Gorbachev’s first active step in his glasnost and perestroika reforms was on the 4th April 1985. He was discussing the forthcoming plenum on 23rd April. He asked Politburo members to stay behind after a ‘meeting.’ In Gorbachev’s March plenum, he had spoken about his plans to reform the Soviet regime. This was a gesture of glasnost and hinted to the public about the shape of things to come. He told the Politburo at the meeting that there had been an “unexpectedly big response in the country… need to struggle systematically against ostentation, arrogance, eulogies and boot-licking.” Gorbachev believed there ought to be proportion in al things. He tried, step by step, to free himself from the customary trappings of Party tradition. Not only did he want to free himself, he wanted to free others. He decided that the Soviet regime he had inherited actually worked quite well during times of crisis and war, however for everyday life it was sluggish and ineffective. He didn’t want to lose the Communist roots, however the process of perestroika was an attempt to transform the dogmatic and bureaucratic command system in to a sort of Liberalism. Going by this we can see that Gorbachev’s real aim was simply to modernize the Soviet system rather than to eradicate it completely. He implemented minor changes in the hope of disciplining the work force. This was due to the decline if the Soviet economy following the implementation of perestroika.
The Central Committee had decreed that, as of 8th September 1989, soap, razor blades, washing powder, toothpaste, electric irons, school exercise books and many other items be taken off the shelves of stores. There were ‘serious shortages’ of medical provisions and even food was in short supply. Because of this, the Black Market was thriving and, like America during the prohibition, the Mafia began to take control. Other measures introduced under perestroika were leasing land to farmers (all land was owned by the state), allowing loss-making factories to go bankrupt and limiting numbers of private enterprises allowed to open. A branch of the fast food chain McDonald’s was allowed to open in Moscow during perestroika, but the prices were too high for the average person to afford. The most promising measure undertaken during perestroika was a cut in state spending, especially when it came to military expenditure. Radical changes came when Gorbachev decided to increase the quantity of goods produced. However, by increasing the quantity of goods, the quality was drastically lessened. Gorbachev had hoped this would help the economy, but in reality, it was too late to stop the slide and in fact had some adverse effects such as panic buying. People began to realize that the so called ‘reforms’ were not going as well as first thought and when Gorbachev failed to approve Grigory Yavlinsky’s five hundred day economic plan in September 1990, he lost all remaining support from the Soviet people.
Despite all the support lost through perestroika, changes were taking place in people’s minds. The gradual exposure of myths about the Party, the ‘advantages of the socialist order’ and the ‘democratism’ of the Soviet system were all considered in the realms of glasnost. The spiritual destruction of the Soviet system brought about by glasnost began earlier than the material and organizational deconstruction. For years, Russian leaders had been preoccupied with perfecting and renewing socialism. Gorbachev stands out as superior in this sense, for attempting to personalize socialism and make it open and accessible to the Soviet people. During an interview in 1989, he is quoted as saying, “I detest lies.” It was this yearning for the truth which led him to introduce the policy of glasnost. The liberal press exploited their new found freedom and the leeway they had been given, continually pushing its boundaries. Glasnost changed whole periods of Russian history, with previously great leaders such as Stalin, Brezhnev and Cherenko being exposed as the brutal, oppressive murderers they really were. Only Lenin remained sacrosanct.
