was clear that he was different from his predecessors. Gorbachev was
the youngest leader (54 y.o.), he was much younger than the aging party
members before him. In April 1985 under his leadership the next plenum
of the Central Committee of the Communist Party took place, from which
the period of major political, economic, ideological and social reforms
in the largest country of the world began.
By the 1980s the Soviet economy needed reforms. Gorbachev took
a new approach toward these problems. He introduced a program of reforms
which combined two concepts. Perestroika focused on economic issues,
replacing the centralized government planning with a greater reliance
on market forces. The accompanying concept of glasnost made to ease
the strict social control imposed by the government. Gorbachev gave greater
freedom to the media and religious groups and allowed citizens to express
different views. By 1988 Gorbachev had expanded his reforms to include
democratization, moving the USSR to an elected form of government.
92
This period lasted 7 years and went down in history as “Perestroika”.
Four periods are clearly distinguishable in the history of perestroika:
Stage 1 – March 1985 – January 1987.
This stage was held under
the slogans “acceleration” and “more socialism”.
Stage 2 – 1987–1988.
The leitmotif of this stage was the slogans
“more democracy” and “glasnost”.
Stage 3 – 1989–1990.
The period of “disorder and hesitation”. It is
characterized by a split in a single former perestroika camp, a transition
to an open political, national confrontation.
Stage 4 – 1990–1991.
This phase was marked by the collapse
of the world socialist system, the political bankruptcy of the Communist
Party and the collapse of the USSR. At the April Plenum of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party in 1985, a course for “accelerating
the socioeconomic development” of the USSR was proclaimed
on the basis of the advancing development of machine building.
In 1986 there was an innovation in economic life – state acceptance
of industrial production (gospriemka). It was assumed that the reception
of finished products of enterprises will be carried out by an independent
state commission. The results were very deplorable (at the end of 1987,
15–18% of industrial production did not pass state acceptance).
In the social sphere, several campaigns were launched: the total
computerization of schools, the fight against alcoholism and illegal income.
The wide resonance was caused by the Resolution of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party “Measures to Overcome Drunkenness
and Alcoholism” issued in 1985. The consequence of its implementation
was a sharp increase of the price of vodka and a reduction of the time for
the sale of alcoholic beverages in stores. The results did not slow down;
in the stores huge queues for alcohol were appeared (in 1987 1.4 million
tons of sugar were used for making home-made liquors). Crime based
on drunkenness left the streets and came to the family.
The development of economic reforms was determined by two
trends: the expansion of the independence of state enterprises and
the expansion of the scope of the private sector of the economy. In 1986
93
the Law about Individual Labor Activities was adopted, which legalized
private entrepreneurial activity in 30 types of production of goods and
services, mainly in the sphere of handicrafts and consumer services. In the
USSR officially permitted “private traders” were appeared for the first time.
In 1987 the Law about the State Enterprise was adopted, according
to which state enterprises were transferred to self-financing. Selfsufficiency and self-financing could assistant to write contracts with
partners independently for supply. Some large enterprises were allowed
to enter the foreign market.
In 1988, the Law about cooperation in the USSR was passed. Finally,
in 1989 rent of the land was allowed for a period of 50 years. There was
a principle – a step forward, two steps back. Private traders and cooperators were taxed at high level (65%); by 1991 no more than 5%
of the population was employed in the cooperative sector, in the villages
in the hands of cooperatives were 2% of land and 3% of livestock.
M. Gorbachev introduced some new terms into the political vocabulary –
glasnost, which meant “healthy” criticism of existing shortcomings, greater
awareness of the population and some easing of censorship. The main object
of criticism was “Stalinism”, the main ideal is “a return to the Leninist
norms of party and state life”. During this campaign leaders of the party –
N. Bukharin, A. Rykov, G. Zinoviev, L. Kamenev were rehabilitated. Books
of Grossman, Platonov, Rybakov, Dudintsev, Pristavkin, Granin,
Mandelstam, Galich, Brodsky, Solzhenitsyn, Orwell began to be published.
New programs were launched on television – “Twelfth floor”, “Glance”,
“Fifth wheel”, “Before and after midnight”.
In 1987, the first political changes also began. The January Plenum
of the Central Committee of the Communist Party sanctioned such
innovations in the socio-political life of the country as alternative
elections for enterprise managers and secret balloting in the election
of secretaries of party committees.
At the XIX All-Union Party Conference M. Gorbachev proposed
to extend alternative elections to the party apparatus, to combine the post
of the first secretary of the party committee with the post of chairman
94
of the Council of People's Deputies. The idea of creating a new, two-level
system of supreme representative power of the USSR and introducing
the post of President of the USSR was approved. This reform led
to the establishment of a new system of representative and executive power:
Representative Power Congress of People's Deputies of
the USSR Supreme Soviet of the USSR;
Executive power President of the USSR.
