Historical investigation

What factors contributed to Gorbachev's popularity AMONG the western countries?

Table of contents

A  Plan of investigation........................................................ 2

B  Summary of evidence...................................................... 2-3

C   Evaluation of sources....................................................... 4

D  Analysis....................................................................... 5-6

E   Conclusion...................................................................6

F   Bibliography.................................................................6

What factors contributed to Gorbachev's popularity among the Western countries 1985-1991?

A: Plan of investigation

This essay will assess the factors that contributed to Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev's popularity among the western countries during his years as the leader of the Soviet Union, 1985-1991. In order to do so, this essay will discuss his policies of glasnost, perestroika and demokratizatsiya and evaluate why the Western countries found these policies appealing. This will be done with the use of written sources of different origins; older ones written 1985-1991 and others written after 1991, as well as sources produced by authors from different traditions. Two of the sources most frequently used in this investigation, Perestroika by Mikhail Gorbachev himself and The making of Modern Russia by John Keep and Lionel Kochan, will then be evaluated for their origins, purposes, values and limitations.

This essay will be based only on Gorbachev's policies mentioned above and the actions he took with use of them. Other factors that might have influence on his popularity such as his reduction of nuclear weapons in the USSR during the Cold War and the popularity of his wife, etc., will not be taken into account.

B: Summary of evidence

"A reformist CPSU General Secretary is as rare as a liberal pope."[1] Unlike his predecessors, Gorbachev succeeded in establishing good relationships with many Western leaders, irrespective of political opinions.[2] He was intended to carry out a big change in the Soviet Union since he believed that the Soviet system did not work efficiently any longer and he is said to have stated "Tak bolsje zjit nelzia"[3] (We can't have it this way any longer) the day before he was presented the new Soviet leader.[4] His policies were based on human rights, democracy, non-violence and freedom of mind.

Perestroika referred to the reconstruction of the Soviet Union. Initially it was used to describe his intention of modernizing the economic system and improve the productivity, but later on it was used to describe his more general aim to modernize the whole Soviet Union. "The essence of perestroika lies in the fact that it unites socialism with democracy and revives the Leninist concept of socialist construction both in theory and in practice." [5] Perestroika also meant that some kind of restricted market economy was introduced in the old planned economical system, in order to improve the inefficient industry with people not working as good as possible simply because they got no reward for it.[6]

"Glasnost was the policy of openness adopted by Gorbachev, who wanted the past mistakes and current problems in the USSR to be voiced in public, including criticism of the leadership of the Communist Party and its policies in the media"[7] Glasnost was a tool for perestroika to work out. Glasnost meant that people had the right to express their opinions and was kind of the opposite to what Stalin and his successors had carried out with use of terror.[8]

Demokratizatsiya is the term used to describe Gorbachev's attempt to democratise the Soviet political system. In doing so, the elections were reformed as to give the voters a greater choice. Other political organisations were allowed to operate without the control of the Communist Party, at first only left-wing movements, but later on liberals as well. "Gorbachev also tried to make the government and the Soviet system more independent of party control."[9]

As a consequence of these policies, Gorbachev wanted the European satellite states to reform and liberalise. In 1988, he announced a big cut of Soviet troops in Eastern Europe and the de-militarization of the Soviet Union, all according to his belief that military actions would not help his country to improve in any way.[10] In March 1989, his dream of perestroika and its impacts had come true. Multi-candidate elections were held and reforms and changes were carried out. This encouraged the former satellite states to do the same. The GDR collapsed at the same time and Gorbachev encouraged the leaders not to take a hard-line policy and instead hold free elections, and so they did[11].

In 1991, he was awarded Nobel Peace Prize.

C: Evaluation of sources

Perestroika - New Thinking For Our Country and the World was written by Mikhail Gorbachev himself two and a half years after he gained power and contains his own thoughts on perestroika. The purpose is obviously to give thoughts and reflections on perestroika as needed to solve the problems the world is facing during this period of time. He expresses that he wrote this book to show that he and his country was ready for finding a solution to the problems the world faced and that their solution did not have to be the ultimate answer. The value of this book lies mainly in the fact that it was written by the person which this essay investigates and is thereby a primary source. It offers an insight of the main character's thoughts on the topic studied. The limitation is mainly the bias, since even though the reflections offer critique against the system, Gorbachev naturally expresses the good sides of his policies.

