T5 USSR

• LONG TERM ECONOMIC WEAKNESS

  • Gorbachev in power 1985. economy was already declining
  • weakness highlighted in Novosibirsk report of 1983
  • Gorbachev trial and error which sent economy into chaos
• INITIAL REFORMS

  • reformers brought into party and conservatives dismissed = Romanov dismissed, Yeltsin and Yakolev promoted

  Attacks on Alcohol

  • aimed to increase productivity
  • ppl turned up to work drunk
  • “we can’t build communism on vodka”
  • legal age raised to 21
  • cost of vodka tripled
• RESULTS OF ALCOHOL CAMPAIGN

  • good at first
  • declined
  • money that the govt would have gotten from alcohol buy (15% of all household income) caused money loss
  • drinking levels rose as illegal alcohol moonshine was sold in bulk and unhygienic conditions
• TWELFTH FIVE YEAR PLAN

  • focus on science and engineering

  RESULTS

  • too much spending on construction
  • equipment broke
  • industry slow to adapt to new tech
  • focus on quantity over quality

  JUST MADE GORBACHEV LOOK WORSE.

  • war with afghanistan cost a lot
  • bankrupt
• ECONOMIC PERESTROIKA 1987

  • restructuring of the economy through market mechanisms and private enterprise to help economy after the twelfth five year plan
  • joint ventures = mcdonald’s 1990
  • Law on state enterprises =managers choose what they want to produce as long as targets met
  • co-operatives legalised = flourishing restaurants
• IMPACTS OF PERESTROIKA 1987

  • food production increased to 2% by 1987. inadequate
  • criminal gangs seized the opportunity to make more money through moonshine
  • 1990 = 3000 joint foreign ventures but they had little economic impact
  • fall in oil price. USSR relied on oil as it was what they used as foreign exchange
  • ECONOMY IN DEBT. NO CONSUMER GOODS. STRIKES DUE TO UNPAID WORK AND NO FOOD.
  • threatened his position
• STATE COMMISSION ON ECONOMIC REFORM:

  • move to a market led economy
  • politburo divided
  • reformers wanted to implement quickly whereas others did not
  • economy collapsed
  • perestroika led to economic catastrophe
• WHY DID Gorbachev‘s GLASNOST NEED TO BE DONE?

  under Brezhnev the party was competing within itself. this lead to corruption and nepotism

  Gorbachev realised that the whole system needed reform

  this would also add the benefit of removing officials against reform
• Criticisms under Glasnost

  • complaints about poor housing
  • investigations of soviet history revealed Stalin’s mass terrors and the famine of the 1930s
  • the Soviet victory in the second world war criticised for wasting human lives
  • environmental damage due to irrigation schemes
• the Chernobyl accident and glasnost

  • 1986
  • provided justification that glasnost needed to be done
  • radioactivity that led to leukaemia and birth defects
• AFTER GLASNOST

  • soviet population more politicised
  • over 60,000 groups adding voices toward political reform
  • didn’t provide support for G.
  • wave of criticism against the party directed at Gorbachev
  • reformers even didn’t support the party even though they were members
  • reformers resigned
• GORBACHEV’S ATTEMPTED REFORMS OF PARTY

  • separate the party and state -> 1988->officials didn’t choose either-> lines had become blurred due to nomenklatura system as some people had positions in both
  • shift power from party to the Soviets -> more finance to them to support them -> deputies elected for 5 yrs rather than 2 for more job security
  • Streamlining the party -> central comm reduced from 20 to 9
  • clampdown on corruption-> Brezhnev’s son in law was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment -> removing corruption was popular with the people but created resentment in party
• moves toward democratisation

  • 1987 wanted ballots for multiple candidates
  • practice elections
  • 1988 announced that the move to multi candidate elections would extend nationally with the election of the congress of people’s deputies
• the impact of Gorbachev’s failure to reform the Party

