| Cold War
Was Gorbachev responsible for the USSR's loss of the cold war?
The Soviet Union officially lost the cold war, on Christmas day 1991 when it was finally dissolved into 14 independent nation-states. Many Russian people placed the blame of this ‘disgrace’ on outgoing President Gorbachev and his political reforms Glasnost and Perestroika. While President Gorbachev’s reforms was responsible for many republics separate from the greater USSR, the reforms led to a greater standard of living in these post-war states; therefor I do not believe that the blame of President Gorbachev was justified. The President’s first policy, Glasnost helped the union by giving more freedom to the press; this would help put a stop to government corruption. In doing so, it would almost assuredly admit that democracy was in-fact more accountable than communism. His second policy, Perestroika would increase the standard of living by making the economy more efficient that the centralized economy before it. Perestroika would also consequently reduce the military spending, which had gotten out of hand, that had so long been fueling the cold war. I also believe that the USSR was falling apart, before the reforms were introduced, due to the failed attempt to take Afghanistan under communism.
Freedom of information and the media is a key policy behind democracy. It limits possible perjury and corruption of government officials and allows us to identify if our governments are meeting expectations or not. For example, during the cold war, the Watergate scandal that tore apart Richard Nixon’s presidency was brought into the media, and our homes, because of the freedom of the press. In a Time Magazine (4 June 1990 page 1) interview, Mikhail Gorbachev is quoted as saying, "I detest lies". It was this desire for the truth that led him to introduce a new government policy – Glasnost. Glasnost was introduced to stop deceit and corruption in his communist government. Glasnost was similar to the Canadian freedom of press and information act. It allowed the soviet media outlets to report the news in a less biased form. With Glasnost a part of Soviet law, truths about the atrocities committed during Stalin’s and Brezhnev’s time in power, like the Ukrainian genocide or the internment of ‘enemies of the state’ in gulags in Siberia, became known. Glasnost also gave citizens more freedom to travel. This is best seen as many Soviet hockey players would come to North America and play in the NHL in the year immediately following the introduction of the policy.
In the early to mid-1980’s, Leonid Brezhnev was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Under his reign, military spending was roughly 25% of the union’s GDP. That is nearly four times greater that the height of American military spending, which was 6.5% of the country’s GDP in 1986. The crushing realization for the Soviet Union was that the USA was actually growing stronger, militarily, when compared to the Red Army in terms of both quality and number of mobile units. This was possible because, according to the 1990 CIA World Fact Book, the USA had a GDP nearly double that of the USSR even though the USSR had a larger population. This is a great example to show that a nation’s backbone is its economy. With the Americans superior economy, they were able to fund more foreign and military programs, while still being able to support domestic ones, compared to the USSR. The USSR could no longer keep up the level of military spending to stay the global military power and be sustainable at the same time. In the late 1980’s President Gorbachev initiated Perestroika to make the faltering centralized economy more efficient. Perestroika introduced limited aspects of capitalism into the Soviet economy in hopes of jumpstarting the economy. Shops and markets, along with the nation, slowly started to become more profitable.
One of the ugliest and most incomprehensible wars that the USA has ever fought was that in Vietnam. It was a completely humiliating loss to the democratic powers. However, the USSR suffered a similar loss in the Afghanistan conflict. The Afghanistan war is considered the Soviet Union’s Vietnam (this includes Zbigniew Brzezinski the National Security Advisor to USA President Jimmy Carter); and like Vietnam, Afghanistan was humiliating to the USSR. The USSR not only lost many men in the war, but also lost respect to the republics that it constituted it. After the loss in Afghanistan, many of the republics of the USSR had the desire to govern themselves in a way the reflected their personal and nationalist views. The USSR’s defeat in Afghanistan led directly to a number of nations holding protests demanding independence. All these nations would have their independence by Christmas day, 1991, and only Romania would lose blood in the process.
In conclusion, President Gorbachev initiated programs that influenced, quite drastically, Soviet government. Glasnost led to the freedom of speech and press, which in turn lead to democracy. Perestroika led to the de-centralizing of the economy creating a more efficient one. This would also force the Kremlin to cut back on military spending. Finally mistakes made by previous leaders, like the failed invasion of Afghanistan, led to ‘puppet states’ gaining confidence in themselves as nation-states, demanding independence and separating. While Gorbachev’s policies may have been the demise of the Soviet Union, I believe that they were necessary for the long-term success for all the nations involved.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War#CITEREFLaFeber2002
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_%281980%E2%80%931991%29#Reaganomics_and_the_1981_federal_budget
http://www.historyorb.com/russia/glasnost.shtml
1990 CIA world fact book
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