Gorbachev's Political Reforms (1986-89)

Gorbachev's Political Reforms (1986-89)

• Gorbachev sought to reform the Soviet political system, including the role of the party, the electoral and legislative system, and executive bodies.

27th Congress of the CPSU (February-March 1986)

• Gorbachev announced intentions for party reform, including expanding the role of the Central Committee Secretariat.
• Alexandra Biryukova was appointed to oversee light industry, food, and consumer services, marking the first time a woman held such a high-level position since Khrushchev.
• A new Party Program was approved, modifying Khrushchev's 1961 program; it acknowledged challenges in progressing to communism and criticized years of 'inertness'.
• The bureaucracy attempted to control Gorbachev and his reforms; Yegor Ligachev, who supported economic reform but opposed democracy, was made in charge of party ideology.
• Prime Minister Ryzhkov was assigned to implement policy.
• The majority of the old Central Committee initially remained in place.
• Gorbachev aimed to avoid Khrushchev's fate by gaining approval for new guidelines that would replace those made at the Congress.

January 1987 Central Committee Meeting

• Gorbachev declared the Soviet economy and society were in crisis, requiring democratization of the party and state political systems.
• Competitive elections with a choice of candidates were proposed for members of some local soviets, which would be directly elected by the people.
• Direct elections to other important soviet posts were also planned.
• Aim: To weaken party control over the state and increase support for reform.

April 1987 - 18th Congress of Soviet Trade Unions

• Gorbachev reiterated his determination to push ahead with democratization policies despite heavy criticism.
• Argued for workplace democracy to ensure perestroika's success and advised union officials to protect workers' interests.

June 1987

• Multi-candidate elections were held in some constituencies.

January 27-28, 1988 - Central Committee Meeting

• Included offering a choice of candidates for elections to all local and regional soviets.
• Secret ballots for the election of party officials.
• Offering a choice of candidates for the election of trade union delegates within enterprises.

19th Party Conference (June 28, 1988)

• The first party conference since 1941, where Gorbachev launched reforms to reduce party control of the government apparatus.
• Gorbachev proposed a presidential system and the creation of the Congress of People’s Deputies with 2250 seats directly elected by the people.
• Two-thirds of the congress were to be elected by universal suffrage, and one-third (750 seats) from "people's organizations," including 100 seats for the CPSU.
• Only the Congress could amend the constitution.
• The Congress would elect deputies to a 400-member all-union Supreme Soviet.
• The Supreme Soviet, meeting twice a year, could ratify laws, ministerial appointments, question ministers, and establish commissions.
• A similar two-tier structure was planned for the republics, with elections in March 1990.
• Initially, Gorbachev intended to maintain the one-party system.
• Gorbachev proposed making party officials accountable to the law by making judges and the legal system independent of the CPSU.
• A new constitution guaranteeing civil rights and separating party and state organizations was drafted in June 1989.

1989 Elections

• Elections to the Congress of People's Deputies were held in March and April 1989.
• These were the first semi-free elections since 1921, with some non-CPSU candidates allowed to stand for election.
• Almost 90% of registered voters participated.
• About 50 senior regional party secretaries without reserved seats were defeated, along with many local government officials and military candidates.
• The elections marked a weakening of party control, which was noted in many Eastern European states.
• Gorbachev was elected chairman (head of state) of the Supreme Soviet.
• The televised sessions of the Congress aired criticism and encouraged expectations for more rapid reform.
• Many Communist Party candidates were defeated.
• Boris Yeltsin, who had been sacked as Moscow party leader, was elected in Moscow for one of its territorial seats.
• July 1989 - Yeltsin and some other opponents of Gorbachev created the Inter-Regional Deputies’ Group.
• Yeltsin managed to get into the new Supreme Soviet, when one of the elected members stood down to let him have the seat.
• Political clubs emerged outside the Congress, with organized factions appearing for the first time since 1921.
• Groups included the Popular Front for Perestroika, the Soviet Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and the Moscow People’s front.

Reforming the CPSU

• Gorbachev aimed for the party to remain politically dominant but more open, tolerant, and less autocratic, without multi-party elections.
• Reforms included genuine elections with competing candidates for party officials and conference delegates.
• The 19th Party Conference (June 1988) decided the party would no longer control economic policy, with the Politburo focusing only on internal party affairs.
• The party retained its leading position in the military and the KGB.
• Party positions could not be held for more than two consecutive five-year terms.
• Separation of party and state meant no one could hold both a party and a state position at the top levels.
• The separation of party and state weakened Gorbachev's position.
• Greater democracy led many to leave the party; in 1990, over 3 million left the CPSU.

Nationalism and the Union

• Unrest grew in many Soviet Republics, leading to calls for greater autonomy and independence from 1987.
• This was especially marked in Transcaucasian republics such as Georgia and Central Asian republics such as Kazakhstan.
• Nationalism was particularly strong in the Baltic republics, where many people disliked the number of Russians who migrated there because of the relatively higher standards of living - and the closeness to Western Europe.

A “Union of Equals”?

