GV251 weeks 2124

1
GV-251 weeks 21-24

• Reform in the communist system
• Gorbachevs background
• Basic concepts
• Foreign policy
• Economic Reforms
• Political Reforms (week 23)
• Assessment of Gorbachevs reforms (week 23)

2
Reform or not in the communist system

• Russian politics and communist years culture of
  settlement and culture of spread
• Brezhnev years years of settlement
• Reforms were defeated
• Kosygins economic reforms in 1965 thus
• Neo-Stalinist compromise became unsustainable
• Sluggish economic and agricultural production
  while, China the great rival had revitalised its
  own economy
• Andropovs 15 months in power attempt to
  stimulate economy and address social problems
• Ideological flexibility
• New authoritarianism discipline

3
Reforms within communist parties

• Early Bolsheviks and reform
• Decision making process and democratic centralism
• Failure to implement reforms due to Stalin but
  precedent for Gorbachev
• Reforms in Eastern European states Yugoslavia,
  Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary
• Chinese economic reforms
• 4 modernizations of Deng Xiaoping
• Failure of the 5th modernization democracy
• Most reforms were from top to bottom with the
  exception of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia

4
Crisis in communist thought

• Development and modernization
• Exhaustion of Communist model
• Economic inefficiency
• Decline in ideological commitment
• Re-evaluation of history
• New ruling class challenged fundamentals of
  Soviet structure
• Maturation of communist society combination of
  intellectual and political pressures (was Soviet
  Union an exception?)
• Better informed population
• Underlying social changes meta-industrialization
• Failure of communism as an alternative form of
  developmental model

5
Khrushchev's ill fated reforms and Gorbachev

• Khrushchev
• Destalinization
• Reduce power of Ministries
• Reduce burden on farmers but maintained state
  control
• Attempt to decentralize the system further
  failure in coordinating
• Gorbachev
• Declining optimism about the future of communism
• Emphasis on leadership (top-bottom reforms)
• Going back to the basics and certain forms of
  Leninism

6
Gorbachevs reforms Basics

• Perestroika rebuilding and restructuring social,
  economic, and political relations
• Primarily economic to address the Brezhnev years
  stagnation
• greater leeway in decision making for plant
  managers
• allowance for a certain degree of individual
  initiative
• and the chance to make a profit.
• Glasnost public voicingopenness
• Intention liberalized information flow to gain
  support for economic reforms
• Chernobyl effect
• Demokratizatsiya (1987)
• Control of party over elections, multicandidate
  local and Soviet elections, NO multiparty

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Intentions behind perestroika

• Perestroika and renewal
• Renewal of the system before it spirals out of
  control
• purging of old cadresthe largest since Stalin
• Growing dissidents from within
• Perestroika and transition
• Democratization as a process (e.g. Latin
  American, Southern Europe)
• Perestroika as transformation process
• Transformation and transition different in
  communist societies

11
Gorbachevs foreign policy basic lines

• Basic changes in Gorbachevs foreign policy
• Redefine foreign policy and relationship with the
  West new thinking
• Shevardnadze generation and foreign policy making
• New methods dealing with the West annual
  meetings fostering new relationships
• Humanistic universalism and convergence of
  systems

12
Gorbachevs foreign policy US

• Intensification of Cold War and Star wars did
  that do the job?
• Subsequent meetings with Reagan
• Arms control discussions (Iceland with Reagan and
  Malta with Bush Sr.)
• Start I and II
• UN GA speech in 1988 withdrawal of military from
  Eastern Europe
• Withdrawal from Afghanistan(1989)
• Flexibility and pragmatism but no scaling down
  until 1989 (Eastern Europe)
• 1st Gulf War

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Gorbachevs foreign policy Eastern Europe

• Eastern European revolutions from the bottom
• Leaders averse to Gorbachevs reforms
• Fear that perestroika will open Pandora's box
• Scepticism about the reforms
• Eastern Europe problem for Soviet Union
• Resource drain
• Obstacle in the relationship with the US
• Polish elections and Solidarity in 1989

16
Gorbachevs economic reforms

• Speech in 1984 calling for acceleration,
  intensification, openness, and restructuring
• 1st wave of reforms, 1985-86
• improve coordination and planning
• But also decentralization and autonomy
• Anti-corruption, discipline, and anti-alcoholism
• Opening discussion to taboo issues
• 2nd wave of reforms (1987-1988)
• Legalization of small private firms
• Allowing for joint ventures with foreign
  companies to bring-in capital and investment
• Invoked Lenins NEP and addressed the security
  concerns to alleviate pressures
• Enterprise Law in 1987 management and individual
  activities but also control of heavy industry