IB Docs (2) Team
5. Gorbachev (1985 - 1991) (ATL)
Gorbachev's rule was to be key in bringing about the end of Communism in the Soviet Union and, indeed, in all of the central and eastern satellite states. His decision to reform the Soviet Union politically and economically, and also to negotiate arms agreements with the US, was to lead to turmoil in the USSR and its collapse in 1990. His actions would also lead to the end of the Cold War.
Note that this theme overlaps with the final section for Paper 3 topic on Post-war central and eastern states: 4. Repression and revolution in central and eastern Europe, 1968 to 1989
There is an essay on the reasons for the collapse of Soviet control in central and eastern Europe here: Post-war central and eastern Europe: graded student essays
Guiding Questions
What was the state of the Soviet economy when Gorbachev became President?
What was new about Gorbachev's approach to domestic policies?
What was the impact of Chernobyl?
What was the impact of economic perestroika?
What was the result of political perestroika?
What was the impact of Gorbachev's reforms on the satellite states?
What was Gorbachev's contribution to the end of the Cold War?
Why did the Soviet Union collapse?
1. What was the state of the Soviet economy when Gorbachev became President?
The Soviet Union was facing an economic crisis by 1985 when Gorbachev took over.
Task one
ATL: Thinking skills
From the information below, distinguish between the causes of the economic crisis and the symptoms of the economic crisis. Create a table to show your findings.
Add any extra information to the table from the work that you did on Brezhnev.
- By the mid 1980s, about 25% of the USSR's GDP was being spent on the military (in comparison to 4-6% in the USA).
- The economy was still based on the 'command economy' of Stalin's day and it was slowing down; between 1967 and 1980 the annual growth rate for Soviet industrial output declined from 5.2 per cent to 2 per cent.
- The fall in oil and gas prices hit the Soviet Union badly.
- The cost of ventures in Afghanistan and Africa and subsidies to Vietnam was a huge drain on resources
- The focus in the USSR was still on heavy industry. By 1981 the rate of growth in consumer goods had leveled at zero; there was also a fall in the quality of health care. Low morale amongst the workers also affected the economy.
- Poor harvests and continued droughts meant that agricultural output had fallen. Collective farms still existed though 3% of arable land was farmed as private plots - these produced 40% of meat, dairy goods and vegetables. In 1975 the Soviet Union entered a five year agreement to buy up to 8 million tons of grain from the USA; this was affected by the grain embargoes placed on the USSR after its invasion of Afghanistan.
- The USSR had not kept up with the west in terms of technology; it had failed to integrate its technical advances from space and military research into the civilian economy. The nomenklatura opposed new initiatives and and so there was no one to be the driving force necessary for new ideas in the area of technology.
- The decline in the Soviet economy had a large impact on the East European satellite states. As growth in the USSR declined so did its capacity to absorb manufactured goods from the satellite states in return for cheap fuel and raw materials; this collapse in the flow of trade undermined popular confidence in the communist economic system.
Task Two
ATL: Thinking skills
Read the following article by Nikolai Shmelev who in 1987 summarised the problems of the Soviet economy.
1. According to Shmelev, what had happened to the workers in the Soviet Union?
2. Add any extra points to the table that you created in Task One to show the problems of the Soviet economy.
At present our economy is characterized by shortages, imbalances, [it is] unmanageable and almost unplannable... Industry now rejects up to 80 per cent of technical decisions and inventions... The working masses have reached a state of almost total lack of interest in honest labour... Apathy, difference, thieving have become mass phenomena, with simultaneous aggressive envy towards those who are capable of earning. There have appeared signs of physical degradation of a large part of our population, thorough drunkenness and idleness. Finally there is disbelief in the officially announced objectives and purposes, in the very possibility of a more rational economic and social organisation of life. Clearly all this cannot be quickly overcome - years, perhaps generations, will be needed.
