What was perestroika; why did Gorbachev introduce it; and why did perestroika fail?

The crack down on alcohol consumption was only one of Gorbachev’s reforms on the work force; he intended to change the population to make them more motivated to work through his policies of “intensification and acceleration”. Gorbachev’s reforms to increase workers’ wages while decreasing the existing consumer ‘entitlements’ such as food and housing was supposed to give the workforce more incentive to work harder. Similarly, Gorbachev wanted to create more incentives for the managers by increasing wages and encouraging competition so they would work harder; this was helped by the Foreign Trade Monopoly where Gorbachev allowed the Ruble to be convertible to other currencies.

A significant problem for the population of the Soviet Union was their desire for more freedom of expression and civil rights which had been suppressed throughout Stalinist Russia. Gorbachev instituted a policy of Glasnost or ‘openness’ as a reaction to this, and allowed the open discussion of existing economic and social problems of the country. This came in unison with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which many see as a catalyst for the Glasnost reforms as the population were dissatisfied with the executive’s secrecy. Previously banned poets such as the hitherto-taboo Nikolai Gumilev had their work published, and books such as ‘Dr Zhivago’ and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ were also published, even though they had been written many years before. This accompanied new exposure for previously banned films and literature, and the Press Law of 1990 prevented state censorship of the media.

By 1989 it seemed to many that Gorbachev’s reforms were having an effect: Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan, democratic governments overturned Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the Warsaw Pact withered away, and back in the Soviet Union, the first openly-contested elections for new Congress of People's Deputies took place. Gorbachev had support from many of the world leaders of the time, who commended him for perestroika and his ‘carefully prepared program rather than a pompous declaration’.

"...We will give [Gorbachev] our assurance that America welcomes this reform not as an adversary seeking advantage but as a people offering support.  ....I will assure him that there is no greater advocate of perestroika than the president of the United States."

George W. Bush, President of the United States
Special televised address, November 22, 1989

In the Soviet Union itself, however, reactions to the new policies were mixed as they disrupted the entrenched traditional power bases in the party, economy, and society without replacing them entirely. The freedoms of assembly, speech, and religion, the right to strike, and multi candidate elections as part of his glasnost reforms undermined not only the Soviet Union's authoritarian structures, but also the familiar feelings of order and predictability that the population was used to – they were forced to get used to the drastic reforms too quickly.

Gorbachev introduced policies designed to begin establishing a market economy by encouraging limited private ownership and profitability in Soviet industry and agriculture. One of these was to privatise the farming land which was previously owned by the state and lease the land to farmers, however this did cause many factories to go bankrupt, which put doubt in many people’s minds about perestroika. Even a McDonalds opened in Moscow, which added to the shift towards a capitalist market, however it was too expensive for the average consumer. Although many of Gorbachev’s attempted reforms to change the economy through privatisation seemed like a good idea, the challenge was simply too much and it led to shortages of some goods and over production of others; and this may suggest that perestroika failed.

There are many possible reasons which may suggest why perestroika was destined for failure, perhaps because many people argue Gorbachev only planned to modernise the Soviet Union, he never planned to redesign it. While alcoholism was a major problem in the USSR he inadvertently forced production underground, like America during prohibition the Mafia took control and has plagued Russia ever since. Also, while alcohol consumption did decrease under his reforms: by 1986 alcohol consumption per head had decreased by 50% per head, and while the economy did perform better in 1986 there is no hard evidence to prove that the prohibition of alcohol was the cause.

Similarly, Gorbachev’s reforms for workers’ wages seemed a positive change to the Soviet Union, however the wages increased faster than productivity increased, and when Gorbachev decreased wages to compensate for this, the incentives to work decreased and product quality declined. Therefore, Gorbachev’s attempts to promote quality of goods rather than quantity failed as workers had their rewards taken off them and so less effort was put in their work.

The failure of perestroika was worsened by Gorbachev's promises about the results that the reforms would have; he publicly predicted an increase in the standard of living conditions that never happened, and so Gorbachev was seen as being incapable of making much needed decisions. This wasn’t helped by Gorbachev's failure to approve Grigory Yavlinsky's 500 day economic plan in September 1990 as this lost him any remaining support he still had from the Soviet people. His main failure to bring about any significant change to the Soviet economy also alienated himself and left him with few allies; even his Foreign Minster Eduard Shevardnadze resigned in front of nearly 2,000 members of the Congress of People's Deputies. Over the previous months, Shevardnadze had voiced increasing apprehension over the way his country was headed under Gorbachev:

 "We are going back to the terrible past. Reactionaries are gaining power. Reformers have slumped into the bushes. A dictatorship is coming. No one knows what this dictatorship will be like, what kind of dictator will come to power and what order will be established." 

This culmination of dissatisfaction with Gorbachev and his failed perestroika eventually led to the failed Coup in August 1991, when Gorbachev was in effect kidnapped in his own house while on holiday in the Crimea, and forced by his own Chief of Staff Valery Boldin, the head of the KGB Yuri Plekhanov and six other coup conspirators to sign a referendum which declared the Soviet Union in a state of emergency which would authorise reforms without the consent of Gorbachev. Three days later, the coup leaders fled after their coup failed, and Boris Yeltsin, the unofficial saviour of the country, took up office after Gorbachev’s resignation and the Soviet Union and perestroika reforms officially collapsed.

I believe that Gorbachev’s proposed reforms for the Soviet Union could have been beneficiary to the country, however I think he was too adventurous in his policy reforms which eventually led to them failing, especially as they had been implemented too fast without careful planning. Perestroika seemed to alter the economy without fixing it; however many argue it did lead the way to a free market economy which exists today.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Balzer, Harley D, Five years that shook the world: Gorbachev’s unfinished revolution, Colorado: Westview Press, 1991
• Friedburg, Maurice, Society under Gorbachev: Current Trends and the Prospects for Reform, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1987
• Gorbachev, Mikhail, Perestroika, New York: Harper and Row, 1998
• Hewett, A and V.H. Winston, Milestones in Glasnost and Perestroika, Washington DC: the Brookings Institution, 1991
• White, Stephen, Gorbachev and After, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991