Gorbachev's Reforms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Gorbachev's Reforms - Essay Example Through these structural reforms which were meant to broaden the opportunities for the popular movements and the political parties so as to gain influence, Gorbachev made it easy for the orthodox communists, populist forces and nationalist to go against his wishes and oppose his efforts to revitalize and liberalize the soviet communist. This led to different opinions with some advocating for the liberalizing of the Soviet Union, others wanted the republics to be independent while the rest demanded for the restoration of old ways of the soviet union. These forces from below, top and sideways could not be compromised by Gorbachev leading to the consequent fall the Soviet Union.1 Between the year 1969 and 82 is when the reforms for Soviet Union stalled but generational shift introduced these demand s for the reform. There was change on the relations with the US after Reagan was elected and was against the Soviet Union and further termed it as the evil empire and his initiative to build a strong defense system (star wars) which the Soviet Union could not compete with. The public was not satisfied with the Moscow government because of the war in Afghanistan and the Chernobyl catastrophe gave the Glasnost and Perestroika which were introduced by Gorbachev gain momentum but eventually led to fall of the Soviet Union.2 After many years of stagnation new thinking younger communists emerged and after the death of Chernekno Konstantin made is ease the elected general secretary rise to leadership. Though he was relatively young he introduced a new momentum that advocated for economic and political liberation with better trade relation with the west. By 1866 when Gorbachev was introducing the Glasnost and Perestroika programs, the union was already suffering from supply shortages and inflation due to black market practiced by official economy. The state subsidies and cost of superpower were not proportional to the economy of the soviet and the union was craving for the unmatched western technology.3 One of the radical economic reforms was put in place in May 1988, the cooperative law that allowed the private ownership of manufacturing, retailing and al l other business including the foreign business and this became the soviet scene. A conference convened in 1987 by an economist who was as adviser to Gorbachev concluded that political openness was essential to pressure those who were opposing his economic reforms, the conservatives, to support his initiatives. This resulted to increased freedom of press and speech, many political prisoners were released, and public opinion polls could be conducted without restriction. The government records became accessible and gender studies were introduced. Gorbachev introduced democratization which came had in had with multi party elections in January 1988 in the Soviet Union. This was followed by the CPSU's 19th party conference that reduced the ruling party's control of the government. A legislative body (congress of people's deputies) was approved in December 1988 and the elections to that congress were held the following year in March-April. The first president of the Soviet Union was Gorbachev who was elected on 15th of March 1990. Flow of uncontrollable events made it inevitable to dissolve the Soviet Union despite efforts to by Gorbachev to meet his promises as