2. What was new about Gorbachev's approach?
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
Continue watching the video that you started with Brezhnev; the link is here below again. Watch from 26 minutes to 30 minutes 30 seconds.
1. What was new about Gorbachev's approach to running the Soviet Union?
3. What was the impact of Chernobyl?
One of Gorbachev's key aims was to establish 'glasnost' or openness. As part of glasnost people were encouraged to voice their opinions about official shortcomings. Gorbachev felt that the problems of the Soviet system could only be addressed if there was acknowledgement of the problems facing the Soviet Union. There was much opposition to such an approach from the conservative elements in the politburo. However, the Chernobyl incident had an impact in accelerating this policy.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
Watch this video on Daily Motion about Chernobyl. (Battle for Glasnost I)
1. What can you learn about the workings of the Soviet Union from the way the explosion was dealt with?
Then watch the other clip (Glasnost III) from the same video which can be found on daily motion here
2. What impact did this event have on Gorbachev and the policy of glasnost?
3. In what ways did glasnost now take place?
4. What resistance was there to glasnost within the Party?
Task Two
ATL: Thinking skills
Read the following extract from an interview with Gorbachev on the 20th Anniversary of Chernobyl.
1. What, according to this interview, where the effects of Chernobyl?
2. With reference to origin, purpose and content, what are the value and limitations of this source for a historian studying Gorbachev's reforms?
The Chernobyl disaster, more than anything else, opened the possibility of much greater freedom of expression, to the point that the system as we knew it could no longer continue. It made absolutely clear how important it was to continue the policy of glasnost and I must say that I started to think about time in terms of pre-Chernobyl and post-Chernobyl. The price of the Chernobyl catastrophe was overwhelming not only in human terms, but also economically. Even today, the legacy of Chernobyl affects the economies of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Some people suggest that the economic price of the USSR was so high that it stopped the arms race, as I could not keep building arms while paying to clean up Chernobyl. This is wrong. My declaration of January 15, 1986, is well known around the world. I addressed arms reduction including nuclear arms, and I proposed that by the year 2000 no country should have atomic weapons, I personally felt a moral responsibility to end the arms race. But Chernobyl opened my eyes like nothing else; it showed the horrible consequences of nuclear power even when it is used for non-military purposes.
4. How successful was economic perestroika?
Alongside glasnost, Gorbachev's other aim was for 'perestroika' or restructuring and it was the economy with which this term was most associated.
Gorbachev's attempts to 'restructure' the economy can be divided into four phases which are explained below.
Task One:
ATL: Thinking and social skills
In pairs read through the different stages of economic perestroika and, using your knowledge of the Soviet Union and how it developed since Stalin's time, discuss the following:
- Which people would have been most against such restructuring?
- Which groups would have been most open to the idea of restructuring?
- What factors do you think prevented Gorbachev from being able to reform the Soviet economic system? (Click on the eye below to check your answer)
Phase 1: Accelerated growth, 1985 – 87
Gorbachev believed that problems could be solved not by radical change but by ‘accelerated growth’ – making the system work more efficiently. This was to be done by:
- Setting high targets in 12th 5 Year plan
- Calling for more discipline and more efficiency
But there were insufficient resources to meet new targets, people resented being told to just work harder and many ignored the demands, or lied about the targets.
However some changes were introduced:
- Law on Individual Labour Activity allowed for some private enterprise in the service sector (but ineffective due to bureaucratic obstructionism and suspicion of private enterprise and profit motive)
- Closed down distilleries making vodka – (made Gorbachev very unpopular and also lost a lot of revenue from tax)
- Renewed campaign on corruption – key figures prosecuted (more resentment to Gorbachev)
- A Law on Joint Enterprises with foreign companies was agreed in Dec 1986 (didn’t work well – foreign companies operated on the profit motive and so very different to Soviet companies)
Overall results of this stage:
- Economic growth declined (not helped by fall in gas and oil prices)
- No restructuring of economy – there were continued shortages which created popular dissatisfaction
Phase 2: Radical reform, 1987 - 89
There was no a decision that more radical reform was needed - Gorbachev wanted more popular participation and more accountability in the reforms. This meant:
- Decentralising the decision making process so that the Party could not interfere so much in the economy - transferring some powers from Moscow to the Republics and from planners to factories and farms
- A Law on State Enterprises giving workers the chance to elect their managers and more personal incentives to improve production
- A new law on co-operatives which legalised private enterprises
These reforms were not successful – by end of 1988 there was rationing of basic foodstuffs. Poverty rising by 1990.
