Glasnost': The Decimation of the USSR

April 16, 2002

I) Since the beginning of mankind the world has been under various ruling powers with only one goal in mind. A) This led to the rise of monarchies with their kings and queens, the socialists with their presidents, and the communists with their tsarist rulers. B) In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev brought upon the world the idea of Glasnost', which led to the changing of the largest ruling power in the world to a new power benefiting everyone. II) The Former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics before Glasnost'. C) Different styles of Soviet government from the early 1900s up to 1985. 1) Leninism to Stalinism to Khrushchev to Brezhnev. D) Coups and the Great Purge III) What lead to Glasnost' and what it is. E) In 1986, Gorbachev dismayed at the slow process of reform being conducted in the country proposed to the citizens of the USSR and the entire world a two new ideas to help bring reform to the country in a much more radical direction. F) Gorbachev called for a glasnost’ (openness or candor) in the media and culture. IV) Changes within Russia and Foreign changes. G) Banned works and speaking out are no longer dangerous crimes against the state. 2) Criticizing the government led to the formation of a large number of independent nationalistic movements in the USSR. 3) Scholars and scientists are allowed to share their findings with others. H) Multiple treaties signed to end decades of heated arguments. 4) The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I). 5) Fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. V) Glasnost' finally in the end lead to the complete non-unification of the Soviet Union. I) Glasnost' led to an openness in the media and cultural realms in Russia. Also led to multiple changes within Russia its self. J) The Soviet Union the biggest most powerful Communist nation in the world finally collapsed due to its own reforms (Glasnost' and Perestroika).

Glasnost’: The Decimation of the USSR
Since the beginning of mankind the world has been under various ruling powers with only one goal in mind. That goal is to further their own cause, their own selves, without helping out those in most need. The people of this world have always led a war against others, in search of a better government to lead them in the right direction. This led to the rise of monarchies with their kings and queens, the socialists with their presidents, and the communists with their tsarist rulers. The communist rule spread throughout the world as a plague to some, a good deed to others, and to the rest another "supposed" government, but in fact simply another dictatorship. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev brought upon the world the idea of Glasnost', which led to the changing of the largest ruling power in the world to a new power benefiting everyone. Glasnost', Russian for openness, led to the restructuring, or Perestroika, and eventual decline of the Soviet Union and the beginning of the end of Communism as the world knew it. The former Soviet Union, which was originally called the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), was a place that controlled almost all the free will of its people. Throughout the early 1900s up to 1985, Russia changed its style of government within Communism from Leninism to Stalinism to Khrushchev to Brezhnev. This ruling of the biggest Communist power was brought upon everyone by the Cold War fears many Communists assuming the role of forming a great power. “The state is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class for suppressing the resistance of its class enemies” (Class). Stalin used this quote often, when he referred to the book he wrote the “Foundations of Leninism.” Many times during the years between World War I and the beginning of the Soviet Union's call for Glasnost', coups were brought upon the different styles of government, constantly changing everyone's opinion of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev took office in the hope that he could continue the crackdown on corruption, and not have another repeat of the Great Purge by Stalin. In 1985, Gorbachev took over office from Andropov and was content with the previous leader’s crackdown on both corruption and sloth. When he took office as the Secretary-General of the CPSU, many of the citizens in the Soviet Union had high hopes that he would help change the country after its wars in Afghanistan and problems with the economy. A lot of the citizens of the Soviet Union believed that the problem lay in Communism as portrayed in various quotes. “Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice” (Communism). In response to this tide of unrest, Mikhail unseated some longtime comrades of Brezhnev and Chernenko and announced a campaign to curb the unbelievable amounts of alcohol consumption. “The dictatorship of the Communist Party is maintained by recourse to every form of violence” (Communism). This is one of the reasons Mikhail Gorbachev continued with Andropov's crackdown on corruption in the Soviet Communist parties. He also undertook several reforms into the dire problems in the declining Soviet economies. As the problems in the Soviet Union continued to increase throughout 1985, Gorbachev started to plan a big, radical change for the Soviet Union. In 1986, Gorbachev dismayed at the slow process of reform being conducted in the country proposed to the citizens of the USSR and the entire world a two new ideas to help bring reform to the country in a much more radical direction. This was also caused by the prodding of the painful revelations of incompetence accompanying the Chernobyl' nuclear disaster. He called for glasnost’ (openness or candor) in the media and culture and for a far-reaching Perestroika (restructuring) of the nation’s economy and political system, and it soon was apparent that he was aiming at no less than the comprehensive reform of the Soviet system (Mikhail). Gorbachev originally believed that this could be done without doing away with its socialistic features or with the CPSU's monopoly on power. He also just wanted to renew the communist party, not abolish it, to help hold the country together and the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union. “Catholics and Communists have committed great crimes, but at least they have not stood aside like an established society, and been indifferent. I would rather have blood on my hands than water like Pilate” (Commitment). This quote helps to bring into focus the crimes committed by the petty bureaucratic people in the resistance to the measures proposed by Gorbachev, and like the lack of information on the Chernobyl' disaster given to him and his advisors. It also helps everyone to realize the importance of the two new words that have just entered the international lexicon: Glasnost and Perestroika.
Generally coupled with the economic and political reforms of perestroika (restructuring), glasnost’ summarized Gorbachev’s efforts to allow and stimulate more open discussion and criticism in political and cultural life. The term had both a symbolic and practical significance. Carrying the meaning of “speaking out” or “giving voice to,” glasnost’ was evident in the more open debate and discussion that existed in the final years of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Many observers were initially skeptical about this policy. Conservative leaders in the Communist Party opposed glasnost’ and tried to undermine it. However, particularly after the 27th Party Congress in February 1986, public officials and citizens began to take Gorbachev’s call for more open, critical discussion seriously. Intellectuals in particular made use of the new freedom glasnost’ offered to criticize the government and to engage in activities that were previously prohibited (Smith). These changes were evident in the cultural realm, where previously banned works were able to be published, and in the scientific and educational world, where Soviet scholars and experts were able to speak more freely and have more contact with their colleagues in the international community (Glasnost’). The changes were also evident in discussions of economic performance, where experts openly acknowledged the serious problems of the Soviet economy. That only deals with the internal aspects not the external relations.
Glasnost' also led to increased relations with both the United States and the rest of Europe (mostly the eastern and central portions of Europe.) The relations were already sorely strained by the Soviet Union's invasion into Afghanistan and its possession of medium-range nuclear missiles aimed at Western Europe. In 1987 Gorbachev called for “new thinking” in the Soviet Union regarding international relations, and in many ways he put the fresh ideas that came to the fore into effect. That year he and President Reagan signed an agreement calling for both countries’ elimination of all their land-based nuclear missiles of intermediate and shorter range. “Communism continued to haunt Europe as a spectre-a name man gave to their own fears and blunders. But the crusade against Communism was even more imaginary than the spectre of Communism” (Communism). This quote shows the fear of Communism in a totally new light. In July 1991 he and President Bush signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), committing the two countries to sharp reductions in their nuclear arsenals. Gorbachev’s government withdrew all forces from Afghanistan between May 1988 and early 1989 and cut its support for revolutionary movements and anti-Western governments in Africa (Die Stiftung). The most far-reaching changes, however, were in Soviet policy toward the other countries of Eastern Europe, which had been under Soviet domination since the 1940s. Gorbachev warned the Communist governments in those countries that the USSR would no longer use force to keep them in power, and he encouraged the East European countries to fend for themselves economically and to embark on internal reforms. In 1989 a tide of political change washed over the region, culminating in the collapse of the Communist regime in East Germany and the opening of the Berlin Wall. In 1990 Gorbachev agreed to the reunification of Germany and the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. In October of that year Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his foreign policy initiatives (Gorbachev). Most of these things were accomplished by the Gorbachev's radical idea of Glasnost' which went forth and changed the entire way people look at Russia and it s new relations with other countries now that it was becoming more of socialistic country.
Glasnost' helped to bring forth many reforms and brought together a nation from one crumbling with corruption to nation that could speak out against all of the cruel injustices they were being given to do. While Gorbachev may have been the one to go ahead with the radical idea of Glasnost' and Perestroika, a leader of the past actually is the one true person to be noted for starting the idea of Glasnost'. This leader was Stalin, but his view of Glasnost' was making the government totally loyal to him and him only and then to execute all that oppose him. “The party is the rallying-point for the best elements of the working class” (Communism). Joseph believed that the working class was the only way to gain the necessary support so that is what this quote refers to. Glasnost' finally in the end lead to the complete non-unification of the Soviet Union when the openness started by Gorbachev made a large number of independent national movements that wanted to secede from the USSR and when he did not watch over them that well they did secede. In 1991, the Soviet Union the biggest most powerful Communist nation in the world finally collapsed and helped to bring down the Communist governments in Eastern and Central Europe as well. Such then the most controversial idea ever thought of Glasnost’ was in fact the most destructive for it was too radical and changed the entire aspect of everything it was a part of.