  • increasing divisions -> alienated both liberals and conservative. Gorbachev could not find a middle point so it undermined his authority
  • alienating the reformers and conservatives. Disagreements between Yeltsin and Gorbachev. he openly attacked Gorbachev’s approach to reform as slow. he got sacked 1988
  • development of factions. Yeltsin formed a group within the party as a reformer
  • the abolition of article 6. the article talked about being a one party state. critics attacked as they wanted democracy
• ENDING OF ARTICLE 6

  • people wanted democracy
  • Gorbachev ended the Party’s monopoly on power
  • 1990-> Communist party was powerless
• Gorbachev decided that the USSR should not intervene in the affairs of other socialist countries, ending the Brezhnev Doctrine's control over Eastern Europe
• After the funeral of Soviet leader Chernenko in 1985, Gorbachev met with leaders of the Eastern European communist regimes and informed them about the new policy of non-intervention, allowing them to find their own path of socialism
• Supporting satellite states was expensive, costing the USSR 40 billion a year, which Gorbachev believed could be better used to promote domestic reform
• Gorbachev hoped that by letting the satellite states choose their own path to socialism, they would also lead economic reforms
• consequences of ending the Brezhnev doctrine

  • collapse of communist regimes in eastern Europe
  • POLAND - solidarity workers organisation beat the communist party in elections. Gorbachev approved on the own decision
  • EAST GERMANY - they were created under WW2. relied on soviet support. Gorbachev visited and encouraged reform. chaos. knocked down the Berlin wall which was a symbol for the old war in europe
• what encouraged nationalism?

  • insecurity of party leaders who felt threatened by Gorbachev’s reforms due to their own corruption. Brezhnev left their corruption alone due to “trust in Cadres” but Gorbachev threatened their lifestyle
  • Culture and language. 1980s there were nearly equal russian to non russian ratio. in the non russians their were the Baltic's and some muslim groups who had strong senses of identity within their own culture and language.
• the Baltic republics

  • estonia Latvia lithuania
  • used to be independent before the USSR and people remembered that
  • resurgence of feelings for nationalist identity
• limits of nationalism

  • the only republic where there was huge nationalism issue was Georgia. everywhere else had little demands for independence before given the option to
  • the Soviet union had allowed a degree of autonomy beforehand through supporting their own languages in schools
• the role of russian nationalism in the collapse of the USSR

  • Yeltsin elected as chairman of the Russian supreme soviet in March 1990
  • Yeltsin happy to encourage nationalism as a method to undermine Gorbachev
• AGAINST GORBACHEV

  • naive -> did not think of consequences of his policies. naive assumptions about the impact. level of resistance within party more than expected. e.g GLASNOST and ending of the Brezhnev doctrine and article 6
  • power base -> his measures to reduce power of the party left him as a leader exposed. he was attacking the base of his own power. he refused to be in the popular election of 1990 where he would have won. Yeltsin on the other hand used popular elections to his benefit
• IN DEFENCE OF GORBACHEV

  • did not intend to bring the communist state down
  • when he came into power the economy was already declining
  • the previous mistakes of his predecessors put him in a tough position
  • he avoided force to impose his will
  • there were factors he had no control of like the war with afghanistan that Brezhnev agreed on
• ROLE OF YELTSIN IN THE COLLAPSE

  • used his time after being sacked to establish links with critics of gorbachev
  • used opportunities to appeal to the public for sympathy
  • 1991, 200,000 people gathered to support Yeltsin
  • legitimacy that Gorbachev didn’t have through him being elected as mayor of moscow.
  • encouraged nationalism movements to undermine Gorbachev
• AUGUST COUP 1991

  • Gorbachev on holiday
  • an emergency committee was formed to rule in his absence as at a press conference it was announced that G was ill
  • he was actually under house arrest
  • ban on strikes and demonstrations
  • tanks on streets to uphold law and order
  • 1991 the soviet union ceased to exist