Phase 3: Developing chaos, 1989/ 1990 – 91
Economic reforms were seriously affected by political changes taking place. There was chaos at all levels and disturbances such as the miners strike in the summer of 1989 – followed by other strikes which further impacted on the economy.
Phase 4: Move to market based economy, 1990 - 1991
There was now crisis in the economy. Reformers believed that only a full shift to a market-based economy would avoid catastrophe. But the resulting compromise – the Shatalin Plan (designed to carry out the transformation of the economy to a market-based one in 500 days) satisfied no one – not fast enough for radicals and too radical for conservatives.
In January 1991, the Russian Supreme Soviet implemented a law permitting private property ownership; this ended the planned economy.
Reforms not thought through. The people who made the reforms including Gorbachev were not economists.
Administrative reorganisations created confusion and lack of coordination at several levels. By 1990 there were several bodies - the original ones plus new ones - responsible for economic policy all competing with each other.
Many enterprises found it hard to deal with the new laws and carried on as before. Enterprises still lied about meeting targets. this prevented Gorbachev from knowing exactly what was happening in the economy.
The economy was further harmed by inflation.
Officials in every region and republic only carried out those changes which could be done easily and without affecting their own interests; some officials actively sabotaged the changes.
Production was affected by disruption in the workforce.
Gorbachev inherited costly foreign policy projects; the war in Afghanistan and a commitment to match US defence spending.
The drop in the price of oil and gas further harmed the economy making reform difficult.
Gorbachev wanted the advantages of a market economy within the confines of a State-controlled economy which was impossible to achieve.
Economic reform was happening at the same time as political instability.
5. What was the result of political perestroika?
Gorbachev soon realised that he could not carry out economic reform without also restructuring the political system; this meant breaking the power of the nomenklatura. He thus promoted reform minded politicians who would support his policies and tried to gain control of the Politburo. He also set up the first multi-candidate elections since 1917 for a new Congress of People's Deputies to meet in 1989. Despite having a democratic appearance, 33 per cent of the seats were still reserved in the Congress for members nominated by Communist organisations. Nevertheless, factions soon developed within the Congress. A key group was Soyuz which wanted to stop any further reform. On the other hand the Inter-Regional Group wanted reform to continue and to go faster. Some candidates from the Baltic states wanted to see independence for the republics. The proceedings and debates of the Congress were televised for the first time.
All of these reforms disillusioned the nomenklatura and the CPSU began to have less hold on politics. The reforms also led to growing demands for more independence in the Republics and clashes between those who wanted to hold back reform and those who wanted to go faster continued.
Another round of constitutional reform in February 1990 led to the creation of a new post - the President of the USSR who would be named by the Congress of People's Deputies and serve for 5 years. Gorbachev now became President of the USSR. It was hoped that this would provide strong government to fill the vacuum left by the declining authority of the Party. However, his authority was severely challenged by growing nationalist sentiment in the Republics.
