USSR Fall

Soviet economy alrady in decline before gorbachev - Weakness of the soviet economic system hadbeen showed in the Novosibrisk Report of 1983 0 Tatyana Zasalyska - report drew attention to the growing crissi in agriculture caused by state inefficency and inflecibility - knwon for its heading 'for internal use only - distrubuted to the poliburo - its older members did not understand the conclusion -> Gorbachev knew that reform was needed

Gorbachevs initial steps - helped by Boris Yeltsin and Yajovlev - attack on alcohilism - improving the health of the workforce and productivity - alchol accounted for 15% of all household spending in the mid 80s -  'we can't build communism on vodka - legal age for the consumption of alcohol esd taised to 21 - the number of places that couldl sell alcohol was reduced - vineyards destroyed and distillerries closed - tax revenues that the govenment got from the alcohol market fell - people started making moon shine and drinking levels increased

focus on investment in science and research

Investment in construction projects had a habit of extra spending sucked far more investment than budgeted for - Out of date equipment causing factories to become increasingly unproductive - slow to use new technology - imports of foreign technology were a drain on vaulable foreign exchange that was used to import food - agricultural sector was heavily invested in which did not improve productivity - little to gain in terms of groduction grwoth from diverting sums to agriculture - quantity over quality - no real opposition to gosplan - Gobarchev admitted in 86 that 'what [gosplan] want to fo they do' - streamline status appartus to avoid waste due to dpulication - than than decentralise he ser up superministries to achieve better co-ordination of economic activity but were unsuccessful - they were implemented by people who were benefiting under the previous system - changes to investment priorties caused resistance from the military who used their power to push for new investment in military technology - industrial and military at odds only one oculd be priortied -

Alternative was to go into deficit (allow the state to spend more money than it has available - deciet of the soviet economy grew from 2.4 to 6.2 between 85 and 86- Ongoing war in afganistan increased defence spending in light of the USA's Strategic Defcne Initative (Star wars programme)

1987 - gorbachev recognised a need for fundemental change - perestrokia translates to restructing - introducing market mechanisms (practices of a capitalist economy) and allowing an elemnt of private enterprise the economy would be revitalised

Encouragement of joint ventures - jan 87 - allow foreign firms to establish buisnesses in the soviet union - moscow got its first mcdonalds in 1990 - aim for foreign buissnes open the ussr to more modern technology

the law on state enterprises - june 87 - loosening of state controls over wages and prices - weakened the authority of gosplan - factories given the right to produce anything they want

co-operatives legalised in 1988 - small scale private enterprises established - buisnesses could set their own prices - flourishing sector in cafes, restraunts and small shops

food production showed a small increase in growth - 1-2% from 86-87 - inadequate to feed growing needs - 1/5th of the fodo was important

enterprises still subject to state interference - devovling of power to managers depended on the whim of state bureaucrats many wanted to keep control to ensure targets were met

Products were diverted from sttae shops where prices were low to co-operatives that charged a higher price - caused inflation adn stripped state shops of supplies - bad impact on pensioners and groups who lived on a fixed income

co-operatives were able to shop around for a buyer who would offer them a good price - deals being conluded with richer city authorties - poorer cities devoid of adequate food and othe basic products

co-operatives porved to be more productive than state sector - potential for profits - attracted the attention of corrupt government officials who demanded brides for presmission for them to continue to operate - criminal gangs exact money though extorion rackets - gangs become powerful through illegal alcohol under the anto-alchol campaign

uncertainty over supplies encouraged a wave of hoarded - shops were quickly empties of goods as they arrived - food rationing was introduced in some cities - in 1988 meat was rationed in 26 out of 55 regions of Russia- Implementation of eclecting managers resulted in atseep rise in wages 0 urban wages rose by 9 percent in 1988 and 13% in 189- Foreign companies keen to invent in the USSR were faced with bureaucracy - progress slow -3,000 joint foreign ventures in the ussr by 1990 - mostly small scale operations that had littel impact on the economy - Reforms undermined by officials - reforms inforned or sabotagged - in leningrad the city administration withdrew all sasuages in shops and warehouses and buried them - Fall in the price of oil - ussr became more reliant on oil exports as a source of money - oil and gas accounted for 54% of all soviet exports

weakened by state planned but provided little to replace it - by 89 the soviet economy was in massive debt - promise of more consumer goods had not been achieved - reforms made thigns worse - strikes had increased - Don Basin protested over unpaid wages and food shortes - government response was to quickly increase wages 0 short term measure - very little point in having money cause you couldn't buy anything

