How significant were the failures of Gorbachev's political reforms?

Question 1

What is glasnost?

Answer 1

Gorbachev’s policy of openness that encouraged the population to put forward new ideas and show initiative

Question 2

What was glasnost’s initial purpose and what did it descend into?

Answer 2

What started as a method to net new ideas to revitalize the Communist Party descended into a wave of criticism and an open attack on its corrupt practices.

Question 3

What key criticisms of the Party were exposed through glasnost?

Answer 3

• Complaints about poor housing were popular
• Investigations of Soviet history revealed the mass terror under Stalin, the famine of the 1930s, and the Katyn Massacre.
• WWII was discussed and the Great Patriotic War was undermined by the revelations of the reckless waste of human lives
• Environmental issues were a popular topic, particularly the damaging effect on the Aral Sea by the governments irrigation scheme.

Question 4

What convinced Gorbachev that glasnost was essential? Why?

Answer 4

The Chernobyl nuclear accident of April 1986.
No official announcement was made by the Soviet government until neighboring Scandinavian countries picked up extremely high levels of nuclear activity. The delayed announcement added to the human cost and lead to birth defects and leukaemia because people were evacuated much later.
The accident damaged Gorbachev’s international reputation and reflected many weaknesses of the Soviet Union: the machinery used at the plant was outdated, they had a poor record of health and safety, it was badly managed, and the accident was covered up with secrecy and evasion.

Question 5

By 1989, glasnost had caused the population to become what?

Answer 5

More politicized. There were over 60,000 informal groups and clubs, organizing meetings and protests and adding their voices to the call for political reform.

Question 6

Instead of producing support for Gorbachev, glasnost resulted in what?

Answer 6

A wave of criticism against the Party, much of it directed towards Gorbachev for his weakness in implementing radical reform.
Many reformers within the Party itself were unwilling to defend the actions of the government; unsurprisingly, many decided to resign.

Question 7

At the Nineteenth Party Congress in June 1988, Gorbachev sought to do what? Why was this difficult?

Answer 7

• Seperate the Party and the state.
• This was difficult as the lines had become blurred, largely due to the nomenklatura system, whereby appointments and promotions within the state apparatus had relied on loyalty to the Party. So, it was often the case that the personnel of one organisation held a similar position in the other
• Gorbachev became President of the Soviet Union in October, as well as General Secretary of the Party. This reflected the standings lower down in the Party, as First Secretaries in each of the republics also held the position of Chairman of the regional Soviet.

Question 8

How did Gorbachev attempt to shift power from the Party to the Soviets?

Answer 8

By allocating more finance to the Soviets so they would have more resources to support their role. Deputies of the Soviets were to be elected for 5 years rather than 2, giving them greater security in their role.

Question 9

How did Gorbachev attempt to streamline both the Party and the state?

Answer 9

• The departments of the Central Committee of the Communist Party were reduced from 20 to nine, and six new commissions were created.
• In November 1985, Gorbachev created “superministries” to co-ordinate economic planning. 5 “superministries” were brought together as one to oversee agriculture.

Question 10

How did Gorbachev clamp down on corruption?

Answer 10

• Those believed to be corrupt within the Party were removed and imprisoned, like Brezhnev’s son-in-law, Yuri Churbanov, who was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment.
• Attacks on corrupt Party officials were popular among the public but caused resentment within the Party itself.

Question 11

What is an example of corruption difficulties caused by Gorbachev himself?

Answer 11

December 1986, Kuyanev was removed as the First Secretary of Kazakhstan on grounds of corruption. His replacement was an ethnic Russian, Kolbin, and many of the Kazakhs saw this as interference. The result was riots in support of Kuyanev and order was only restored once several hundred rioters had been killed.
Gorbachev was responsible for both the sacking of Kuyanev and the appointment of Koblin, meaning much of the blame rested on his shoulders.
This demonstrated to him the dangers of reforming the Party.

Question 12

What is democratization?

Answer 12

An attempt, by Gorbachev, to get more people involved in the Party and political debate.

Question 13

What did Gorbachev discuss with the Central Committee in early 1987?

Answer 13

The idea of secret ballots for multiple candidates.

Question 14

In terms of a move towards democratization, what happened in June 1987?

Answer 14

There was a limited experiment with multiple candidates in the local Soviet elections. This was a small but significant break away from the tradition of only having single candidates suggested by the Party.