At the Third Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR in 1990
M. Gorbachev was elected as the first and the latest President of the USSR.
In 1988–1989 a whole package of laws about the press, public
organizations, state security in the country was adopted. The political
climate in the country was substantially liberalized, which sharply
intensified political life in general and the activities of various kinds
of “informal” organizations. Since 1989 the concepts of market, political
pluralism, civil society, “new thinking” (in foreign policy) have been
entered political practice.
The election of deputies to the First Congress of People's Deputies
of the USSR took place in 1989. The work of 1–3 congresses clearly
showed that the country entered a period of open confrontation between
various political forces. The social tension was reinforced by the systematic
shortages of different goods: the summer of 1989 – sugar, washer powder,
autumn 1989 – the tea crisis, summer 1990 – the tobacco crisis.
In the spring of 1990 the government of N. Ryzhkov submitted
to the public a program of transition to the market, which provided for
an increase of the prices of a number of goods. The people reacted to it
by buying everything that remained on the shelves of stores. In contrast
to the program of the Council of Ministers in the summer of 1990 the plan
“500 days”, developed under the leadership of S. Shatalin – G. Yavlinsky,
was promulgated. The plan provided the creation of conditions for
the transition to a market economy. Finally, in the autumn of 1990,
M. Gorbachev proposed his compromise program of the transition
to a market. The crisis was growing. The authority of M. Gorbachev
in the country began to fall precipitously.
95
The period of 1988–1991 was also marked by radical changes
in the foreign policy of the USSR. Gorbachev’s internal reforms were
matched by new approaches of Soviet foreign policy. Gorbachev saw that
vast sums of money were being invested into the military industry to keep
up with the US. Gorbachev fostered a warmer relationship with the West.
In a series of high-profile summits Gorbachev met President Reagan and
the two men made important nuclear disarmament agreements. The thaw
in relations effectively signaled the end of the Cold War.
Determined to end his country’s nuclear rivalry with the United
States. He initiated negotiations with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
Although Reagan held strong anti-communist position and intensified
the Cold War by initiating a buildup of U.S. forces in the early 1980s.
These two leaders could find common ground. Gorbachev and Reagan
took part in five summits during the period of 1985–1988. These two
presidents wrote down three treaties: the Washington Treaty (8 December
1987), which provided for the destruction of all Soviet and American
intermediate-range missiles based in Europe; the Paris Treaty
(19 November 1990) on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, agreed
between the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
and the Warsaw Pact countries; and the first Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty (START I), signed in Moscow (31 July 1991), which provided
for the mutual reduction of strategic nuclear weapons. The productive
dialogue was the result of fresh thinking on both sides. The progress
on many points began with Gorbachev’s willingness to abandon longheld Soviet positions.
In September 1991 an agreement to stop the supply of Soviet and
American weapons to Afghanistan was reached. Gorbachev terminated
Soviet involvement in other parts of the world, withdrawing from
Afghanistan, where the Soviet army was sent by L. Brezhnev. In the same
year the USSR took the side of the US in condemning the aggression
of Iraq against Kuwait by establishing diplomatic relations with Israel and
South Africa.
96
The Gorbachev’s initiative was to abandon Soviet control over
the Communist nations of Eastern Europe. Gorbachev refused to use
military power. Several Warsaw Pact nations and Soviet republics
declared their intentions to free themselves from Communist rule.
Gorbachev declared in his speech that all nations should be free to choose
their own course without outside interference (at the United Nations)
in December 1988. He announced that the USSR would significantly
reduce the number of troops and tanks that were based in the Eastern
European countries. In 1989 Communist regimes fell down in Poland,
Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. Thanks
to the support of the USSR the reunification of West and East Germany
became possible and the Berlin Wall, a symbol of totalitarian socialism,
was destroyed. In 1990 Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Gorbachev remained committed to the principles of socialism.
Conservative Communists attempted to remove Gorbachev from
power in August 1991 by starting a coup. Imprisoned in his dacha holiday
home in the Crimea Gorbachev listened on the radio as the military
attempted to seize control of the Russian parliament. Thwarted
by the efforts of Russian President Boris Yeltsin and mass protests the
coup failed. Gorbachev returned to Moscow but soon realized that the
balance of power and popular support had shifted to Yeltsin. Boris
Yeltsin was the most powerful political figure in the country. After
the failed coup Yeltsin struck two blows that effectively ended the Soviet
Union and the career of Gorbachev. As President of Russia, he banned all
Communist Party activity on Russian soil. Yeltsin with the presidents
of Ukraine and Belorussia, signed a treaty to create a new commonwealth
of republics. Without these key nations the Soviet Union was defunct.
On December 25, 1991 Gorbachev resigned from the presidency
of a nation that no longer existed.
