Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Yeltsin for the first time had a national platform. His primary domestic goal was to resuscitate the stagnant Soviet economy after its years of drift and low growth during Leonid Brezhnev’s tenure in power (1964–82). Both as general secretary and as president, Gorbachev supported democratic reforms. Soviet television has since been broadcasting regular condemnations of Mr Gorbachev's policies. He did not, however, develop the power to implement these decisions. It seems that initially even Gorbachev believed that the basic economic structure of the U.S.S.R. was sound and therefore only minor reforms were needed. The new policy of "reconstruction" was introduced in an attempt to overcome the economic stagn… Mikhail Gorbachev resigned the presidency of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev, in full Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, (born March 2, 1931, Privolye, Stavropol kray, Russia, U.S.S.R.), Soviet official, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1985 to 1991 and president of the Soviet Union in 1990–91. Over the course of Yury Andropov’s 15-month tenure (1982–84) as general secretary of the Communist Party, Gorbachev became one of the Politburo’s most highly active and visible members; and, after Andropov died and Konstantin Chernenko became general secretary in February 1984, Gorbachev became a likely successor to the latter. In October 1988 General Secretary Gorbachev was elected to the chairmanship of the presidium of the national legislature (the Supreme Soviet). He did not regard the structure of the Soviet economic system itself to be a cause of the country’s growing economic problems. Gorbachev was the son of Russian peasants in Stavropol territory (kray) in southwestern Russia. But the Communist hard-liners who had replaced reformers in the government proved undependable allies, and Gorbachev and his family were briefly held under house arrest from August 19 to 21, 1991, during a short-lived coup by the hard-liners. Ligachev subsequently became one of Gorbachev’s opponents, making it difficult for Gorbachev to use the party apparatus to implement his views on perestroika. Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of Soviet Power London: Macmillan, 1993. Gorbachev has appeared in Lous Vuitton print advertisements. New York: Random House, 1990. Russia systematically laid claim to most Soviet property on its territory. General secretary of the CPSU: perestroika to the fall of the Soviet Union, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mikhail-Gorbachev, Academy of Achievement - Biography of Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Spartacus Educational - Biography of Mikhail Gorbachev, Age of the Sage - Transmitting the Wisdoms of the Ages - Biography of Mikhail Gorbachev, The Cold War Museum - Biography of Mikhail Gorbachev, RT Russiapedia - Biography of Mikhail Gorbachev, Mikhail Gorbachev - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Mikhail Gorbachev - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Born in the agricultural region of Stavropol, Gorbachev studied law at Moscow State Univ., where in 1953 he married a philosophy student, Raisa Maksimovna Titorenko (1932?–99). New York, 1993. In May 1989 Gorbachev was elected chairman of this Supreme Soviet and thereby retained the national presidency. In response, Gorbachev used military force to suppress bloody interethnic strife in several of the Central Asian republics in 1989–90, while constitutional mechanisms were devised that could provide for the lawful secession of a republic from the U.S.S.R. With the CPSU waning in power and steadily losing prestige in the face of the mounting impetus for democratic political procedures, Gorbachev in 1990 further accelerated the transfer of power from the party to elected governmental institutions. Gorbachev’s bid for the presidency was unsuccessful: he earned less than 1 percent of the vote. The intimate, poetic and revealing documentary explores the world of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union. (Scholarly.) The new freedoms arising from Gorbachev’s democratization and decentralization of his nation’s political system led to civil unrest in several of the constituent republics (e.g., Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan) and to outright attempts to achieve independence in others (e.g., Lithuania). Updates? Perestroika was an attempt to modernise and ‘rebuild’ the Soviet state. Gorbachev realised military spending had to be reduced and this meant ending the arms race with the USA. Gorbachev launched glasnost (“openness”) as the second vital plank of his reform efforts. Limited force was used in Georgia, Azerbaijan, and the Baltic states to quell nationality problems, though Gorbachev was never prepared to use systematic force in order to reestablish the centre’s control. When the Congress of People’s Deputies elected the Supreme Soviet as a standing parliament, Yeltsin was not chosen, since the Congress had an overwhelmingly Communist majority. Ronald Reagan (left) and Mikhail Gorbachev in Red Square, Moscow, 1988. His policies were simply not put into practice. To this end, he called for rapid technological modernization and increased worker productivity, and he tried to make the cumbersome Soviet bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. A new parliament, the Congress of People’s Deputies, was convened in the spring of 1989, with Gorbachev presiding. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Non-Russian representation at the top of the party and the government had declined over time. As the economic and political situation began to deteriorate, Gorbachev concentrated his energies on increasing his authority (that is to say, his ability to make decisions). When Brezhnev died in 1982, most elite groups understood that the Soviet economy was in trouble. The reemergence of Russian nationalism seriously weakened Gorbachev as the leader of the Soviet empire. On March 11, 1985, Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He believed that the opening up of the political system—essentially, democratizing it—was the only way to overcome inertia in the political and bureaucratic apparatus, which had a big interest in maintaining the status quo. