GLASNOST and The Need To Reform The Party Flashcards
The whole apparatus of the party and the state had become
Huge and unmanageable
Under Brezhnev the apparatus had grown to resemble
Blocs of vested interests who competed with each other
The rivalry was wasteful, competition between branches had led to corruption and nepotism
BREZHNEV Aussie of relations between the central planning apparatus in Moscow and that at
Regional level in each republic luv
Gorbachev recognised that the whole political system under Brezhnev needed
Streamlining
Streamlining the party would provide the additional benefit of offering the opportunity to remove
Those officials who were against reform
What highlighted the need for reform?
The impact of glasnost
GLASNOST
What happened?
What started as a method of getting new ideas to revitalise the communist party
and re-engage the population with the party
Descended
Into an open attack on its practices
Key criticisms of the party were as follows:
Complaints about
Poor housing were popular
Key criticisms of the party were as follows:
Investigations of soviet history revealed details of
Stalin’s mass terror
The famine of the 1930s
The Katyn Massacre
Key criticisms of the party were as follows:
Even the more sensitive issue of the
Soviet victory in the Second World War was discussed. The myth of the Great Patriotic War was undermined by revelations of the reckless waste of human life
Key criticisms of the party were as follows:
Environmental issues were a popular topic
Promoted by exposés of the damaging impact on the Aral Sea of government irrigation schemes
It was difficult for Gorbachev to call a halt to ________ once it had started, even if he had wanted to
Glasnost
What convinced Gorbachev that glasnost was essential?
The soviet governments response to the Chernobyl nuclear accident in April 1986
A wave of radioactive fallout drifting across much of Northern Europe
No official announcement was made by the soviet government until it was forced to respond to urgent calls for information after scientists from Scandinavia picked up readings of unusually high reactivity in their air space
The soviet governments delayed admission of an accident had disastrous results for its own people
An evacuation of people living in toxic areas was delayed, adding to the human cost
An increase in cases of leukaemia and birth deformities
The Chernobyl affair reflected many of the weaknesses of the Soviet Union
The nuclear power plant was badly damaged
If used outdated equipment
Had a poor record of health and safety
Deficiencies covered by secrecy and evasion
Chernobyl did little to help gorbachevs international
Reputation
The whole situation justified glasnost to him
By what year was the population much more politicised?
Why?
1989
Glasnost
By 1989 how many informal groups and clubs were holding meetings, organising demonstrations and adding their voices to the call for political reform?
Over 60,000
Instead of producing support for Gorbachev, glasnost resulted in a
Wave of criticism against the party
Much of it directed at Gorbachev for his weakness in pursuing radical reform
Glasnost -> many reformers in positions of power were unwilling to defend
The communist party- of which they were members
No surprise that some leading reformers decided to resign from the party
The katyn massacre
Who was murdered? How many?
When?
Where? Who discovered them? When?
What was the lie and when did it continue till?
Over 4000 polish army officers
April and May 1940
Buried in a mass grave at Katyn forest in western Russia — discovered by German troops in April 1943
Soviet government accused the German army of having carried out the massacre— a lie that continued till 1991
Glasnost.
The Aral Sea— during the ______ years the rivers that emptied into the Aral Sea in ______ were
Brezhnev
Kazakhstan
Diverted to irrigate the expansion of the area where cotton was grown
What was the result of diverting the rivers to irrigate the expansion of the area where cotton was grown? (Aral Sea)
An environmental disaster of huge proportions
Shrunk 90% 1960-2004
Soil contained a concentration of salt and toxic substances from pollution that created an uninhabitable desert
Remaining water undrinkable
Altered climate in area around the sea— hotter drier
GAINED PUBLICITY DURING GLASNOST
The Aral Sea covered an area of ________ in 1960.
By 2004 it had shrunk by
68,000 km^2
90%
The irrigation scheme had been directed by the
Communist party and involved the embezzlement of large sims of money by corrupt local officials
The scandal therefore added to the growing criticism of the party
