Chapter 10: Economic, Political And Social Policies Under Gorbachev

Question 1

When was the Chernobyl disaster?

Answer 1

April 1986

Question 2

What happened in the Chernobyl crisis ?

Answer 2

-the Chernobyl nuclear power complex is in Ukraine where an accident happened when an explosion in a reactor threw a huge cloud of radionuclides into the air and threw drifted over large areas of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

Question 3

How did the regime react ?

Answer 3

-the regime was slow to act properly and local inhabitants were not evicted for the area for three days

Question 4

How many weeks did Gorbachev did not appear on TV, and talked about the disaster ?

Answer 4

2 weeks

Question 5

How many month did it take for the damage to be finally sealed

Answer 5

7 months

Question 6

How many inhabitants were evacuated on 27th April 1989 ?

Answer 6

43,000

Question 7

What was the disaster an indication of ?

Answer 7

The disaster was a blow of soviet claims of progress and also showed the limitations of Glasnost

Question 8

Why is the Chernobyl disaster was perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union ?

Answer 8

-Chernobyl accident highlighted the lack of efficiency and a disaster to ant progress and showed limitations of the Soviet Union

Question 9

What were the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster ?

Answer 9

• an indication of soviet claims of progress because it was cause from inadequate safety measures and ended any belief in the socio-economic acceleration of the country
  -the publicity throughout the world was a source of embarrassment for Gorbachev contrary to the image he wanted to convey
  -human cost they lost thousand of life’s
  -economic cost about 18 billion roubles and budget deficit in 1986 was 3 times that in previous year

Question 10

Define Uskorenie ?

Answer 10

Acceleration

Question 11

Define perestroika ?

Answer 11

Restructuring

Question 12

What are the 4 phases of perestroika ?

Answer 12

Phase 1: the period of acceleration 1985-1986/7
Phase 2: radical reform from above 1987/8-1989
Phase 3: market-based reform and reaction 1989-1990/1
Phase 4: indecision, crisis and the break-up of the USSR -1990/1

Question 13

What is a red tape ?

Answer 13

Overly complex bureaucratic requirements

Question 14

What are the key features of the Twelfth 5th Year Plan ?

Answer 14

-was a plan to set targets considerably higher than those in the 1981-85 plan even though few of the latter have not been achieved
-ambition target of doubling national income by 2000 through investment

Question 15

How successful was the twelfth 5 year plan ?

Answer 15

-workers were not happy about begin told to work harder for the same wage
-Gorbachev own contribution was disastrous because the plan was still begin formulated when he came to power and had plan targets increased against advice
-put more pressure into the economy and there was insufficient resource to meet the targets
-worker lied about the target mets
-economy instead of growing as aimed it was declining
-much of new investment went into energy and agriculture, not machine building as had been intended

Question 16

What were the key features of the law on individual labour activity November 1986 ?

Answer 16

-allowed for some private enterprise in the service sector
-a law joint enterprise with foreign companies was agreed

Question 17

How successful was the law on individual labour activity ?

Answer 17

-it did not work well because foreign companies operated on the profit motive unlike Soviet enterprises
-proved to be largely inefficient because of the bureaucratic obstruction this was because private enterprise and profit motive was considered anti-socialist

Question 18

What were the key features of alcoholism ?

Answer 18

-a decree in may closed down distilleries in hope that people would drink beer and wine

Question 19

How successful was alcoholism reforms ?

Answer 19

-results were disastrous since people turned to illegal home-brewing of spirits,sugar supplies
-alcoholism increased
-Gorbachev became known as lemonade or mineral water
-state lost 17% of revenue
-many people were poisoned
-by 1988 the system was closed
-however initially there was improvements in workers productivity and general health

Question 20

What were the key features of corruption ?

Answer 20

-renewed campaigns against corruption some leading ministries and officials were arrested for a range of offences such as illegal purchasing materials abroad

Question 21

How successful was corruption reforms ?

Answer 21

-resentment at Gorbachev campaign helped to fuel opposition to Moscow from these republics
-mafia and black market still involved in asset stripping soviet era business

Question 22

Key features in restructuring individual ministries into super ministries?

Answer 22

-Gorbachev wanted to re-group over 60 industrial ministries and state committees into a maximum of seven super ministries
-created three of this in agriculture, machine building and energy

Question 23

What are the key features of law on joint enterprise ?

Answer 23

-allowed foreign companies to own up to 49% of a soviet company

Question 24

How successful was the law on joint enterprise reforms ?

Answer 24

-did not work well because foreign companies operated on the profit motives unlike soviet enterprise
-there was confusion and corruption
-joint investment fund were often pocketed by corrupt managers

Question 25

What are the key features of the law on state enterprises ?

Answer 25

-gave factory managers more freedom from central control and the opportunity to keep profits

Question 26

How successful was the law on state enterprises?