• Under Stalin, the Soviet Union had been set up as a much tighter system than the original federation which had existed under Lenin.
• Since 1924, the right to secede had only really existed on paper.
• Brezhnev had tried to create a “Soviet” identity to replace the various national identities.
• In 1971, only 54% of the population was Russian.
• While the CPSU in Moscow was dominant, republics had their own party structures; loyalty to the center allowed considerable leeway, often resulting in corruption.

Growing Unrest

• Freer elections resulted in nationalists being elected in many Soviet republics, some of whom were right-wing, prejudiced against ethnic minorities, and anti-Semitic.
• In 1988 and 1989, ethnic tensions led to clashes between Azeris and Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
• A popular independence movement emerged in Georgia in 1988; in April 1989, demonstrations turned violent, resulting in 23 deaths by Interior Ministry troops.
• In elections in October, pro-independence groups won 54% of the vote.
• In November 1989, the new Supreme Soviet of Georgia declared itself sovereign.
• Nationalist Popular Front movements, such as Sajudis in Lithuania, were established during 1988, demanding greater sovereignty.
• From September 1989, the CPSU began to consider changes to its nationalist policies - including a looser federation, with more respect for the rights of cultures of the different republics.

Consequences of Gorbachev's Foreign Policy During the 1980s

• Gorbachev's foreign policy aimed to solve the Soviet Union's economic problems by shifting resources from aid and armaments to modernize the economy.
• He sought large-scale credits from the West to finance modernization.
• Gorbachev wanted to end the Second Cold War and bring about a new period of detente.
• These changes affected Soviet foreign policy regarding East-West Cold War relations, Afghanistan, and Eastern Europe.

The Cold War and Afghanistan

• Gorbachev and his supporters believed the Cold War crippled the Soviet economy.
• Alexander Yakovlev feared potential military interventions against the Soviet Union by the US due to close ties between the government, military, and corporations.
• Gorbachev aimed to end the Second Cold War and the US trade and technological blockade imposed since the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
• The Soviet Union gradually withdrew troops from Afghanistan from mid-1986.
• In April 1988, Gorbachev and Reagan agreed to end all foreign involvement in the Afghan civil war, and by February 1989, all Soviet troops had been withdrawn.

The Arms Race

• Gorbachev offered deep armaments cuts to the US to ease the burden of military attempts to keep up with the US.
• A series of summit meetings with US President Reagan took place in November 1985 and October 1986.
• Gorbachev's visit to Washington in December 1987 led to the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty eliminating intermediate-range nuclear weapons from Europe.
• A further summit in Moscow in May 1988 saw the start of a new Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (START), agreeing to reduce nuclear stockpiles.
• The US refused to abandon its "Star Wars" (Strategic Defensive Initiative - SDI) project.

“New Thinking” and Eastern Europe

• The communist-ruled states of Eastern Europe were politically, economically, and militarily bound to the USSR through the Warsaw Pact.
• Maintaining this "buffer zone" of satellite states was costly for the Soviet Union.
• Gorbachev believed a reformed and more prosperous Eastern Europe, with links to Western Europe, would benefit the Soviet Union economically.
• Communist regimes faced political and economic crises, and Gorbachev knew reforms were vital for them to hold onto power.
• Gorbachev was motivated by a genuine commitment to end Soviet interference and make Europe safer.
• The "Common European Home" policy won him supporters in Western Europe.
• Gorbachev announced the abandonment of the Brezhnev Doctrine in March 1985, stating Soviet troops would no longer intervene in Eastern European states.
• He made it clear that each member state of the Warsaw Pact had the right to make changes within its own country “without outside interference.”
• From 1985, Gorbachev gradually reduced Soviet control and economic assistance, encouraging Eastern European states to follow their own "paths to socialism" through liberalization reforms.
• In 1987, Gorbachev launched discussions on reducing Soviet troop levels in Eastern Europe, with significant withdrawals beginning in 1989.
• By giving up Soviet influence in Eastern Europe, Gorbachev was effectively marking the end of any Soviet aspirations towards being a global superpower like the US.

The “Velvet Revolutions”

• Gorbachev's actions after 1985 undermined the authority of Eastern Europe's hardline rulers.
• The Eastern European regimes of the GDR, Bulgaria, Romania and Czechoslovakia had tried hard at first to limit news of Gorbachev’s reforms in the Soviet Union.
• By the end of 1989, communist regimes had been overturned in peaceful and bloodless political revolutions.
• In November 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened.
• The peaceful revolutions were known as the "velvet revolutions," initially given to changes in Czechoslovakia.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

• In November 1989, the Berlin Wall - a visible symbol of the Cold War since its construction in 1961 - was opened up, and talks for German reunification began almost immediately.

Historical Interpretations

• Some historians, like M. McGwire, suggest Gorbachev deliberately began policies that would end communist rule in Eastern Europe.
• Others, like R. Service, argue it was not his intention to bring about the collapse of these communist regimes.
• Eric Hobsbawm warned that new governments applying neo-liberal capitalist policies would cause great hardship.
• Gorbachev hoped the new governments would be reform communists or socialists establishing democratic socialism, but the old communist governments were gone.

Unsuccessful Coup

• Gorbachev’s foreign policy played an important part in an unsuccessful coup against him in August 1991.
• The crises and events in the communist satellite states of Eastern Europe in 1988 and 1989 proved to be significant factors in the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union itself at the end of 1991.