Gorbachev's political reforms

• Fundamental nature of Soviet politics


  • Centralised party with control over the state across the whole of the Soviet Union
  • Regional parties in each of the republics that obeyed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
  • A disciplined party that obeyed direction of the Politburo
• Communist Party of the USSR


  The government of the USSR, controlling the economy, the army, the police and the media
• Any policy which weakened the authority or discipline of the Party


  Risked weakening the Soviet Union, as the Communist Party held the union together
• Communists remained ideologically committed to creating a genuine democracy based on the will of all of the working people
• Tension between the official goals of the Party and the reality of life in the USSR


  Led to widespread cynicism
• In reality, the Soviet people became increasingly aware of the corruption of Party officials
• In general terms, the Soviet people tolerated the government as the party began improving living standards year on year
• The cynicism of the people


  Troubled idealists in the Party, who hoped that reform of some kind of democratisation would inspire the new generation to take control of Communism and finish the journey initially began by Lenin
• Reform was still dangerous
• True democracy


  Could lead to the fall of Communism
• Khrushchev's reforms had previously threatened Soviet control of Hungary and Poland
• Under Brezhnev's policy of suppressing political dissent
• Andropov

  Allowed greater freedom with Party leadership to discuss the Soviet Union's social and economic problems, and promoted Communists who were prepared to question the system to senior positions
• Gorbachev owed his position on the politburo to Andropov
• Gorbachev's key aim


  To revitalise the Soviet Union, and to end stagnation which arose of the Brezhnev period, like corruption of senior members
• Gorbachev wanted to


  End the cynicism and apathy of the Soviet people
• Gorbachev did not have a clear strategy for achieving these goals
• Gorbachev consistently argued that the Soviet Union needed to return to Lenin's model
• Gorbachev believed that he could reform the Soviet system and retain communist control
• Gorbachev's initial plans for reform


  • Open up debate within the Party
  • Allow intellectuals more freedom of expression
  • Allow the public to have more access to information
• Gorbachev's reforms had unintended consequences, such as greater pressures to reform
• Gorbachev's appointment as General Secretary


  • Shift of power of one generation to the next
  • Gorbachev was 20 years younger than Chernenko, Andropov, and Brezhnev had all been born before the revolution
  • Gorbachev was born before Stalin's reign
• Gorbachev's first priority as General Secretary


  1. Replace the senior officials who had been close to Brezhnev

  2. Part of Brezhnev's plan to end stagnation

  3. Heighten his own authority through patronage

  4. Appointed young Communists who favoured reform to senior positions
• As economic reform failed, Gorbachev became convinced that political reform was an essential part of reviving the economy, the traditional Communist officials were standing in the way of reform
• Gorbachev's solution to the Soviet economy being highly centralised and data being inaccurate


  Democratisation and openness
• Gorbachev hoped that democratisation would


  • Limit the power of traditionalists and therefore speed up economic reform
  • End centralisation
• Gorbachev hoped openness would


  Help economic recovery because it would end the distortion of economic information
• Glasnost


  Gorbachev's commitment to be open about the state of the Soviet economy
• Glasnost became an important initiative from 1986 due to the opposition to Gorbachev within the Communist Party
• Hardline Communists opposed Gorbachev's reforms
• Gorbachev looked for support from


  Writers and intellectuals to criticize hardliners and get them to support his reforms
• The Twenty-Seventh Party Congress in 1986 set out a new programme for the Communist Party, the first time the party had ever adopted a set of priorities since 1961
• Gorbachev's new programme committed the Party to


  • Systematic and all around improvements of socialism
  • Genuine democracy, power for the people and by the people
• Gorbachev linked democratisation to glasnost
• The adoption of a new programme was a symbol that Gorbachev wanted to break the past
• To help create an alliance between Communists, reformers and Russian intellectuals


  1. Gorbachev allowed much greater freedom of expression in the Soviet media

  2. Hoped that greater freedom would allow intellectuals to criticize the Party and develop new ideas

  3. Yakovlev appointed new radical editors to head the Moskovskie Novosti, the Moscow News
• The media was liberalised, newspapers began to publish accounts of the scale of Stalin's atrocities, even stories of admitted problems in the USSR
• Yakovlev permitted the publication of banned books, plays and films by anti-communist intellectuals
• Gorbachev released dissidents from prison and invited Andrei Sakharov to Moscow from exile in Gorky to support political reform
• From 1987-1988, Gorbachev extended glasnost, with Tsypko publicly criticising Marx and Lenin, attacking the foundations of Communism