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Mikhail Sergheevich Gorbachev ► pronunciation ► (inRussian:Михаи́л Серге́евич Горбачёв, b.March 2, 1931, [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Privolnoye [*] , North Caucasus Krai [*] , USSR ) was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. His attempts at reform led to at the end of the Cold War , the end of the political monopoly of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Soviet Union . He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 .
Mikhail Gorbachev was born into a peasant family in the village of Privolnoe near Stavropol , the son of Serghei and Maria. [7] He had a difficult childhood in the days when Stalin was at the head of the country . His grandparents had been deported for being culprits . During World War II , he lived through the difficult times of the German occupation, after the Nazi armies conquered Stavropol on August 2, 1942 . Although the Germans were expelled in February 1943, the occupation hardened the life of the rural community in which young Gorbachev lived and left him with indelible memories. [7]From 1946 to 1950, Gorbachev worked as a mechanic's assistant on various farms in his region. [7] He would later confess that the work of the peasants at that time was "very hard", mainly due to quotas in products and taxes on plots in use required by the authorities. In addition, as the peasants were not issued with identity documents, the only chance for the villagers to leave the work of the land was to be on the "orgnabor" lists - to recruit staff for industrial investment projects. This situation made Gorbachev wonder, "What was the difference between this life and servitude?" [8] .
Despite his modest background and hardships in his youth, Gorbachev was a leading student during school, showing a special interest in history and mathematics. After graduating from school in the village, Gorbachev helped his father gather that year's harvest, a record harvest for the kolkhoz . For his work, he was rewarded with the Red Flag Order for Work at the age of only 16, which is quite unusual for someone so young. It was this order that paved the way for him to be admitted to the courses of the University of Moscow (1950). [7] Gorbachev did not intend to start a legal career, as this specialization was only a necessary step to access important positions inCommunist Party of the Soviet Union . He became a candidate for the Party in the same year. [7] While living in Moscow, he met his future wife, Raisa Maximovna Titarenko . [7] The two married on September 25, 1953, after which the couple moved to the Stavropol region of southern Russia. After graduating from university, Gorbachev joined the party. [7] After graduation, he worked for a short time in the prosecutor's office, after which he transferred to Komsomol . He was first secretary of the city organization Stavropol in September 1956, after which he was transferred to the regional committee.of the Komsomol, where he worked as Deputy First Secretary since April 1958 and as First Secretary since March 1961. [7] On January 6, 1957, the couple's first child, Irina, was to be born. [8]
He was a delegate to the XXII Congress of the Communist Party in October 1961, during which Nikita Khrushchev announced his plan to propel the country into communism for a period of 20 years and to surpass the United States economically. . Gorbachev was promoted to head of the agricultural department of Stavropol Krai in 1963. [7] In 1966, at the age of 35, he also graduated from the Institute of Agriculture, with a specialization in agronomy and economics. . [7] His career has been on the rise. In 1970 he was appointed First Secretary of the Ukrainian Stavropol, becoming one of the youngest regional party leaders in the USSR. [7]During this period he contributed to the reorganization of collective farms, improved the lives of agricultural workers, increased individual plots in use and allowed farmers more freedom in planning activities. [7] Due to his work efficiency, he was promoted to CC member of the USSR CP in May 1971. In 1972 he led a visiting Soviet delegation to Belgium [7] , and only two years later was a deputy in the Supreme Soviet. and chairman of the "Committee on Youth Affairs". He became a member of the "Secretariat of Agriculture of the CC of the CPSU" in 1978, replacing his supporter, Fyodor Kulakov, who died of a heart attack. [7] [8]
In 1979, Gorbachev was promoted to the Politburo (first as an alternate member, becoming a full member a year later). Here he became the protégé of Yuri Andropov , the head of the KGB , also from Stavropol . In the short time that his protector was at the helm of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev was promoted to party secretary for personnel issues. In collaboration with Andropov, Gorbachev has changed over 20% of the members of the upper echelons of leadership at ministerial and regional level. During this period , Grigori Romanov , Nicolai Rijkov and Egor Ligaciov reached important management positions., the latter two being later among Gorbachev's closest collaborators. He was also a close relative of Constantin Chernenko , Andropov's successor, working as deputy secretary. [9]
The positions he held in the party's senior governing bodies created new opportunities for Gorbachev to travel abroad. These trips would profoundly change his political and social visions of the future leader of the USSR. In 1975, he led a visiting Soviet delegation to West Germany , and in 1983 he led another visiting delegation to Canada , where he met with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and members of the Canadian House of Commons and Senate . In 1984 he traveled to the United Kingdom , where he met with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher .
After the death of Constantin Cherneko, Mikhail Gorbachev, then 54, was elected Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on March 11, 1985 . He became the first party leader born after the victory of the Bolshevik revolution .