State Commission on Economic Reform issued a report in 1986 that concluded that a moral radical solution was needed - called for a market lead economy -

reformers wanted to implement the recommendation quickly wherea s people like Ryzhkov wanted a more gradual transititon

Gorbachev hesisted in making a decisions quickly

Shatalin, on eof gorbachev's economic advisors, put forward the 500 days programme - lead a rapid move to a market ecnomy- plan rejected by the soviet government but accepted by the russian parliament - division between paert leadership and the national republics within the USSR

Perestroika led to catastroika

literally translates to openess - government system needed streamliing

Key criticisms of the party - complants about poor housing - invesigations of soviet history revealed details of Stalins; mass terror, Holodomor and the Katyn Massacre - the soviet victory in WW2 - Myth of the great patriotic war was underminded - enviromental issues such as the damaginf impact of the Aral Sea from government irrigations chemes -Couldn't stop glasnost once it had started 

Governments response to chernobyl in 86 was a large reason for its implemention - did not announce that it happened until long after it happened - scientists in scandinavia picked up readings of unusally hgih radioactvity - delayed admission had disartrous resutls for its people - denayed evacuation of people living in toxic araeas - increase in leukemia and dirth fedormities

population was much more politicised due to glasnost in 89 - 60,000 informal groups and clubs holding meetings, organising demonstrations and adding their voices calling for political reform - glasnost resulted in criticism of the party - much of it at gobachev

Defining the functions of party and state - sought to separate party and state at the 19th conference of the communist party in june 1988 - little was done to get officals to choose one over the other - nomenklature system whereby appointments and promotions within the state had relied on loyalty to the party -

Shifitng power from the party to the soviets - more fiance to the soviets in order to give them the resoruces to support their role - deputires of the soviets were to be elected for 5 years rather than 2

streamlining the party - central committeee of the commuist party reduced from 20 to nine memebers - 6 new comissions were created - streamline the state - superministeries to co ordinate economic planning

clamp down on corruption - Yuri Churbanoc (Brezhnev's son in law) was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment - attakc on corrupt party officals was popular with the public but unpopular within the  party - Kunyaev was removed for the position of Firs Secretary of the party in Kazahstand on the grounds of corruption  - replaced with Kolbin who was russion - Kazakhs rioted in support of Kuntaev - order was only restored after several hundred protests were killed

in early 1987 - gorbachev discussed hte idea of secret ballots for multiple candidates -june 87  limited experiment with multiple candidated in elections for local soviets -

19th party conference - Gorbachev announced multi candidate elections on a national level for the new Cognress of People Deputies - provide independent supervisory role over the government - part of gorbachev's want to serperate party and state 0 members of the congress were allocated to the party and other organisations uch as trade unions and the union of writers - the communist party nominated 100 candidates for its 100 members a choice - in some seats voters could choose from 12 candidates - the only legal political party and could control the nomination process

elections took place in march 1989 - represented a significant change -  reforms criticised for not being radical enough

increasing didvisions within the party - Alientating reformers like Yeltsin - came to a head at the Plenum of the Central Committee in October 98 - Yeltsin was sacked as First Secretary in moscow and removed from the politburo- Alienting conservatives - Nina Andreca published a letter in Sovetskaya Russia complaining about the underminind of Stalin's legacy - Ligachev who was acting as leader when Gorbachev was visiting Yugoslavia attacked reform - die hard stalinists such as Gromyko were oppossed- The development of factions - arguments between livreals and conversatives had occured within the politburo - reformers such as Yelstin formed an Inter-Regional Group and coservates created the Soyuz - Abolition of Aricle 6 - Communist Party could not reformed then one logical conclusion to this was to end the political monopoly of the party - aticle 6 held the position of 'the leading and guiding force of the soviet society and the nucleus of its political ststem of all state organisationa and public organisations - Andrei Sakharov called for the ending of article 6 - for conservative sit was non negoctiative

Elections to local soviets had lead to the defeated across hte country - oppossition secured 60% of the seats in Leningrad - national groups grew in non-russion republocs - Yeltsin scoted a victory for his new group Democratic Platform - Political vacuum in general government was filled by the election of Gorbachev to the position of the Preisdent - Power shifted fromth ecentre to the regions