Gorbachev faced a test of glasnost on 26th April 1986. At just after one o’clock in the morning there was an explosion at the Cheronobyl atomic energy power station. For forty-eight hours the Soviet authorities remained silent, and even tried to cover up the catastrophe. On 28th April at 11am, the Politburo met and discussed what should be done regarding making an announcement. At that point they had very little information, however Gorbachev insisted the people be informed- “We must issue an announcement as soon as possible, we must not delay.” So that evening a bland broadcast went out via television and radio informing the Soviet people that an accident had taken place and that the matter was in hand. This was not enough for the world’s press or people and, realizing he had anything but a routine problem on his hands, Gorbachev set about summoning physicists, nuclear energy experts, the Defense Minister and KGB officers. They agreed on an announcement and circulated it. This announcement astonished not only the people of the USSR but also the world. It was a display of complete honesty and unparallel information, the likes of which had never been seen or heard before in the USSR. Cheronobyl became a symbol of the decay of the Soviet system and also proved to have been a test of Gorbachev’s willingness to engage in genuine glasnost. Such was the effect of glasnost over the following years that the 1988 school history exams were cancelled. So many conventional wisdoms had been overturned that the existing Soviet history books were deemed useless. The changes glasnost was bringing about were not accepted by everyone. Radicals wanted the changes to go further and faster and were exemplified in such illegal publications as ‘GLASNOST.’ Hardliners on the other hand wished to keep a firm grip on people’s minds by frequently attacking the radicals in conservative press. Prada, the flagship Communist Party newspaper, said, “extremists and nationalists are hiding their true faces behind masks of commitment to perestroika.” While it was clear glasnost was allowing increased freedom of speech and discussion, controls were being placed on the topics. The arrest and harassment of staff of radical papers and removal of material from libraries still ensured that people could not go too far.
The critical re-examination of history fostered by glasnost was unprecedented in the USSR and affected every chapter of the country’s history. For example Khrushchev had continually criticized Stalin, however he had only let out partial truths so as not to tarnish his own career. The liberal press had been given a pretty much free rein and had been allowed to grow and flourish within the USSR. A popular current affairs magazine called Ogonyuk had a circulation of three million by 1990. It was in magazines like Ogonyuk and on television shows that the truth about the past of the USSR was finally revealed to the Soviet people. It did not take long for the liberal press to turn its attention to the slowness in the reform of the Soviet system. By 1989, glasnost had broken free from its masters and began to be used to criticize its creator, Gorbachev. After the Cheronobyl disaster, environmental issues became a favourite topic of the liberal press. The turning if Central Asia into desert by diverting rivers and streams to irrigate cotton plantations was just one example that shocked the nation. The Soviet people could not believe the incompetence of their Communist Party planners and, as the truth emerged, they became angry with their Communist rulers.
Today Gorbachev is criticized for lacking an effective plan for perestroika, but no one at the time was offering any alternative path or strategy. We now know that Gorbachev made many mistakes, however he was a reformer. He did not contemplate or ponder over ideas; he acted. Undoubtedly Gorbachev’s perestroika reform had its failings, most notably the national problem of the economy. This could only have come from being burdened by the flawed system and state structure brought in by Lenin in the 1920’s and left behind by Chernekov in 1985. A duality emerged, caused in part by the unclear nature of Gorbachev’s liberal option and also by the tortuous process of shedding the stereotypes endowed by the Bolshevik mentality. Glasnost provided greater freedoms for the press, intellectuals and artists, and exerted pressure on conservative forces. It provided new ideas and solutions to address problems. Glasnost allowed, for the first time, the facts to be presented. The Soviet people soon realized why so much had been kept from them for so long. The USSR was a mess but, for the first time, the people knew the truth and were demanding answers. Gorbachev could not prevent the economic collapse. His insistence in slow, gradual change annulled any positive effects the reforms may have had.
It is possible to suggest that Soviet society, far from being destroyed by Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika reforms, was rebuilt. The Soviet people may have had to struggle through the economic collapse left by the perestroika reforms, but they discovered much more about their past leaders, and therefore the reasons why their country was in such a bad way, than they could ever have hoped for. They were at last allowed to be free and open in their thoughts and actions. This could only have served to make them stronger and more unified as a society. Gorbachev could not have done more than he did and, importantly, he widened the avenues of public access to information of all kinds. This gave them a new view of many aspects of political life, which had before been closed to them. In conclusion, the glasnost and perestroika reforms employed by Gorbachev may have destroyed the Soviet system based on class lies and secrecy but, for Soviet society, they opened the door to a more open and happier way of life.
NB. Many people suggest that it is still too early to know the real implications and outcome of Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika reforms.
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