As the party's leader and the country's de facto leader , Gorbachev sought to reform the ossified party and the recessionary economy by introducing glasnost ("transparency"), perestroika ("reconstruction") and uskorenie ("accelerating" economic development), officially launched policies. at the XXVII Congress of the Communist Party in February 1986.
Gorbachev introduced economic reforms in the so-called perestroika program , which he believed would raise the living standards of the population and labor productivity. In those days, many of his reforms were considered radical by the party's conservative bureaucrats .
In 1985, Gorbachev declared that the Soviet economic system was ossified and that its reorganization was immediately necessary. At first, his reforms were known as " uskorenie " (acceleration), but later the term " perestroika " (reconstruction) became much more popular.
Gorbachev is not on virgin land. Although Brezhnev's time was generally regarded as one of economic stagnation, a number of economic experiments had taken place, particularly in joint ventures with foreign companies. A number of reformist ideas had been discussed in the circles of socialist managers with innovative ideas, who had used the facilities offered by Komsomol as a forum for discussion. The so-called "Komsomol generation" would prove to be the most receptive to Gorbachev's initiatives and the cadre of cadres for the future class of post-Soviet businessmen, which was especially true in the Baltic states .
After becoming Secretary General, Gorbachev proposed a reform program, which was adopted by the CPSU Plenary in April. [8] . In a speech in May in Leningrad , Gorbachev publicly defended his reform agenda. To implement the reforms, Gorbachev began by replacing Foreign Minister Andrei Gromiko with Eduard Shevardnadze. Andrei Gromiko, derisively called "Mr. Niet" in the West, had been Foreign Minister for 28 years and was considered an old-fashioned figure. Robert D. English noted that despite their lack of diplomatic experience, Gorbachev and Shevardnadze shared a common vision, a common experience in managing agricultural issues, which meant that the two were in no way connected to the Soviet military-industrial complex . [10]
Gorbachev's first major reform was the so-called "alcohol reform," designed to combat widespread alcoholism in the Soviet Union . Prices for vodka , wine and beerthey increased significantly and sales were limited. Those found drunk at work or in public areas were tried and convicted. The consumption of alcoholic beverages on long-distance trains or in public areas has been banned. Several famous vineyards were destroyed. Scenes of alcohol consumption were censored from movies. This campaign did not have a significant influence on reducing alcoholism, but had a devastating effect on the state budget, resulting in a loss of about 100 billion rubles , by migrating alcohol production and sales on the black market . Gorbachev's critics went so far as to say that alcohol reform was the one that triggered the series of events that led tothe collapse of the Soviet Union and the serious economic problems that the newly formed CIS would face .
The radical reforms of perestroika were enunciated at the XXVII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in February-March 1986. Many historians, including Robert D. English, noted the struggle between "new thinkers" and conservatives, during which the latter deliberately blocked the process of change. An example was the series of events that followed the Chernobyl disaster . According to English, Gorbachev and his allies were "misinformed by the military-industrial complex" and were "betrayed by conservatives", who blocked information about the incident and therefore delayed any official response. [10]. Jack F. Matlock Jr. said Gorbachev asked the authorities to give "all the information," but "the Soviet bureaucracy blocked the flow of information." [11] . The tragic Chernobyl event and the delayed reaction of the Soviet authorities irritated the international community and many foreigners held Gorbachev responsible. Despite this, English suggested that there was also a "positive outcome" of the Chernobyl disaster , due to the fact that Gorbachev and his reformist collaborators received a strong impetus for domestic and foreign policy reforms. [10]
Changes in the USSR continued at a brisk pace. In an explosive speech at the CC Plenary of the Armenian CP, the young party secretary of the Hrazdan region, Hayk Kotanjian, criticized the corruption of proportions at the level of the upper echelons of the party, including the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Armenian SSR , Karen Demirchian, and demanded the latter's resignation. Symbolically, the Nobel Prize-winning Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov , who had been exiled for six years in the closed city of Gorky , was invited by Gorbachev to return to Moscow. But at the same time, there were signs of nationalist problems that would shake the last years of the USSR's existence. In Kazakhstanriots broke out after Dinmuhamed Kunaev was replaced as first secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR .
The plenary session of the USSR CC in January 1987 is considered to be the beginning of the maturity of Gorbachev's reform process. development of the cooperative system in the economy.