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan at the Geneva Summit 1985. Russians began to view the Soviet system as one that worked for its own political and economic interests at Russia’s expense. Under Gorbachev’s policy of perestroika (“restructuring”), the first modest attempts to democratize the Soviet political system were undertaken; multicandidate contests and the secret ballot were introduced in some elections to party and government posts. In this important book, Judy Shelton, one of America's leading experts on the Soviet economy, demonstrates that rampant inflation and a huge budget deficit, theoretically impossible under Marxism, have ravaged the Soviet economy and are forcing Mikhail Gorbachev into a … Reagan insisted the SDI initiative should not be considered a space weapon, but merely a defensive technology. The Politburo was dominated by old men, and they were overwhelmingly Russian. Dallas, with its portrayals of Western wealth, success and power; may have played a role in the collapse of the Soviet Union, former leader Mikhail Gorbachev believes. Gorbachev helped take down the long-standing Iron Curtain separating Eastern communist states and Western noncommunist states. Smith, Hedrick. He proved a promising Komsomol member, and in 1952 he entered the law school of Moscow State University and became a member of the Communist Party. Mikhail Gorbachev was a Soviet politician. Gorbachev was conspicuously successful in dismantling the totalitarian aspects of the Soviet state and in moving his country along the path toward true representative democracy. Gorbachev, however, never succeeded in making the jump from the command economy to even a mixed economy. The Congress elected a new Supreme Soviet, and Gorbachev, who had opted for an executive presidency modeled on the U.S. and French systems, became the Soviet president, with broad powers. Omissions? He thus pursued an economic policy that aimed to increase economic growth while increasing capital investment. Moreover, the huge defense expenditures that characterized the Cold War years were one of the causes of Soviet economic decline. Mikhaïl Gorbachev, l'ancien président de l'Union Soviétique, à Leipzig, en Allemagne, le 15 mars 2013. Agreeing with Cohen's assessment of the conservative character of the Soviet population is Benn, David Wedgewood, “ Gorbachev's Progress II: Confronting the Conservatives, ” The World Today 44 (June 1988): 94 – 95 Google Scholar. He demanded the reinstatement of Gorbachev as U.S.S.R. president, but, when Gorbachev returned from house arrest in Crimea, Yeltsin set out to demonstrate that he was the stronger leader. The Congress elected a new Supreme Soviet, and Gorbachev, who had opted for an executive presidency modeled on the U.S. and French systems, became the Soviet president, with broad powers. Gorbachev was also the first general secretary of the Communist Party not to have served in the armed forces during World War II. Gorbachev’s policies ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990–91. 1983 Textile and Light Industry Workers' Union. But, in part because his economic reforms were being obstructed by the Communist Party, Gorbachev tried to restructure the government’s legislative and executive branches in order to release them from the grip of the CPSU. Mikhail Gorbachev announces that he is resigning as president of the Soviet Union. In July 1987, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union passed the Law on State Enterprise. Learn about Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts to reform the Soviet Union. This had been a goal of Russian leaders since Peter the Great unleashed the first great wave of modernization and Westernization. Mansky has known Gorbachev for more than 20 years. Under perestroika, some limited free-market mechanisms also began to be introduced into the Soviet economy, but even these modest economic reforms encountered serious resistance from party and government bureaucrats who were unwilling to relinquish their control over the nation’s economic life. Yeltsin banned the Communist Party in Russia and seized all of its property. The coup was carried out by hard-line Communist Party, KGB, and military officials attempting to avert a new liberalized union treaty and return to the old-line party values. Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev apparently blamed “Dallas” for the fall of his country. He was elected general secretary in 1985. Events outpaced him, however, and the Russian government under Yeltsin readily assumed the functions of the collapsing Soviet government as the various republics agreed to form a new commonwealth under Yeltsin’s leadership. By the summer of 1988, however, Gorbachev had become strong enough to emasculate the Central Committee Secretariat and take the party out of the day-to-day running of the economy. In addition, he believed that the path to economic and social recovery required the inclusion of people in the political process. The Russian parliament passed radical reforms that would introduce a market economy, and Yeltsin also cut funding to a large number of Soviet agencies based on Russian soil. In part because he ended the Soviet Union’s postwar domination of eastern Europe, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1990. Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian parliament despite the bitter opposition of Gorbachev. In 1990 Gorbachev received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his striking achievements in international relations. Shortly thereafter Gorbachev restructured the Soviet government to include a bicameral parliament. At the age of 54, he became the youngest man to head the government of the Soviet Union since Joseph Stalin had come to power in the 1920s. In 1988–89 he oversaw the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan after their nine-year occupation of that country. On the other hand, Gorbachev’s policies deprived the Soviet Union of ideological enemies, which in turn weakened the hold of Soviet ideology over the people. Since his involuntary retirement, Gorbachev has raised money for … Even in his dotage, stooped and tissue-skinned and walker-dependent, the former (and final) Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev is an imposing, even … Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Overview of Mikhail Gorbachev, including a discussion of his policy of perestroika. At the same time, the Congress, under his leadership, abolished the Communist Party’s constitutionally guaranteed monopoly of political power in the Soviet Union, thus paving the way for the legalization of other political parties. 