Gorbachev's Attempted Reforms Of The Party

Question 1

What did Gorbachev seek to separate?

When did he attempt to do this?

Answer 1

The party and the state

Nineteenth Conference of the Communist Party — June 1988

Question 2

Difficulties that faced Gorbachev in attempting to separate the party and state in June 1988?

Answer 2

Little was done to get individual officials to choose one over the other

Lines between the two had become blurred— largely bc nomenklatura system, promotions/appointment within state relied on loyalty to party

Personnel of one organisation often held an equivalent position in the other

Question 3

When did Gorbachev become President of the Soviet Union? (As well as General Secretary of the Party)

Answer 3

October 1988

Mirrored the situation lower down the hierarchy (First Secretaries in each republic also held the position of Chairman of the regional Soviet)

Question 4

First Secretaries in each republic also held the position of

Answer 4

Chairman of the regional Soviet

Question 5

SHIFTING POWER FROM THE PARTY TO THE SOVIETS

Answer 5

This was attempted by allocating more finance to the Soviets in order to give them the resources to support their role

Deputies of the Soviets were to be elected for five years rather than two, a move that gave them greater security in the post

Question 6

Deputies of the Soviets were to be elected for _____ years rather than ______, a move that

Answer 6

Five
Two

Gave them greater security in their post

Question 7

STREAMLINING THE PARTY

The departments of the Central Committee of the Communist were reduced from ______ to _____

And ____ new commissions were created

What accompanied this?

Answer 7

20 to 9

Six

Similar measures to streamline the state

Question 8

When did Gorbachev create “superministries” to coordinate economic planing?

How many ministries were merged to create one “superministry” for agriculture?

Answer 8

November 1985

5

Question 9

A CLAMPDOWN ON CORRUPTION

One of the leading casualties was… who was…

Answer 9

Brezhnev son in law, Yuri Churbanov

Sentenced to 12 years imprisonment

Question 10

Attacks on corrupt party officials were popular with…

But caused a lot of resentment within…

Answer 10

The public

The party

Question 11

When was the First Secretary of the Party in Kazakhstan removed on the grounds of corruption? Name?

Who replaced him?

What happened?

Answer 11

December 1986
Dinmukhamed Kunayev

Gennady Kolbin (ethnic Russian)

Seeing this as outside interference, Kazakhs rioted in support of Kuyanev. Order was only restored after several hundred protestors were killed.
GORBACHEV WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SACKING N APPOINTING— much of blame for this incident placed on his shoulders

Question 12

What did the Kazakhs riots warn?

Answer 12

That reform of the party was fraught with potential dangers

Question 13

Define democratisation

Answer 13

An attempt by Gorbachev to get more people involved in the communist party and political debate

Question 14

What did Gorbachev discuss at a meeting of the Central Committee in early 1987?

Answer 14

Secret ballots for multiple candidates

Question 15

In June 1987, what happened with respect to democratisation?

Answer 15

A limited experiment with multiple candid dates in elections for local Soviets

Small but significant break with the practice of elections involving single candidates proposed by the party

Question 16

At what event did Gorbachev announce that the principle of multi-candidate elections would be extended to national level with elections for the new________

Answer 16

Nineteenth Party Conference of June 1988

Congress of People’s Deputies

Question 17

What was the Congress of People’s Deputies set up to do?

Answer 17

Provide an independent, supervisory role over the government

Part of Gorbachev’s attempts to separate the functions of Party from state

Question 18

Members of the Congress of People’s Deputies were to be allocated to

Answer 18

The party and other organisations, such as trade unions and the Union of Writers

Question 19

How many candidates did the Communist party nominate to the Congress of People’s Deputies?

What did trade unions and union of writers do differently?

Answer 19

100 candidates for its 100 seats

Gave them members a choice— in some seats, voters could chose from 12 candidates

Question 20

Congress of People’s Deputies— the communist party was the only

BUT

Answer 20

Legal political party and, as such, could control the nomination process

It was enough to engage the population in the process

Question 21

The elections for the new congress of People’s Deputies (When) gave the soviet public a taste of democracy

What was this like?

Answer 21

March 1989

VERY DIFFERENT TO THAT OF WESTERN DEMOCRACIES
BUT
A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SOVIET UNION

Question 22

When were the elections for the new Congress of People’s Deputies?

Answer 22

March 1989

Question 23

What did the march 1989 elections do to the communist party?

Answer 23

Weakness irretrievably the power of the communist party

Question 24

Gorbachevs attempted reforms of the party were criticised for being little more than

Answer 24

Tinkering with the system

Some truth in this BUT reforms were certainly a step in the right direction.