Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985-1991. During his presidency he made many major economic changes, and launched his nation on a dramatic new course towards more reliance on market forces than a centralized government. He was born on March 2, 1931, in the village of Privolnoye in the Northern Caucasus region of the Soviet Union. This is the heart of one of Southern Russia's most fertile agricultural regions. He was very dedicated to politics and “steadily made his way up the political hierarchy mostly in various agriculture related posts. When he became president, he was the youngest individual in decades to become head of the Soviet Communist Party. During his presidency, he launched a program of political and economic reform that dramatically affected domestic life and the place of his country in world affairs.”
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Glasnost and Perestroika
In the 1980’s, The economy in the Soviet Union, especially the agricultural sector, began to fall apart. The country lacked advanced technology and used inefficient factories, all while consumers suffered from a shortage of social freedoms. To reform the distraught Soviet Union, the democratization of the Communist Party was promoted through Mikhail Gorbachev‘s policies of “perestroika” and “glasnost.”
Reconstructing the organization of the Soviet Union proved difficult and the effects were mixed. While more social freedoms were permitted, the economy was deteriorating and social unrest was growing among the people. Glasnost and Perestroika eventually helped cause the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which had lasted from 1945 to 1991. Gorbachev was more or less blamed for the fall of the Soviet Union and was generally disliked by his people.
Perestroika ("Reconstruction")
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Glasnost ("Openness")
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Gorbachev's Contributions To Ending The Cold War
In 1986, Gorbachev began a series of summit conferences with President Ronald Reagan and visited the United States on several occasions. The clearest sign of improving Soviet-American relations came in May and June 1988 when President Reagan, who had criticized the Soviet Union as "an evil empire," visited Moscow. Reagan and Gorbachev proactively worked to improve relationships between their countries which helped ease the Cold War to an end. They also both pursued arms agreements and signed the Intermediate Range Nuclear forces treaty (INF) in 1987 which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons. The Gorbachev initiative that had the most far-reaching effects was his decision to abandon Soviet control of the Communist nations of Eastern Europe. In December 1988, he declared that all nations should be free to choose their own course without outside interference and said that the USSR would significantly reduce the number of troops and tanks that were based in the Eastern Bloc countries. These actions led to the dissolve of the Soviet union after communism fell in the countries he had abandoned.
The Cold War ended during Gorbachev's seven years in power. Post presidency, Gorbachev referred to the Cold War as a long and dangerous conflict that had not ended in a victory for the West. Rather the defeat of Communism was "altogether a victory for common sense, reason, democracy and common human values." This shows that although Gorbachev's reforms towards democracy and privately owned industry ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet empire, they helped bring the cold war to an end.
Gorbachev's resignation and The Fall of The Soviet Union
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