We explain who was Mikhail Gorbachev and how it became leader of the Soviet Union. In addition, how was his government and his main reforms.
Who was Mikhail Gorbachev?
MIJAÍL GERBACHOV (1931-2022) was a Russian political leader who ruled the Soviet Union from 1985 to its dissolution in 1991.
When assuming the management of the Government, it carried out different reform initiatives, with the aim of democratizing Soviet state policy and incorporating market elements into the national economy to improve the quality of life of the population. In 1990, He received the Nobel Peace Prize for their achievements in improving this-west relations within the framework of the Cold War.
He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (PCUS), and ascended throughout his life exercising different functions within the party and the government. When assuming the direction of the USSR, sought to implement internal policy structural reforms . However, the PCUS was deeply weakened by internal disputes.
In addition, the international context within the East Block and the situation of the different Soviet republics led to a crisis of the Soviet Union as a whole that finally flowed into its dissolution. In his last months of government, he granted more and more autonomy to the different republics of the USSR and sought to limit the power of the PCUS.
The end of his government coincided with the formal solution of the Soviet Union and the creation of the different autonomous countries of the republics that constituted it. In that context, the end of the long cold war between the western block and the eastern block is also given.
Private life of Mikhail Gorvachov
Mikhail Gorbachev was born in Privolni, a town south of the Soviet Union on March 2, 1931. The town was in a rural area that during the 1930s crossed the “Earth collectivization process” (a reform on the agricultural property and production system).
It was an economically poor region, and with frequent famine. When Gorbachev was a child, Several family members were killed during the “Stalinist purges” (An Iosif Stalin initiative, who led the Soviet Union at that time, to eliminate the opposition).
In 1952, he moved to Moscow with the aim of integrating into politics and ascending into the rows of the party. At the same time that he began his law studies at the University of Moscow, he entered the Komsomol, the main association of young communists.
Applied to be part of the PCUS barely passed the minimum age required. He finished his studies in 1955 and since then he dedicated himself to political tasks within the party.
Political life of Mikhail Gorbachev
Ascent within the PCUS
Between 1955 and 1970, Gorbachev assumed different positions within the organization of the PCUS In the city of Stavropol. In 1971, he was appointed full member of the central committee and, in 1978, he became a member of the Ministry of Agriculture of the party. In 1980, he obtained full membership in the Politburo (the highest governing body and management of the PCUS).
During the following years, Gorbachev's influence on the high leadership of the PCUS grew in parallel to the political crisis in the Soviet Union. With the death of Leonid Breznev in 1982, the USSR government was in the hands of Yuri Andropov First and Konstantin Cherchenko later, both elderly, traditional and conservative leaders of the party.
After Cherchenko's death in 1985, the leadership of the party saw the need for power to remain in the hands of a strong man within the party, who could undertake the fundamental reforms to save the Soviet economy. On March 11, Gorbachev was elected as general secretary of the PCUS and, as such, The government of the Soviet Union assumed .
Soviet Union Leadership
When assuming the government of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev launched different modernization initiatives of the economy and society through a series of reforms known as Perestroika (“Restructuring”) and Glasnost (“transparency”).
Gorbachev considered that some market elements should be gradually incorporated into the Soviet economy and, at the same time, integrate the Soviet economy into the international economy. To do this, it introduced a certain internal liberalization and autonomy in the management of local private companies .
He also believed fundamental dismantling the dictatorial elements of the Soviet state and incorporating greater popular participation in decision making. At the same time, he sought to reduce the expenses of the state apparatus and, for this, The USSR had to limit its international commitments and the growing military expenses (especially high due to the Afghanistan war).
In that context, Gorbachev proposed to end the long confrontation between this and west that had developed during the Cold War, and sought to normalize relations with the United States.
In his first meeting in Geneva, Ronald Reagan (the US president) and Gorbachov agreed important disarmament measures for the two powers. Then, on November 28, 1987 they signed in Washington the treaty of nuclear forces of intermediate scope (Nuclear intermediate -ngege forces treaty – inf), By which the destruction of all intermediate range missiles deployed in Europe was agreed.
Finally, with President George Bush Padre, Gorbachev signed the treaty Startwhich sought to reduce between 25 % and 30 % of strategic nuclear weapons .
In the rest of the world, Gorbachev directed his action to end the conflicts arising in the framework of the Cold War. In 1989, he assured the withdrawal of the Soviet troops of Afghanistan. In Africa he separated from the Ethiopian dictatorship of Mengistu and encouraged the withdrawal of Cuban troops of Angola in 1988. He withdrew economic aid and military presence in Cuba, and support for the communist groups of Nicaragua and El Salvador.
Regarding the “popular democracies” of the center and east of Europe, he refused to continue intervening aggressively to maintain the power of communist governments. Given this new attitude of the Soviet government, during 1989 a series of revolutions that led to the collapse of the East Block .
Gorbachev did not act to contain the communist regime of the Democratic Republic of Germany, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the contrary, in 1990 he accepted the inescapable character of the reunification of Germany and his incorporation into NATO.
The collapse of communist dictatorships led to the dissolution of ComeCon in June 1991 and the Warsaw Pact on July 1 of that same year. For his international initiatives, Gorbachev was very popular in the West. However, within the Soviet Union his government began to be harshly criticized.