Works Cited
“Class.” Microsoft Encarta: Book of Quotations. 6th Ed. 1999.
“Commitment.” Microsoft Encarta: Book of Quotations. 6th Ed. 1999.
“Communism.” Microsoft Encarta: Book of Quotations. 6th Ed. 1999.
“Die Stiftung Willy Brandt: 1989 Glasnost and Perestroika.” N.page. On-line. Internet. April 8, 2002. Available WWW: http://216.239.37.120/translate_c?hl=en&sl= de&u=http://www.willy-brandt.org/biographie/1989b.html
“Glasnost’.” Encarta: Encyclopedia Deluxe 2000. 6th Ed. 2000.
Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeevich. Gorbachev: On My Country and the World. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
“Mikhail Gorbachev: Domestic Policies.” Encarta: Encyclopedia Deluxe 2000. 6th Ed. 2000.
Smith, Hedrick. The New Russians. New York: Random House, 1990.

Bibliography
“Class.” Microsoft Encarta: Book of Quotations. 6th Ed. 1999.
“Commitment.” Microsoft Encarta: Book of Quotations. 6th Ed. 1999.
“Communism.” Microsoft Encarta: Book of Quotations. 6th Ed. 1999.
“Die Stiftung Willy Brandt: 1989 Glasnost and Perestroika.” N.page. On-line. Internet. April 8, 2002. Available WWW: http://216.239.37.120/translate_c?hl=en&sl= de&u=http://www.willy-brandt.org/biographie/1989b.html
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“History Orb: Glasnost’.” N.page. On-line. Internet. April 9, 2002. Available WWW: http://www.historyorb.com/russia/glasnost.shtml
Laqueur, Walter. STALIN: The Glasnost Revelations. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1990.
Magstadt, Thomas M. “Policy Analysis 117: Gorbachev and Glasnost--A New Soviet Order? Implications for U.S. Foreign Policy.” N.page. On-line. Internet. April 9, 2002. Available WWW: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/PA117.HTm
“Mikhail Gorbachev: Domestic Policies.” Encarta: Encyclopedia Deluxe 2000. 6th Ed. 2000.
Smith, Hedrick. The New Russians. New York: Random House, 1990.