Soviet control over Eastern Europe had been enforced by military action under what become knwon as the Brezhnev Doctrine - formulated after the soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968 to prevent the Czech communist government introducing liberal reforms in response to popular protests - threat of a soviet intervention played an important role in the Polish government's response to popular protests - unrest was supressed

Funeral of Chernenko gave Gorbachev an opportunity to meet every leader of the communist regime - told them that they would not intervene

Support satellite states had become increasing expensive - spent 40 billion annually on propping up communist governments around the world - money could be used to promote domestic reform - gorbachev hoped that many would follow his lead in econmic reforms - thought it would rejuvenate socialism - promote universal values of human rights

Gorbachev reforms in the USSR led to attempts by some governments in eastern europe - pressure for change by nationalist groups - now there was an opportunity for each nation decide its own future - gathered momentum and the pace of events took many by surprise

Problem for Eastern European leaders who wanted to resist reform 0 no longer rely on Soviet military invention

Poland - communist government tielded to pressure from independent workers organisation 0 solidarity was able to defeat the communist party in a landslide victory - communist party collapsed as an organisation

USSR had done nothing to stop these events happening - gorbachev seemed to approve of the Poles deciding their own future

Pope John Paul II visted Poland - addressed those living under communist rule 'do not be afraid' encouraged nationalism - the forces of communism had collapsed

pro soviet government in eastern europe had disintegrated - gorbachev was vital in changin gthe context

Hungary - Janos Kadar hardline leader was sacked - governmen dominated by reformers - allowed other poltical parties

East Germany - artifical country - reliant on soviet support - gorbachev's visit to east berlin in 89 encouraged those who wished to push reforms - Egon Zrenz who became east german leader in October 1989 - refused to sanction widespread repression - berlin wall - on 9 novermber, the berlin wall, the symbol of cold war euope - dismanted by people power

Czechosolvakia - November 89 - communist regime in Czechoslovakia forced to make concession - Civic Forum emerged to co-ordinate the campaign to fer rid of the communist government - reforms were introduced and Vaclav Havel a leading playwright and opponent of communism was elected president

Romania - discontented populated tired of food shortages - lack of consumer goods - a repressive government - lacked real democracy 0 Nicolae Ceasusescu used the army to open fire on hte demonstrators - army was unwilling to support him and forced him to flee

Enviromental concerns - outlying parts of the Soviet Union - soil erosion due to the diversion of rivers had ravaged large parts of central asia - industrial pollution was a major concern in the baltic republics- Insecurity of local party leaders - they were often those who felt most threatened by Gorbachev's economic and political reforms - 'trust in cadres' had left local communist leaders in the positions of pwoer and privilege - built up sizeable powerbases and wealth corruption - tempting for them to lend their support to popular local concerns in an attempt to maintain their position- Culture and language - soviet unionwas almost equally divided 145 million russians and 141 million non-russians - among the non-russians were a range of slavic people sucha s lithuanians, estonians, latvians and uktainians, and non-slavic people - natioanlities often had a strong sense of their own identity thorugh their native langauge and culturla heritage- Nagorno-Karabah - antonomous region within the Azerbaijan region - tensions erupted into violent in 19888 - armenia annocued it was now under its control - central soviet government declining in all egions - tension between ethnic romanians and ethnic russians

Russian Nationalism - yeltsin elected chairman of the russian sypreme soviet in march 1990 - undermined Union Treaty - nationalism largely confined to the intelligentia - yeltsin popular - method of undermining gorbachev and the communist party

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had a different history then the rest of the soviet republics - taken over during the nazi-soviet pact in 1939

Revied higher levels of education than the average soviet - helped promote an understing of their langauge, culture and history - among the more economically developed regions

Between april and october 1988 - Popular fronts were establisehd in all three repbulics - lead taken by intellegentsia - formed sajudis - mass organisations - called for protection of native languages and cultural traditions - demanded independence from the soviet union - in lithuania 75% of its population were ethnically lithuanian - August 1989 - anniversary of the nazi soviet pact - stage mass demonstration - made a human chain of estonians, latvians and lithuanians

