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Name: VINEET GUPTA

Roll No: 67

Batch: B1

FALL OF COMMUNISM IN ERSTWHILE USSR

What is Communism?

A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often

authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all

goods are equally shared by the people.

By the 1980s, communism in USSR was not really working out. Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader

of the USSR in 1985 and he introduced many reforms in an attempt to modernize the economy and

make the Communist Party more democratic. All that this led to was the breakup of the USSR and the

end of the one-party Communist rule, as well as the collapse of the well-known Iron Curtain and the

end of the Communist rule.

Gorbachev and his Reforms

Gorbachev set out to introduce reforms after realising that the Russian economy was not only not

growing, but was stagnating. Therefore he set out to introduce perestroika - economic and political

restructuring, as well as glasnost - openness. He started off introducing changes in small ways,

hoping to modernize the economy so that it would grow at a modest rate of about 4% each year. All

these, he set off to do without a proper plan, moulding the Communist economic and political

structures. This, he conducted in 4 phases.

Phase 1

From 1985 to 1986, Gorbachev continued an anti-alcohol programme which his predecessor,

Andropov, had started. The price of vodka was increased, the legal drinking age was raised from 18

to 21 and the hours of alcohol sales were reduced. He hoped this would discourage workers from

drinking and thus improve the productivity of workers and in turn increase industrial output. This

campaign was very unpopular and it failed.

Phase 2

During this period, he introduced more fundamental and drastic changes. One of these was the Law

of State Enterprises set in June 1987. This gave businesses much more independence from the

governement or state ministries that controlled them in the past. Despite the increased independence,

there was still some state control over their activities. As this was quite a radical change and was

seen as a move away from the old system of a centrally planned command economy, many people

opposed to it. Workers were also encouraged to be more open, which was part of glasnost, and

speak out against corruption or give suggestions. They were also encouraged to form small privately

owned cooperatives such as grocery shops and hairdressing salons. All these, and more changes

that made state enterprises less state-governed and more open, received much resistance from the

'old guard', which were the Communist Party and government officials. Therefore, he announced

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some steps towards democracy within the Communist Party, making the selection an election from a

choice of candidates.

Phase 3

This time round, Gorbachev decided to change the structure of the government such that he would be

able to execute his reforms without the sabotage and blockage from top party and state officials. Inthis phase, he introduced a new political institution, the Congress of People's Deputies. This replaced

the old parliament. This new institution was meant to be elected by the people and the institution was

to elect a smaller institution named the Supreme Soviet in which the members had the power to make

laws. Therefore, after he was named President of the USSR by the CPD, he could act without fear of

being restrained by the Communist Party. He then proceeded to reduce the amount of influence the

Communist had on the government, thus reducing their hold on the government. He also introduced

more reforms such that the economic and political systems of the country could be opened up.

Phase 4

In this last and final phase, was the downfall of Gorbachev as well as perestroika. This was due to

Gorbachev's uncertainty due to resistance from hardliners and encouragement from extremists. This

caused him to be uncertain, resulting in him not really following any consistent policies. Thus, after a

coup attempted to remove him from power, he had very little political support and was almost

powerless as Boris Yeltsin became president.

Therefore, it can be seen that perestroika was indeed a failure. Meanwhile, due to it as well as

glasnost, Russia was more independent of the Communist Party and their iron grip on the

government and the people. This would eventually lead to the downfall of Communism as well as the

Iron Curtain.

The results of Gorbachev's reforms

Gorbachev's reforms, despite the aim of aiding economic improvement, actually caused an economic

downfall, resulting in a series of strikes. This was due to the fact that factories reduced the production

of everyday consumer goods as they concentrate on more expensive goods, thus resulting in the lack

of consumer goods. This resulted in the rise of the price for consumer goods. Thus, money became

more useless. This resulted in more printing of money which resulted in inflation. This did not really

solve the problem, but aggravated it instead. Thus, the nation was plunged into an economic crisis

and food rationing had to be done. This caused great dissatisfaction among the people of Russia and

strikes were conducted to protest against the government.

The re-emergence of Nationalism

Under glasnost, more republics within the USSR started to express their feelings towards beingincorporated into the USSR during the World War 2 as a result of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939. They

resented this incorporation and during the period of glasnost, made it very apparent to the

government. After a long period of being supressed, these republics used this new freedom to push

for greater control over their economies and the right to express their national identity.

This was due to the fact that they were mistreated by the central government and their interests were

ignored just because the central government has overall control over them. This fired their demands

which got increasingly higher, like separation and full independence from the central government.

This shaked the stability and unity of the USSR, which would eventually lead to the downfall of

communism.

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The August Coup in 1991

By 1991, Gorbachev was prepared to negotiate a settlement in which the republics would belong to a

new union, which would only be ruled by the central government in certain areas, while the member

republics would be responsible for other matters. However, many hardliners were horrified by this

imminent break-up of the USSR. These were people who already opposed to Gorbachev's economic

reforms, which had failed and worsened the economic situation. Therefore, on the 18th of August,

these hardliners launched a coup to overthrow Gorbachev, in which he was placed under house

arrest and rule was taken over by an eight-member committee.

However, Boris Yeltsin, who became President, condemned the coup and called upon the Russian

people to resist the plotters. His actions caused the people to resist the coup and the coup failed. By

the time Gorbachev returned to Moscow, he had become increasingly powerless and Boris was the

then most popular politician. Gorbachev then resigned, as the coup was another clearly unsuccessful

result of his reform programme.