Task One
ATL: Research and social skills
1. Review how Stalin and Brezhnev had treated the different nationalities within the USSR.
2. Work in pairs. Research the events that took place in the following Republics. Identify the reasons for unrest, how this unrest was dealt with by the Soviet government and the impact that it had overall on Gorbachev and the USSR
- Nagorno-Karabakh
- Georgia
- Ukraine
- Belorussia
- The Baltic States
6. What was the impact of Gorbachev's reforms on the satellite states?
Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost put pressure on the leaders of the satellite states to follow suit in reforming the economic and political systems in their countries. However, leaders such as Honecker in East Germany and Ceaușescu in Romania were unwilling to relinquish any hold on their countries or to make any such concessions. They wished to carry on as before; however, key to their control and power was the threat of Soviet intervention should dissent get out of hand. When Gorbachev made it clear that he was no longer prepared to send Soviet troops to prop up their regimes, their positions were much less secure. Indeed, Gorbachev stated in an address to the UN General Assembly in 1988 that all peoples should have the right to choose their own form of government and that universal human rights should exist in both capitalist and socialist blocs. In the same speech he also announced a reduction of half a million Red Army troops. This was a clear signal to the governments and peoples of the Eastern satellite states that teh Soviet Union would not intervene to end political opposition; indeed he actively supported reform movements within the Communist Party of Hungary when teh Prime minister Miklos Nemeth set up multi-party elections.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
Watch the rest of the People's Century video above from 30 minutes 30 seconds to 47 minutes
1. Make notes on what happened in each of the satellite states.
2. What factors allowed these states to regain independence?
For more video links and details on what happened in each of the satellite states, go to 4. Repression and revolution in central and eastern Europe, 1968 to 1989
As you will have seen from the video and from the extra material on the page 4. Repression and revolution in central and eastern Europe, 1968 to 1989, there were may reasons why the collapse of communism took place so rapidly in the satellite states - economic problems, political discontent, the peaceful actions of ordinary people in 1989. However, Gorbachev's actions remain key for allowing the collapse to happen, and for ensuring that there was no bloodshed.
'By indicating that he would not intervene he decisively undermined the only real source of political legitimacy available to the rulers of the satellite states: the promise (or threat) of military intervention from Moscow. Without the threat the local regimes were politically naked.' (Judt, Postwar, pg 632).
'Gorbachev ensured that the great 1989 revolution was the first one ever in which almost no blood was shed...In both its ends and its means, then, this revolution became a triumph of hope. It did so chiefly because Mikhail Gorbachev chose not to act, but rather to be acted upon. (Gaddis, Cold War, pg 239)
7. What was Gorbachev's contribution to the end of the Cold War?
This is covered under Paper 2, Cold War: 1.2 Theme 1 - Rivalry, Mistrust and Accord (ATL)
For further ATL on Gorbachev's role in the end of the Cold War, go to ATL: Leaders and Nations and Cold War: Sample essays with marks
For historians' assessments on Gorbachev go to the next page: 5. Post Soviet Russia to 2000 (ATL)
Teacher only boxOctober 2022
If you can access BBC iplayer, we would strongly recommend Adam Curtis' documentary ' Russia 1985-1999 TraumaZone: What It Felt Like to Live Through the Collapse of Communism and Democracy'. It is made up previously unseen BBC footage from BBC crews who travelled through Russia from the mid 1980s. It records the lives and experiences of Russians at every level of society to create a vivid record of everyday life in a collapsing empire - the impact of which we are seeing now.
In the words of Adam Curtis: “This project is an immersive history that takes you through Russian society as it lived through a cataclysm that wrecked the lives of millions of people and tore apart the foundations of the whole society. Because what the Russians lived through in the 1990s was not just the end of communism, but the failure of democracy too. They experienced the collapse of the two great ideologies of our time in a period of less than ten years.
By 1999 the word democracy was used as a curse. A curse against your enemies.
To understand Russia now – and what might happen in the future – you have to understand what happened back then. For it is out of that rage, the violence, the desperation and the overwhelming corruption that Vladimir Putin emerged.”
Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone - ingenious, essential viewing from Adam Curtis (the Guardian)
Showing everyone from reindeer herders to scientists wrapping themselves in sticky tape to head into Chernobyl, this fine series traces the latterday Russian revolution that brought in a kleptocracy and paved the way for Putin
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