Answer 26

-the ministries and the central planners still had high plan targets to meet so they found new ways to ensure that state enterprise kept working for them not form themselves
-for any enterprise that did have some spare capacity the easiest thing was to produce the same shoddy products as before but put the prices up

Question 27

What are the key features of the law on cooperative ?

Answer 27

-allowed people to set up their own private business, buy necessary materials from the wholesale market, employ people, sell their products at wages and prices they set and keep profits

Question 28

How successful were the law on cooperative?

Answer 28

-the number of cooperative grew very fast and proved to often be much more productive than state enterprises
-but corruption caused huge problems for those running cooperative because state official demanded bribes to cut through masses of red tape while the Russian mafia demanded protection money from cooperative

Question 29

Why did Gorbachev want to reform the political system ?

Answer 29

-Gorbachev realised in order to improve and leave economic stagnation, the party had to have political reform as their conservative belief acted as an obstacle

Question 30

Was Gorbachev naive in the idea of reforming the political system ?

Answer 30

Yes because the system itself was already damaged and divided into factions clearly showing no reform would actually fix the soviet part and would only worsen the current system leading to its break up

Question 31

How was the old system of the Soviet Union ?

Answer 31

-legislature supreme soviet
-elections held but their was only ever one candidate in each constituency
-all candidate were selected by the party
-the party leadership directed the SS on how to vote
-the SS was a rubber stamp
-it met twice a year for 2 or 3 days

Question 32

How was the new system ?

Answer 32

-two tier legislature : 1)congress of people deputies which would then elect 2) a new supreme soviet
-elections were held and there would be more than one candidate to choose from
-the SS would ratify ministerial appointments, question ministers and set up commissions/committees to investigate political issues
-the congress would vote to amend or reject laws
-republics set up their own parliament

Question 33

Why was the new legislative system not fully democratic?

Answer 33

-public organisations had a third of all seats to be voted on, including a share of 100 seats controlled by the communist party
-the local electoral system was controlled by the communist party
-party candidates put pressure on other candidates to withdraw from the congress elections making them the only candidate
-party politics and processes were not clear

Question 34

What was the inter-regional group of deputies ?

Answer 34

It was a radical reformist group within the congress of peoples deputies who put pressure on Gorbachev to go further with his changes

Question 35

What did the inter-regional group of deputies start ?

Answer 35

-started the formation of what would become different political parties

Question 36

How was the legal system reformed ?

Answer 36

-wanted to make the whole legal system independent of the party
-new law making body, the congress of people deputies would be elected by the people
-elected deputies into the Soviet system and could ratify and amend laws
-supreme soviet became a working class parliament with full time paid deputies
-set up commission/committees
-the soviet would ratify ministerial appointments

Question 37

How successful was the reform of the legal system ?

Answer 37

-local soviets were to be made more accountable and professional, had power to run local affairs but were supervised by local elected deputies
-democratic but was limited because the system still had many flaws

Question 38

How was the constitution reformed ?

Answer 38

-constitution was not drafted until June 1989
-party was resented to the fact all power of law making and administration were begin taken over by other bodies

Question 39

How was the party reformed ?

Answer 39

-party officials would be elected from competing party candidates
-then central committee was to take a more active role in the highest levels of policy decision making
-central committee was reduced from 20 to 9 departments
-nobody allowed to hold both a party and state position at the highest level (although Gorbachev did )

Question 40

How successful was the reform of the party ?

Answer 40

-party official begin elected by competing party candidates became a challenge for the nomenklatura system

Question 41

How was the role of the president reformed ?

Answer 41

-march 1990 the leading roles in the CPSU came to an end
-party be led by socialist pluralism (different opinions on how to best take socialism forward would lead the party )
-in charge of outranking the politburo

Question 42

How successful was the role of the president?

Answer 42

-created parid growth and fragmentation of political opposition

Question 43

Failures of Gorbachev attempts to democratise the system ?

Answer 43

• the party still controlled some key institutions such as the KGB and the military and strongly represented in other
  -in 1990 3million member (14%) left the party
  -lack of directions and failure of the party democratise itself
  -as part of glasnost the new legislature was televised live
  -big winner from the changes was Yeltsin
  -party could not had a dominant role if it separated the powers of the party and that state
  -Gorbachev was seen as naive
  -freedom of speech allowed deputies to critique the state of the USSR
  -pro-reform and conservative factions began to form which made it difficult to pass laws

Question 44

Success of Gorbachev attempt to democratise the political system ?

Answer 44

-gained freedom of speech

Question 45

Why would nationalist oppose Gorbachev political reforms ?

Answer 45

-wanted more independence and autonomy and not many wanted to be part of the USSR
-this could lead them to take advantage of the uncertainty and opportunity to critise