Question 15

What did Gorbachev ANNOUNCE at the Nineteenth Party Congress in June 1988?

Answer 15

He announced that the principle of multi-candidate elections would be extended to national level in the elections for the new Congress of People’s Deputies.
The Communist Party nominated 100 candidates for its 100 seats, but trade unions and the Union of Writers gave members a choice. For some seats, there were 12 candidates.
The Communist Party was still the only legal political party and so it could control the nomination process but nonetheless it increased public engagement with the process.

Question 16

What was the new Congress of People’s Deputies?

Answer 16

It was set up to provide an independent, supervisory role over the government and was part of Gorbachev’s attempt to seperate the Party and the state.
Members of the Congress were to be allocated to the Party and other organisations, such as trade unions and the Union of Writers.

Question 17

When did the elections for the Congress of People’s Deputies take place and what did it mean for the population?

Answer 17

• March 1989
• It gave the Soviet people a taste of democracy.
• While the form of democracy introduced in March 1989 was very different to that of the West, it marked a significant change in the context of the Soviet Union.
• It weakened the power of the Party irretrievably.

Question 18

What is pluralism?

Answer 18

A political system where there is more than one party contesting in elections. This would mean an end to the one-party state system operated in the USSR.

Question 19

The failure of reforms to the Party left many reformers thinking what?

Answer 19

That pluralism was the only option. They believed the Communist Party would have to earn its right to govern.

Question 20

Impact of: Increasing divisions within the Party

Answer 20

Gorbachev’s failure to bring substantial reform to the Party alienated both “liberals” and “conservatives” These divisions undermined the authority of Gorbachev, who struggled to find common ground between them.

Question 21

Impact of: Alienating reformers

Answer 21

For the more radical reformers, like Yeltsin, there was the increasing realization the Party were not going to carry out the reforms they desired and felt were needed.
Tensions between Yeltsin and Gorbachev reached a new high at a Plenum of the Central Committee in October 1987, when Yeltsin verbally attacked Gorbachev for being too slow to reform. Consequently, Yeltsin was sacked as Party First Secretary in Moscow and then removed from the Politburo in February 1988

Question 22

Impact of: Alienating Conservatives

Answer 22

In March 1988, hard-line conservatives within the Party attempted to gain back some control. While Gorbachev was on a diplomatic trip to Yugoslavia, a letter was published in the newspaper “Sovestskya Russia” by an unknown communist, Nina Andreeva. The letter complained of the constant undermining of Stalin and the demoralizing impact of Glasnost. Ligachev, who was acting as head of the Party in Gorbachev’s absence, took the letter as an opportunity to attack the pace of reform. What worried Gorbachev was the fact that the ideas expressed in the letter were supported not just by die-hard Stalinists but also by some of those Gorbachev had appointed himself.

Question 23

Impact of: The development of factions

Answer 23

Although factions within the Party were prohibited, the divisions between liberals and conservatives in the Politburo and the Central Committee meant informal groups began to emerge during the elections for the new Congress of People’s Deputies.
Reformers such as Yeltsin formed an Inter-Regional Group and conservatives worried about holding up the integrity of the Soviet Union formed Soyuz.
When the Congress met these groups acted as a form of unofficial opposition to the government.

Question 24

Impact of: The Abolition of Article 6

Answer 24

If the Communist Party could not be reformed then one logical conclusion was to end the political monopoly of the Party. Article 6 enshrined the one-party state and was therefore a prime target for critics, such as Andrei Sakharov, who wished to push for greater democracy and reform. For conservatives, the Article was non-negotiable.
Following increasing pressure from liberals, and continued resistance from conservatives, Gorbachev repealed the Article in March 1990, thus ending the Party’s monopoly on power. Other parties could now be established to contest elections.

Question 25

What is Article 6?

Answer 25

Article 6 of the Soviet Constitution stated that the Communist Party held the position of the “leading and guiding force of Soviet Society and the nucleus of its political system, of all state organisations and public organisations.”
The Article enshrined the one-party state.

Question 26

What happened in the Leningrad elections for local Soviets?

Answer 26

The opposition gained 60% of the seats.

Question 27

How was the political vacuum in central government temporarily filled?

Answer 27

By the election of Gorbachev as the President of the USSR by the Congress of People’s Deputies. Presidential rule replaced Party rule, in theory, but power had shifted from the center to the regions.