The economic situation grew worse under Gorbachev, and the demands for structural reform grew louder and more threatening to the old system. Glasnost, in addition to the events of —from Tiananmen Square to the Berlin Wall—mobilized the intellectual and cultural elite. The failed August coup was the last gasp of the main beneficiaries of Soviet rule: the privileged apparatchiks and ruling elite. For 60 hours the world first shuddered, then gasped as the coup unraveled, and finally cheered as the ordeal ended.
But the coup was a precondition for the beginning of real reform of the system. Otherwise, the party bureaucracy would still have held a degree of legitimacy and power that no longer exists.
The displacement of dominant interest groups, as Mancur Olson argued in his Rise and Decline of Nations, is a prerequisite for systemic political and economic reform.
The paradox of government, as James Madison so eloquently pointed out, is that a workable constitution must first empower the institution of governance with the ability to govern its citizens, and then force it to govern itself. As the leaders of the former Soviet republics debate their future economic and political ties and the legal frameworks that will govern their societies, they must bear in mind the most important lesson of the year history of Soviet Communism—when politics is allowed to dominate economics as an organizing principle, political and economic irrationality result.
A workable constitution must protect against unwarranted political intrusions even in the name of democracy into the operation of economic forces. In Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, the communist party lost authority to nationalist popular fronts.
In Poland and Hungary, radicalism was accepted by Gorbachev, and Hungary legalised freedom of association and assembly, as well as a multi-party system. The Austrian-Hungarian border was dismantled, and thousands fled to the west, including eleven thousand from East Germany7.
Most important of these was the Chernobyl Disaster of 26 April, , which killed 47 directly, and up to 4, more indirectly through complications caused by radiation8. The response to the disaster highlighted flaws in Glasnost and created friction in East-West relations. The west spin the story in a way which puts blame on the Soviet leadership. The silence caused a growing feeling of anxiety, and radiation could be monitored across Europe.
The disaster led to an extension of Glasnost and the aforementioned meetings with Reagan to discuss arms control. By the mid s, the United States was spending approximately 6 percent of its 5 trillion dollar Gross National Product GNP on defence while the Soviet Union […] was [spending] roughly a quarter of its 1. The west blamed the shoddy construction of housing overseen by the Soviet leadership who had control over Armenia. In addition to this disaster was the fall in world oil prices.
The USSR had to export increasingly smaller amounts of oil, and both directly and indirectly, there was a drastic fall in living conditions and 40 million people were living below poverty line, and this dip in productivity was made worse by a very bad harvest in All of these outside factors stimulated the growth of nationalism in the satellite states and cost Gorbachev his popularity both at home and internationally.
While referencing the totalitarian line, I would conclude that the inherent weaknesses of Communism as an ideology and economy in the Russian experiment were due to the need for a hard-line dictator, which Gorbachev was not.
If Gorbachev was to allow a little of the system to soften in the name of reform, the entire system was to collapse. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. Copy Link. The Dead End of Communism.
Refusal to break with Marx doomed the Soviet Union and plunged Russia into crisis. Leo Timm. August 21, Updated: June 4, Radical Measures Gorbachev had initially sold his reforms as necessary for the further development of communism. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev speaks on television during his arrest by pro-communist officials in August The Soviet Union collapsed by the end of the year.
A defiant Russian President Boris Yeltsin L clenches a fist to his supporters from the Russian Federation building 19 August in Moscow calling on them for a general strike and to resist the pro-communist coup against Soviet President Gorbachev. Relevant Lessons China, which remains under the rule of an avowedly communist regime but experienced rapid economic growth starting in the s and s, is a favorite subject of comparison to the Soviet collapse.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping waves as he reviews the army, at the beginning of the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in Beijing, China on Sep.
In simple terms, Gorbachev introduced multi-candidate elections to the Supreme Soviet. From onwards, Soviet citizens had the right to vote in elections where there was a choice of Communist Party candidates.
Independent candidates could also stand for election. Since , Russian citizens had elected local soviets. Communist Party had full control over the elections and took control over the Soviets. Gorbachev removed this. The remaining would be appointed by the Communist Party and other officials.
Multi-candidate elections did not allow citizens to vote for political parties. Reforms still allowed them to make a choice from independants, radicals and reformists. Gorbachev put his faith in the people to back him up and doing so provide incentive for further reform. Which would also be reformed. Rather than meet once a year, the Supreme Soviet was given the right to meet for two three-month sessions every year, which Gorbachev was a chair of. Reforms meant that, the Supreme Soviet was partly independent from Party leadership.
Therefore the reforms weakened the Party. Election, The March-April elections of was an important step in reducing the power of the Communist Party. During the campaign, candidates were forced to engage in public debate in order to win votes.
Nonetheless, Communists were still defeated, including 5 members of the Central Committee. Soon after, a group of newly elected deputies, like Yeltsin, and Sakharov formed the IRDG which embraced a radical anti-communist agenda including the introduction of private property and greater autonomy.
The creation of the IRDG was important as it moved towards democracy because it became an organised opposition group with an official position within the Soviet system. Consequences of the election: Election weakened the position of the moderates as Gorbachev had hoped. Also led to unintended consequences: Nationalists wanted to break up the USSR used the election to campaign for independence. In Georgia, the campaigns resulted in violence. Yeltsin emerged from the election as a popular figure and rival to Gorbachev.
Republic elections, Anti-Communist trends were also obvious in the March elections in the republics. Gorbachev had assumed that democratisation would strengthen the radicals within the Communist Party. Soviet Elections however weakened the whole party, increasing the power of the Anti-Party and nationalist groups. Consequences of democratisation was the same as glasnost consequences, were much more radical than Gorbachev had wanted.
Constitutional reform: Democratisation weakened the Communist Party, did not produce a strong government. Caused problems for Gorbachev as he needed a strong central authority that could push for his own economic reforms and maintain order.
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