2R - Gorbachev and the ending of the Cold War: pressures on and significance of Gorbachev as Soviet leader
Learn how Soviet economic and political pressures encouraged reform, why Gorbachev changed the meaning of security, and how to weigh his choices against the conditions he inherited.
The pressures Gorbachev inherited
Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary in March 1985, following the deaths of Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko within a few years. Repeated succession by elderly leaders had made energetic leadership difficult. The new leader inherited a powerful state with nuclear weapons and extensive international commitments, but an economy whose capacity to sustain those commitments was increasingly questioned.
Central planning could mobilise resources for priority industries, yet often rewarded meeting output targets more effectively than improving quality or responding to consumers. Slow technological modernisation and weak incentives reduced productivity. Shortages and disappointing living standards mattered politically because the party justified its monopoly partly through claims about socialism's achievements. In September 1985, American State Department analysts identified incentives, planning and technology as obstacles to Gorbachev's intended revival. Contemporary economic assessment, FRUS.
Military competition made the problem harder. Defence, civilian investment and consumption competed for resources. Afghanistan and support for allies added demands, while matching new American technology threatened further expense. These pressures made a predictable international environment attractive: fewer confrontations could release attention and resources for domestic improvement.
Stagnation is not the same as immediate collapse. Economic historian Mark Harrison distinguishes the USSR's slowing productivity growth from the much sharper breakdown of the command system at the decade's end. The later outcome should not be projected backwards as though Soviet leaders in 1985 had no alternatives. Harrison, Are command economies unstable?, section 2.
Reform and its practical difficulties
Gorbachev initially sought to revitalise socialism, rather than abolish it. Better discipline, new personnel and technological investment would make the existing system work more efficiently. His policies subsequently became more ambitious. Perestroika meant restructuring: economic arrangements and eventually political institutions would change. Glasnost meant greater openness, allowing criticism and discussion that had previously been restricted.
The two policies were connected. Criticism could expose failures concealed by officials and mobilise support against resistance within the party bureaucracy. Greater enterprise initiative and limited individual or cooperative activity could encourage responsiveness. In a 1987 conversation with American officials, Soviet premier Nikolai Ryzhkov described preserving planning while giving production units more independence, fostering cooperative activity and developing foreign economic links. His account reveals both the reforming ambition and the continuing desire for central direction. Contemporary conversation with Ryzhkov, FRUS.
Implementation created dilemmas. Managers and officials could defend arrangements that protected their authority. Greater autonomy did not automatically provide reliable prices, supplies or incentives. Relaxing some controls while retaining others could disrupt coordination before a workable replacement existed. Openness also exposed repression and policy failures, allowing criticism to extend beyond individual officials to the system's legitimacy.
Thus reform could increase Gorbachev's need for foreign-policy cooperation while weakening his control at home. A peaceful international environment could help reform, but it could not itself repair the economic mechanism or reconcile conservatives with those demanding faster change. The reforms' consequences were broader than their leader's original intentions.
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