Gorbachev

1
Collapse of the Soviet System

• Gorbachevs reform efforts led to the collapse of
  the Soviet Union.

2
Fall of Communism in Russia

• Economic and political stagnation revealed the
  need for reform
• The Solidarity movement in Poland revealed the
  degree of workers discontent and offered a model
  for reform
• Gorbachev, who became head of the Soviet Union in
  1985, initiated a series of reforms called
  glasnots (openness) and perestroika
  (restructuring) to allow for freer discourse on
  the problems facing the Soviet Union and for
  economic reforms such as the loosening up of
  price controls and introduction of profit-making
  cooperatives.

3

• Democratization and the end of one-party rule
  allowed for free elections and the transformation
  of the Congress of Peoples Deputies into a bona
  fide legislature.
• Glasnot and democratization ultimately went much
  further than Gorbachev had planned.
• The economic reforms were too little and too
  meager inflation, shortages of goods, created
  hostility to Gorbachev and his reform movement.

4

• Gorbachev lost further support with his handling
  of the Lithuania Revolt and by not agreeing to
  election by universally suffrage.
• Yeltsin, now an advocate of democracy and Russian
  nationalism, outmaneuvered Gorbachev, although
  Yeltsin rescued him from kidnapping by the
  anti-reformists, and then effectively replaced
  him when Yeltsin became president of Russia.

5
Collapse of the Soviet Union

• Nationalistic urges grew in member states of the
  Soviet Union
• Gorbachev renounced the Brezhnev Doctrine
• When Lithuanias newly elected government
  declared independence, the Soviet Union did not
  send troops.
• Yeltsin asserted the independence of Russia from
  the Soviet Union in 1991.
• All remaining Soviet republics quickly followed
  suit, and the Soviet Union collapsed.