The making of Modern Russia was written by two English professors. The part containing the facts on this topic was written in 1997. The purpose is to give an account of how Russia was built up and to explain the characters of the main figures in the Russian history. The value lies in its objectivity as written by professors with a lot of knowledge about history and their objectivity as persons not being part of the Russian history themselves. The value also lies in its in-depth analysis written with use of the information available after the breakdown of the Soviet Union, as is the case of most secondary sources. The limitations are the bias that is always present as human beings have personal opinions that we always express, which in this book is the bias of them being a bit negative to Gorbachev as can be seen by their tendency of describing perestroika as something negative, and that it is a book covering such a long period of time and thereby the chapters covering the Gorbachev era are rather short.

The books together offer two versions of the same thing and are of important use in this investigation, while one of the sources expresses what the perestroika was all about by the man introducing it and the other evaluates it with use of all information available after it had failed as seen from a western perspective.

D: Analysis

Since the USSR had been an enemy and threat to most western European countries for a long period of time, one can suspect that many people got relieved when Gorbachev immediately proved himself a totally new type of Soviet leader. The old anti-west leaders were gone and the Soviet Union was ready for reform. When Gorbachev admitted that the economic system had to be changed into a form of market economy, it was a step towards the western traditions whether that was his intention or not. It is also here the importance of this investigation lies; After Lenin, Gorbachev was the first leader to reform the country and approach the west. The importance also lies in the fact that 1985-1991 was an extremely important period of time since the world was in the middle of the Cold War which, due to the nuclear arms race, was on its brink to burst out into a nuclear war. Gorbachev actually did his best to end this war for all human beings' best. We have no idea what would have happened if a new Stalin instead would have gained power during these years.

The important difference between Gorbachev and the other communist leaders after Lenin lies in the fact that he was the only one really following the path of Lenin and not Stalin which meant that he wanted socialism and democracy. Other communist leaders had worked more or less as dictators, but Gorbachev pointed out the importance of democracy in the very beginning of his reign and continued this throughout his whole period as the General Secretary of the USSR.

Part of this was glasnost which most probably has a great deal of responsibility of the popularity faced by Gorbachev in the west and the hate he sometimes faced in the USSR. As the USSR had never admitted any mistakes or problems before, all of a sudden these were all to be shown and discussed in public. This was probably popular among the western countries not only because the USSR admitted mistakes, but also because it showed another sign of openness and made a step towards the western culture. The freedom of speech included in the glasnost  led to that people were no longer put in Gulags or other such places for not agreeing with the Communist Party and the western countries liked this as being a natural part of democracy.

Freedom of speech was also part of the demokratizatsiya which was an important factor of Gorbachev's popularity abroad. A democracy should have a voting system that allowed people to vote for a range of parties, not only the Communists. His intentions of this were even more clearly shown when he encouraged the satellite states to liberalize and this of course was very popular in the west. Finally the west could get rid of the communism they feared so much in more parts of Europe. Gorbachev gained even more popularity with his announcement that USSR should be de-militarized and that their troops in Eastern Europe should be reduced. The western powers were pleased to see that the army that had been one of the greatest when it comes to men supply was about to be reduced. It is reasonable to think that the western leaders were not only happy to see that the areas earlier occupied by the USSR were free, but that the western countries instead had the possibility to influence these regions themselves.

E: Conclusion

There were many factors contributing to Michail Gorbachev's popularity among the western countries during his years as General Secretary of the USSR. He probably gained some popularity only because he was a new type of leader that approached the west in a good time. If the world would not have been on the brink of a serious war, a big cut in the Soviet forces might not have been such great news. Gorbachev achieved much popularity through good timing and de-militarization as well as he did when he, through glasnost, allowed the satellite states to liberalize and free elections to be held both in the satellite states and the USSR. The factor contributing the most to his popularity, I would say, was his will to improve the life of human beings. He tried his best to end a war, improve human rights and overall democratize his country, and even though a lot of people criticize him and say that he failed, I t...