In August 1991, a faction of the most conservative branch of the party, together with the KGB (the Soviet Intelligence Service) and the Army carried out a failed coup d'etat. In that context, Gorbachev's power was strongly weakened especially in front of the figure of Boris Yeltsin, which led the most reformist groups within the party.
During the months after the coup, Gorbachev delivered fundamental political functions of the Soviet Union Government to the republics that constituted it, to grant them greater autonomy. In turn, he removed the control of the KGB and the Armed Forces from the party. Soon, many of the functions of the Soviet central government were being co -opted by the Government of the Republic of Russia. Finally, on December 25, 1991 Gorbachev had to give up his functions, the same day the government of the Soviet Union dissolved .
Last years of Mikhaíl Gorbachev
After renouncing the government of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev maintained his political activity in Russia. He remained critical of the Yeltsin government. In 1996, he ran for the presidency but did not reach a significant number of voters. Then, He founded the Social Democratic Party of Russia, which was retired in 2004 . During the 2000s, he was part of different political groups and, since 2008, he integrated the Independent Democratic Party of Russia.
He also remained active in the media and participated in different international groups. He created the Gorbachev Foundation and Green Cross International, and was part of the Club of Rome and the Paris Club.
Mijaíl Gorbachev died due to illness on August 20, 2022, in Moscow.
The change in the International Soviet Policy of Gorbachev
In 1988, Gorbachev went to New York to go to the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization. Over there, pronounced a speech that reflected the change in Soviet international policy .
He declared that all nations should be free to choose their own destiny (that is, he recognized the western principle of self -determination of peoples), that ideology should not affect the links between countries and that The great powers had to give up the use of strength and violence in international relations .
Through speech, Gorbachev announced an important cut in the size of the army and Soviet military resources located in the countries of Eastern Europe. These words had a great effect on the population of the countries that were under the power of communist popular democracies. In the following months, the demonstrations in claim of greater civil liberties became popular concentrations against communist governments.
Gorbachov speech fragments to the UN
December 7, 1988
“The world in which we live today differs radically from what it was in the beginning and even in the middle of the century. And continues to be modified in all its aspects.
The appearance of atomic weapons has tragicly underlined the fundamental nature of such changes. (…) This event has raised the problem of survival and conservation of humanity in all its depth. (…)
The desire to democratize all political systems that govern the world has become a powerful first-order political-social force. (…) The technical-scientific revolution has transformed numerous problems-economic, energy, ecological, demographic, supply and communication-that we recently considered national or regional, in universal problems (…)
In a word, new realities change the entire world situation. The differences and contradictions inherited from the past are weakened or disappeared, but new ones appear. The divergences and discussions are lost importance, but occupy their place conflicts of different order. (…)
It is evident, for example, that the strength and threat of force can no longer still continue to be an instrument of international politics. We refer, first of all, the atomic weapons, but it is not just about that. All, and in the first place the strongest, must limit themselves and totally exclude the use of force abroad. (…)
The new stage requires the non -politicization of international relations. We do not give up our convictions, our philosophy and traditions, nor do we intend that no one renounces theirs (…)
This is what we think about the laws that govern the world on the threshold of the twentieth century. Of course, we do not intend, much less, to be in possession of absolute truth. (…).
What are the practical conclusions of all this? The natural and the sensible would not give up the positive we have acquired, make all the good we have achieved in recent years thanks to the common efforts.
I refer to the process of negotiations on nuclear disarmament and conventional and chemical weapons, in search of political solutions to end regional conflicts and, first, to a more intense, more sincere political dialogue, oriented to the bottom of problems and not to confrontation; to an exchange not of accusations, but of constructive considerations. Without political dialogue, negotiations will not prosper (…).
In this concrete historical situation we must also consider the new role of the UN. We consider that states review their relationship with an organism as exceptional as the UN; Without it it is already impossible to conceive world politics. His intense peaceful activity in recent times has shown again that he is in a position to help its members solve the threatening challenges of our day and to follow the path of humanization of relationships between them (…).
The security of the world is based on the principles of the UN Charter according to which all states must adhere to international law. By defending the demilitarization of international relations, we advocate the supremacy of political-legal methods in solving fundamental problems (…)
The democratization of international relations does not only mean that all members of the international world community to the maximum solution of problems. It also means the humanization of relationships. International relations will not fully reflect the true interests of the peoples, they will not be a firm guarantee of their safety until the center of everything is the human being, their concerns, rights and freedoms (…).
Today I can communicate the following: the Soviet Union has decided to reduce its armed forces. In the next two years its number will decrease by 500. 000 men and the amount of conventional weapons will be reduced significantly. These reductions will be made unilaterally. Apart from the negotiations held at the Vienna meeting.“
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References
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia (2023). “Mikhail Gorbachev”. Britannica Encyclopedia.
https://www.britannica.com/ - Judge, EH, & Langdon, JW (eds.). (2017). “Gorbachev's a Address, December 1988”. The Cold War Through Documents: A Global History. Rowman & Littlefield. (Translation by Juan Carlos Ocaña).
- Palmowski, J. (2000). “Mikhail Gorbachev”. To Dictionary of Twentieth-Century World History. Oxford University Press.
- Van Dijk, R., Gray, WG, Savranskaya, S., Suri, J., & Zhai, Q. (eds.). (2013). “Mikhail Gorbachev”. Encyclopedia of the Cold War. Routledge.
