Second, the economic results were disappointing; the economic reforms did not produce results quickly enough.
Basic goods were in short supply and the queues in the towns got longer. Having had their expectations raised by his promises, people became outraged at the shortages. A huge strike was held by a group of coalminers (they were quickly joined by other miners until half a million miners were on strike). After about a month the strike was over, but the economic situation did not improve. Gorbachev was fast losing control of the reform movement that he had started, and the success of the miners was bound to encourage the radicals to press for even more far-reaching changes.
Third, there were nationalist pressures; there were many different nationalities within the USSR that wanted independence. The republics had been kept under tight control since Stalin’s time, but glasnost and perestroika encouraged them to hope for more powers for their parliaments and more independence from Moscow. Gorbachev himself seemed sympathetic, provided that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union remained in overall control. However, once started, demands got out of hand.
Trouble began in Nagorno-Karabakh, a small republic within the Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. The parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh requested to become part of neighbouring Armenia, but Gorbachev refused. He was afraid that if he agreed, this would upset the conservatives (who opposed internal frontier changes) and turn them against his entire reform programme. Fighting broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and Moscow had clearly lost.
Worse was to follow in the three Baltic Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which had been taken over against their will by the Russians in 1940. Independence movements denounced Gorbachev as ‘national excesses’ had been growing in strength. In March 1990, encouraged by what was happening in the satellite states of Eastern Europe, Lithuania took the lead by declaring itself independent. The other two soon followed, though they voted to proceed more gradually. Moscow refused to recognise their independence.
Boris Yeltsin, who had been excluded from the new Supreme Soviet by the conservatives, made a dramatic comeback when he was elected president of the parliament of the Russian republic (Russian Federation) in May 1990.
And last, Gorbachev and Yeltsin were now bitter rivals. They disagreed on many fundamental issues. Some examples:
Yeltsin believed that the union should be voluntary, however, Gorbachev thought that a purely voluntary union would lead to disintegration.
Yeltsin was now completely disillusioned with the communist party and the way the traditionalists treated him. Gorbachev was still a convinced communist and thought the only way forward was through a humane and democratic communist party.
On the economy Yeltsin thought the answer was a rapid changeover to a market economy, though he knew that this would be painful for the Russian people. Gorbachev was much more cautious, realising that Yeltsin’s plans would cause massive unemployment and even higher prices. He was fully aware of how unpopular he was already; if things got even worse, he might well be overthrown.
Gorbachev was really losing control, this was again showed when Georgia declared independence.
Then a group of hardline communists, including Gorbachev’s vice-president, Gennady Yanayev, decided they had had enough, and launched a coup to remove Gorbachev and reverse his reforms. When Gorbachev was on holiday in the Crimea in August 1991 he was arrested and told to hand over power to Yanayev. When he refused, he was kept under house arrest while the coup went ahead in Moscow. The plotters sent tanks and troops on to the streets of Moscow. This was the old Soviet way to keep control. Huge crowds gathered in Moscow; the strongly opposed this military coup. The Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, emerged as the leader of the popular opposition. Faced by this resistance, the conspirators lost faith in themselves and the coup collapsed.
This last attempt by the Communist Party to save the USSR had failed. A few days later, Gorbachev returned to Moscow. He might have survived the coup, but it had not strengthened his position as Soviet leader. He had to admit that the USSR was finished and he with it.
In a television speech on 25 December 1991, Gorbachev announced the end of the Soviet Union.
There are four reasons why Mikhail Gorbachev’s attempts to reform the USSR failed: first, there was opposition from within the communist party (the radicals vs. the conservatives). Second, the economic results were very disappointing. Third, the different republics within the USSR wanted independence, and last, there was rivalry between Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
After the coup in August 1991 Gorbachev had to admit that the USSR was finished and he with it.