This year, May will prove to be a month of crises of all kinds. In an incredible incident, the young German Mathias Rust managed to land with a light plane near the Red Square in Moscow , without being detected by the air defense. It was a severe blow to the army, and Gorbachev underwent massive personnel changes, starting with the highest echelons of command. Dmitry Iazov was appointed Minister of Defense. [8]
Economic reforms took up the rest of 1987, and a new law that gave businesses much more independence was passed in June. In November, Gorbachev published the book Perestroika: New Thought for Our Country and for the World , in which he presented his ideas for reform in detail. At the same time, the strained relations between Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin have reached new heights. After Yeltsin criticized Gorbachev at the October party plenary, the former was replaced as Moscow's first party secretary. Yeltsin's influence diminished only temporarily. [8]
1988 was the year in which Gorbachev would introduce the glasnost [12], by which new freedoms were granted to Soviet citizens, including greater freedom of speech. This was a radical change, while government censorship had hitherto been a major feature of the Soviet system. Control over the press has waned, and thousands of political prisoners and dissidents have been released. Gorbachev's goal was to put pressure on conservatives in the CPSU CC, who were actively opposed to political and economic reforms, by promoting glasnost. Gorbachev also hoped that the broad masses of the Soviet population would take part in public debates on reforms and support innovative initiatives. At the same time, Gorbachev exposed himself and exposed his reforms to public criticism,Sovețkaia Rossia[8].
The law on cooperatives, which came into force in May 1988, was perhaps the most radical economic reform since the beginning of the Gorbachev era. For the first time since Lenin 's NEP , Soviet law allowed private ownership of business in the service, manufacturing, and foreign trade sectors. At first, the law provided for very high taxes and restrictions on staff, but all this was later revised so as not to discourage activity in the private sector. As a result of the law, restaurants, shops and tradesmen organized in cooperatives became equal participants in the Soviet political scene. It should be noted that some Soviet republics deliberately ignored any restrictions provided by the law of cooperatives. In theIn Estonia , the authorities allowed cooperatives to supply foreign visitors and took the initiative to set up joint ventures with foreign companies. Large union enterprises have begun to be restructured. Aeroflot , for example, has been split into several independent companies, some of which have become the nuclei of future independent airlines. New economic organizations have been encouraged to look for foreign investors.
In June 1988, at the 19th Party Conference, Gorbachev launched radical reforms to reduce the party's control over the government apparatus. He proposed a new executive, in the form of the presidential system, as a new legislative element - the Congress of Soviets . [8]
Elections for the Congress of Soviets were held in all union republics in March and April 1989. On March 15, 1990 , the first Executive President of the USSR was elected in the person of Mikhail Gorbachev. [8] With 59% of the deputies' votes, Gorbachev was elected, it is true, being the only candidate.
The congress met for the first time on May 25. Their first task was to elect the deputies who would represent them in the Supreme Soviet . From the beginning, the Congress did many hardships for Gorbachev. The sessions of the Congress were televised live, making public all the criticisms of the President, but also allowing the expression of desires for even deeper reforms. In the elections, the communist candidates had clearly been defeated. In addition, Boris Yeltsin had been elected to a constituency in Moscow and returned to the forefront of political movements critical of Gorbachev. [8]
The year 1989 was one of the nationalist problems in the USSR and the collapse of communist regimes in the Eastern bloc . Despite the unprecedented level of international expansion (the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in January, and talks between Gorbachev and George HW Bush continued), the stage of domestic reforms was little changed due to growing differences between reformists, who criticized the slow pace of reforms, and conservatives, who criticized their proportions. Gorbachev was trying to find a middle ground between the two camps, failing to get even more criticism from both sides. [8] From this moment on, the evolution of the facts deviated from the path of reforms of any kind and led to an uncontrollable evolution of national problems, which will lead to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
While Gorbachev's initiatives aimed at strengthening freedom and democracy in the Soviet Union and among the allies in the Eastern bloc , his government's economic policy gradually led the country to collapse. At the end of the ninth decade , there were crises in the supply of the main food products ( meat , sugar , etc.), which led to the reintroduction of the cartel system, abandoned in the USSR after the end of World War II.
Compared to 1985, the budget deficit increased (according to official figures) from 0 to 109 billion rubles, gold stocks fell from 2,000 to 200 tons, and external debt increased from 0 to 120 billions of dollars.
Moreover, the democratization of the USSR and its allies in the Eastern bloc led to the definitive undermining of the power of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and even of Gorbachev's position. The relaxation of censorship and the attempt at political openness had the unexpected side effect of the reopening of national conflicts, unresolved for far too long, but also of the reawakening of anti-Russian attitudes in all union republics. Demands for a greater degree of independence became much stronger, especially in the Baltic countries - Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania - which had been annexed by the USSR during Stalin 's time ( 1940).). Nationalist sentiments began to manifest themselves more and more strongly in Georgia , Ukraine , Armenia and Azerbaijan . Gorbachev had unleashed forces he could no longer control and which would eventually lead to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
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