1984 Human Rights in the Soviet Union. The new leaders, headed by former vice-president Gennady Yanayev have declared a state of emergency. Mikhail Gorbachev, in full Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, (born March 2, 1931, Privolye, Stavropol kray, Russia, U.S.S.R.), Soviet official, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1985 to 1991 and president of the Soviet Union in 1990–91. In parliament he pilloried Gorbachev, the Communist Party, corruption, and the slow pace of economic reform. He returned to public life as an elected deputy from Moscow to the Congress of People’s Deputies in 1989. His team was more heavily Russian than that of his predecessors. He became a candidate member of the Politburo in 1979 and a full member in 1980. Mikhail Gorbachev (left), general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with Erich Honecker, first secretary of East Germany's Socialist Unity Party of Germany, 1986. Throughout 1989 he had seized every opportunity to voice his support for reformist communists in the Soviet-bloc countries of eastern Europe, and, when communist regimes in those countries collapsed like dominoes late that year, Gorbachev tacitly acquiesced in their fall. By the summer of 1990 he had agreed to the reunification of East with West Germany and even assented to the prospect of that reunified nation’s becoming a member of the Soviet Union’s longtime enemy, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In 1988 Gorbachev became Soviet president and chief of state. Mikhail Gorbachev was named a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1971. 1987 Gorbachev: October and Perestroika. As democratically elected, noncommunist governments came to power in East Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia in late 1989–90, Gorbachev agreed to the phased withdrawal of Soviet troops from those countries. Clearly, Yeltsin wished to rid Russia of the encumbrance of the Soviet Union and to seek the disbandment of that body. In foreign affairs, Gorbachev cultivated friendlier relations with noncommunist states, including and especially the United States. In March 1991, when Gorbachev launched an all-union referendum about the future Soviet federation, Russia and several other republics added some supplementary questions. Due to senility, Brezhnev had not been in effective control of the country during his last few years, and Kosygin had died in 1980. Global Look Press. Gorbachev was the single most important initiator of a series of events in late 1989 and 1990 that transformed the political fabric of Europe and marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War. TV show Dallas was the main reason behind the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, it has been claimed. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Mikhail Gorbachev became a delegate to the Communist Party Congress in 1961. Upon his accession, he was still the youngest member of the Politburo. Mikhail Gorbachev played a key role in ending the Soviet Union’s post-World War II domination of eastern Europe. Gorbachev also moved quickly to shift fundamental political powers to the Soviet Union’s constituent republics. Gorbachev therefore transformed Soviet foreign policy. Gorbachev eschewed the totalitarian use of power that had traditionally worked to keep the Soviet economy functioning, but at the same time he resisted any decisive shift to private ownership and the use of free-market mechanisms. Capital investment was to improve the technological basis of the Soviet economy as well as promote certain structural economic changes. This meant that all the republics, including first and foremost Russia, could have a similar type of presidency. After the coup foundered in the face of staunch resistance by Russian President Boris Yeltsin and other reformers who had risen to power under the democratic reforms, Gorbachev resumed his duties as Soviet president, but his position had by now been irretrievably weakened. In so doing, Gorbachev helped end the Cold War. (From left to right) Nancy and Ronald Reagan and Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev on the Reagans' ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif., 1992. Soviet attempts to discourage Baltic independence led to a bloody confrontation in Vilnius in January 1991, after which Yeltsin called upon Russian troops to disobey orders that would have them shoot unarmed civilians. On This Day: Gorbachev removed in coup On Aug. 19, 1991, a coup orchestrated by hard-line Communists removed Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev quickly set about consolidating his personal power in the Soviet leadership. He used his newfound legitimacy to promote Russian sovereignty, to advocate and adopt radical economic reform, to demand Gorbachev’s resignation, and to negotiate treaties with the Baltic republics, in which he acknowledged their right to independence. Yeltsin’s politics reflected the rise of Russian nationalism. At the June 1987 plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), Gorbachev presented his "basic theses", which laid the political foundation of economic reform for the remainder of the existence of the Soviet Union. He owed a great deal of his steady rise in the party to the patronage of Mikhail Suslov, the leading party ideologue. In 1989 the newly elected Congress of People’s Deputies elected from its ranks a new U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet that, in contrast to its predecessor of that name, was a real standing parliament with substantial legislative powers. However, a Siberian deputy stepped down in his favour. 1984 The City Where We Live: the Soviet State and Trade Unions. In December 1987 he signed an agreement with U.S. President Ronald Reagan for their two countries to destroy all existing stocks of intermediate-range nuclear-tipped missiles. In October 1988 Gorbachev was able to consolidate his power by his election to the chairmanship of the presidium of the Supreme Soviet (the national legislature). Gorbachev worked with U.S. President Ronald Reagan to lessen the political and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. The most significant anti-coup role was played by Yeltsin, who brilliantly grasped the opportunity to promote himself and Russia. In 1990 Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize for his “leading role in the peace process” in Europe. In foreign affairs, Gorbachev from the beginning cultivated warmer relations and trade with the developed nations of both West and East.
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