After forming several new parties and failing to win support,
Gorbachev’s political career was over. In retirement he established
the Gorbachev Foundation – a think-tank responsible for researching
Russian political policies.
97
Task 1. Answer the following questions:
1. What family was Gorbachev born in?
2. Why this period is called “perestroika”?
3. What relations had the USSR with the USA?
4. What periods did perestroika consist of?
5. What did Gorbachev obtain Nobel prize for?
6. What was changed after the XIX All-Union Party Conference?
7. What was changed in economy?
8. What do you know about family of M. Gorbachev?
9. What was the result of the perestroika?
Task 2. Watch the film “Mikhail Gorbachev: A Man who
changed the world”.
(Part 1–2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLujNV-9cf0 and write
an assay.
Task 3. Topics for report:
1. Mikhail Gorbachev is a Russian and former Soviet politician.
He was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, having been
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985
until 1991.
2. Perestroika: economic reform that allowed some private ownership
(reflection of Lenin's NEP); revival of foreign investment in Soviet
economy; increased production of consumer goods.
3. 1985: Gorbachev comes to power.
4. Glasnost: openness, end of censorship, criticism of government
allowed.
5. Begins initiating reforms that attempt to modernize Russia and
improve its economic and cultural state.
6. Increased independence for Eastern bloc countries.
98
Lecture 7. B. YELTSIN AND V. PUTIN
Борис Ельцин и Владимир Путин
Фото: Владимир Родионов / РИА Новости
https://lenta.ru/news/2019/06/20/yes/
Boris Yeltsin is a statesman who
went down in history as the first
president of Russia and also as
a radical reformer of the country.
Boris Yeltsin comes from a simple
working family: his father Nikolay
was engaged in construction, and
mother Claudia was a dressmaker.
Since soon after the birth of Boris his
father was repressed, the boy lived
with his mother and brother Mikhail
in the city of Berezniki, Perm
Region.
PART 1
Boris Yeltsin is a statesman who went down in history as the first
president of Russia and also as a radical reformer of the country. Boris
Yeltsin comes from a simple working family: his father Nikolay was
engaged in construction, and mother Claudia was a dressmaker. Since
soon after the birth of Boris his father was repressed, the boy lived with
his mother and brother Mikhail in the city of Berezniki, Perm Region.
At the school the future president Yeltsin studied well and was
activist in class. In the seventh form he was not afraid to go against
the class teacher who made schoolchildren to work in her garden instead
of bad marks. Because of this, Boris was expelled from the school with
very bad references. He wrote to the Komsomol to achieve justice. After
receiving the school certificate Boris Yeltsin became a student of the Ural
Polytechnic Institute, the Faculty of Civil Engineering.
After child's trauma Boris had no two fingers on his hand, so he could
not go to the army. But he played volleyball, passed exams for the title
of “Master of Sports” and was playing for the team of Ekaterinburg. After
the university Yeltsin started to work in the “Uraltyazhtrubstroy”. Education
99
allowed him to immediately take a leading position, but first he preferred
to master the working professions and alternately worked as a joiner, painter,
concrete worker, carpenter, mason, glazier, plasterer and crane operator.
The young specialist for two years rose to the foreman of construction
management and became a head of the Sverdlovsk house-building plant.
Around the same time Boris Yeltsin began to advance on the party ladder:
first he became a delegate to the city conference of the Communist Party,
then – first secretary of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee
of the Communist Party and by the beginning of the 1980s – a member
of the Central Committee of the Party.
The successes of Boris Yeltsin as a secretary of the regional Committee
were highly appreciated by the leaders and the residents. Under his
supervision a highway between Yekaterinburg and Serov was built,
agriculture and construction of apartments and industrial complexes were
developing. After moving to Moscow Boris dealt with construction issues
already at the all-Union level. His energy and active style of work raised his
popularity in the eyes of Muscovites. But the party elite reacted to Yeltsin
with prejudice and even to some extent hampered his endeavors.
Boris Yeltsin had a speech at the Plenum of the Party in 1987 and
criticized a number of officials who, in his opinion, hampered
the perestroika of Mikhail Gorbachev. The reaction of the government was
unambiguously negative, which led to the resignation of the politician who
dared openly express his opinion and transfer him to the post of deputy
chairman of the USSR State Construction Committee. Gorbachev publicly
stated that Yeltsin's policy will no longer be. But the country's leadership did
not take into account that the disgrace of Boris Yeltsin would lead
to a phenomenal growth of his authority among the people. When in 1989
Boris Yeltsin took part in elections for deputies of the Moscow region,
he obtained over 90 % of the vote. Later, he will become a chairman
of the Supreme Soviet and the first president of Russia.
When the attempt of a coup d’état, known today as the “August
coup”, took place in the USSR on August 19, 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev
was dismissed, and the so-called State Committee for State of Emergency
100
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