GORBACHEV AND REFORM

1
GORBACHEV AND REFORM
2
GORBACHEV AND REFORM
THE END OF BREZHNEV

• Brezhnevs death long anticipated

• Increasingly infirm senile

• Died Nov. 10, 1982

3
GORBACHEV AND REFORM
INTERREGNUM

• Succeeded by IURII ANDROVPOV, 1982

• Former head of KGB

• Attempted limited reform

• But died after only 15 months in office

4
GORBACHEV AND REFORM
INTERREGNUM

• Next leader KONSTANTIN CHERNENKO, 1984

• Brezhnev protégé

• Even older sicker than Andropov

• In absence, MIKHAIL GORBACHEV took on many
  leadership duties

5
GORBACHEV AND REFORM
USSR UNDER GORBACHEV (1985-1991)

• A New Leadership Style

• Young, confident, charismatic

• Good on TV

• Very popular in West

6
GORBACHEV AND REFORM
USSR UNDER GORBACHEV (1985-1991)

• First Reforms The Economy

• Tightened labor discipline

• Tried to combat poor quality corruption

• Restricted sale of vodka

7
GORBACHEV AND REFORM
USSR UNDER GORBACHEV (1985-1991)
Andrei Sakharov

• GLASNOST

• New openness

• Meant to bolster economic reforms

• Challenged official secrecy Party monopoly

Chernobyl disaster
8
GORBACHEV AND REFORM
USSR UNDER GORBACHEV (1985-1991)

• PERESTROIKA

• Restructuring

• Some elements of market economy

• Some measure of democracy

9
GORBACHEV AND REFORM
SOVIET CULTURE

• Effects of Glasnost

• Open discussion of everything

• End of dissident repression

• Reassessment of history

• End of Party interference with art literature

• Publication of previously banned books