1990 - Popular fronts won a majority in elections to the supreme soviets in all three baltic republics- lithuania leader proclaimed that lithuania was an independent state- Soviet government refused to acknowlede it - pro soviet communists supported by some red army troops attempted to take over the vilnius tv station - resulted in 13 deaths - Gorbachev denied any orders to use violence

Limited experience of independence - Ukraine's nationalist orgnaision Rukh was founded but had little support in eastern ukraine as there was very little history of ukrainian idependence

the soviet union has allowed a degree of autonomous control - already accomidating nationalists through the teaching of the native languages

the republics had been net gainers of soviet  economic investment - especially in central asian republics - economic advantages staying in the soviet union

loyalty to local and tribal groupings was often stronger than nationalist sentitment

role of ethnic russians- large number of people did not live in their ethnic homeland - 60 million russians did not live in russia

Referendeum in march 1991 indicated popular support for maintaining the soviet union - gorbachev's new union treaty of of 1991 contained enough concessions - fall of the communist party didn't necessarily need to mean the collapse of the soviet union

Lack of a clear vision - many economic experiments - uncoordinated policies - Naivety -did think of the consequences of his policies - naive assumptoin - resistance from the party - glasnost at the same time as unsuccessful- Powerbase - reduce the power and the role of the communist party left him vulnerable - president of the ussr was a poor substitute - refused to have a popular election in 1990 when he would've won - Expectations - raised people's expectations but failed

Foreign Policy - had not anticipated that the end of the brzhnev doctrine led to the satellitte staes falling then the USSR - Insensitive handling of national minorities - replace kunyan with russian Kolbin - no response to any uprisings

Inconsistency - mixed messages - praised stalin's qualities as a leader in speech in 1987 yet condemned his real crimes - apeall to the die hard communists - removed reformer Vadim Bakatin as minister of the interior with conservative Boris Pugo - ever changing policiesz

Indecision - heistant and postponed making crucial decisions - chernobyl nuclear accident - in 1990 when yeltsin stoof for chairman of the congress of people's deupties - gorbachev supported alexander vlasov who was not charsmatic

Historian Ronald Suny believes that Gorbachev's error was to attempt economic reform, femocratication and cecolonising the republics at the same time - each policy by themselves was good and could've been successful - too much of a strain on the communist party - however none of these things could individually happen without the others

gorbachev had skills as a leader - understanding of economic matters were limited howver he had personal charm - division between reformers and conservaztives would've been too much for any leader

Gorbachev avoided using forc eto impose his will - unlike the chinese in tiananmen square

Chances of succes for reforms was undermined by a chance combination of international factors - war in adganistan 0 fall of world oil prices - the US star wars policy

Used Gorbachev's time out of the spotlight to estabilish firmer links with reformers

Attack on Gorbachev and his policies at the Central Committee plenum of 1987 (which had a lot of tv coverage) - met with leaders of the russian orthodox church  -  visted stiking miners - organised demonstrations to show support for his actiosn as chairman of the russian congress - 200,000 peopel gathered in moscow to support yeltisn in 1991

Gorbachev's decision to hold elections for the congress of people's deupties in 1989 gave yeltsin to launch his comeback - used his position of mayor of moscow to organise demonstrations and secured 89% of the votes - claim legitmacy that gorbachev never had - election to the people's congress gave him a plotform

alternative powerbase - Democratic russia moevement secured most of the votes in the cities but not countryside - enough to get him elected - challenge to grobachev's authority through the ussr's key republic

1990 - resigned from the communist party - russian congressed considered itself above the authority of the soviet governement - encouraged nationalist movements of the non- russian republics

led by the conservatives in the commnist party -  last dirch attempt to preserve the terriorial integrity of the soviet union - Gorbachev on holiday in Crimea - State emergency committe was formed - Yanez, Kryuchkov (head of KGB) and Yazoc (defence minister) - supported by leading army officers - press confrence annouced that gorbachev was ill when in fact he was being held under house arreast - repressive messures annouced including a band on strikes

Impacts - yeltsin stand against the plotters enhanced his reuptation as a defender of freedom - had the advantage when he got gorbachev realsed - enhanced his position of power - accelerated measures that sed up the collapse of the soviet union - launced a progremme of market economy - monoploy of the communist party had legally ended - reformers were open to make another party - in november he banned the communist party of the soviet union within russia

Yeltsin undermined the union treaty - Ukrainian president Kravchuk refused to sign it - organised commonwealth of idenpendent states - no cental soviet union