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In contrast to his predecessors, Gorbachev maintained positive relations with Western leaders, leading to the signing of important agreements on nuclear weapons.
If there are two words associated with Mikhail Gorbachev and his decisive phase as the leader of the Soviet Union, these are “perestroika” and “glasnost”.
The first is “Reconstruction” and the second is “Opening”.
Both of these innovative ideas were promoted by Gorbachev He died on Tuesday at the age of 91. in Moscow – They changed the tension that had been present The nature of the Soviet Union, it eventually collapsed.
In March 1985, Konstantin Chernenko died at the age of 73 after only one year as the country’s leader.
Unlike the conservative Chernenko, who made his career in Stalinism, the second in line is a relatively young politician of 54 with reformist views. Mikhail Gorbachev.
In the absence of another plausible candidate, Gorbachev He was unanimously elected General Secretary of the Communist Party And, with it, the then leader of the Second World Power, from which position he would advance his founding principles.
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On the occasion of the death of one of the most important historical figures of the 20th century, BBC Mundo examines two of his theories that marked the end of the Cold War and changed the course of history.
Perestroika day
In the 1980s the standard of living in the Soviet Union fell, while in the United States and Europe it increasingly improved.
The Soviet economy was in dire straits and Moscow was unable to keep up with the escalating arms race with Washington.
On the other hand, government reports point to the need to encourage small private businesses to sustain the economy.
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Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the age of 54.
Therefore, Gorbachev believed that a comprehensive reform was necessary to modernize and restructure the economy of the Soviet Union.
This view is called “Perestroika”.
From 1985 onwards Gorbachev undertook a series of economic openings – some of which included private property of goods – and trade relations with the West, always on the basis of socialism.
Basically, perestroika aimed to transform the Soviet Union’s centrally planned economy towards a market economy.
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Gorbachev’s policies allowed freedom of speech and the printing of books that had been banned in previous communist governments.
China had already initiated similar reforms under Deng Xiaoping as early as 1979, leading some analysts to compare perestroika to the reform policies of its neighbors.
And, despite the similarities, the biggest difference is that economic opening in the case of the Soviet Union was accompanied by political, social and cultural liberalization unprecedented in the communist world: “Volume”.
Law Vol
The new doctrine expanded the freedom of expression in the country to an unprecedented extent.
Until then, banned books that challenged not only the official history but also the legitimacy of the communist government began to be published in large editions.
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Political dissidents were released from prison and abuses of justice were investigated, while religious persecution was stopped and different religions were tolerated.
The official ideology, Marxism-Leninism, was replaced Ideological pluralism Y Free intellectual inquiry.
Freedom of communication was imposed (for example, foreign broadcasting ceased to be intercepted) and citizens were allowed to travel to Western countries, which until then had been strictly forbidden.
Secret reports on violent Stalinist-era repression were also classified.
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In politics, it represented a radical shift within the Communist Party, abandoning its so-called “democratic centralism,” which implied a hierarchical constraint, strict discipline, and intolerance of contradiction.
With nearly 20 million members, the party was divided into various political platforms that participated in the 1989, 1990 and 1991 elections.
The legalization of opposition parties with constitutional change in 1990 legitimized the new political pluralism.
At the international level, Gorbachev ordered the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, which in 1989 completely withdrew from the country after a 10-year invasion.
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The last leader of the Soviet Union also established good personal relations with Western political leaders, reaching agreements to reduce nuclear and missile arms.
His most important move was a public abdication “The Brezhnev Doctrine” Confederate countries in Eastern Europe have limited sovereignty, giving them the freedom to remain communist or choose another political system.
Since 1989 they have all taken him at his word and quietly (except in Romania) deposed their local communist leaders without Moscow sending troops to stop it.
Mikhail Gorbachev was unusually open-minded for a Communist politician, pointed out Professor Archie Brown of Oxford University in a recent BBC archive.
Gorbachev turned out to be more of a reformer than his Politburo colleagues believed, and at a time when the Soviet Union was going through a delicate economic and social situation, he gained enough power to put his ideas into practice.
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After leaving power, Gorbachev dedicated himself to the foundation that bears his name.
However, the scholar points out, the more the Soviet system was reformed, the more it undermined the traditional omnipotence of the party leader, which was the basis of his power.
Additionally, the tolerance of dissent within the Soviet Union brought to the fore many issues that had been suppressed in political life for decades, including nationalist aspirations in the republics under Moscow.
In 1990 the existence of the Soviet Union was seriously threatened.
In December 1991, Gorbachev’s attempts to restructure it into a voluntary federation of republics failed.
And the country was dissolved into 15 states, the largest of which was Russia.
I will follow all this A very severe economic crisis This led to the misery of millions of Russians and the rise of an elite of oligarchs who, backed by political power, appropriated the country’s wealth.
This complex situation would lead to Vladimir Putin’s rise to power a decade later and the progressive loss of political and social freedoms in Russia.
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