Gorbachev emerged and worked on the logic of the Soviet system, but he had to put the finishing touches on a sclerotized system
Until 1985, the USSR was still characterized by its Stalinist heritage, the exercise of power had nothing to do with democracy, society did not pass between equality, fraternity or Zinoviev’s freedom, and the bureaucratized economy did not meet the needs of an urban society. which had changed as the political system struggled not to change. This was the USSR of the «eloquent, intelligent and energetic young man», Mikhail Gorbachev when he came to power. At the age of 54, his career was one of exemplary classicism and his prudence of great importance. Like any novice general secretary, he had to start consolidating his power in the party, in the KGB and in the army.
The internal reform effort that began in 1985 gave freedom of expression (glasnost) to the thousands of artists, scientists and intellectuals who awakened civil society and brought about a peaceful political revolution that culminated in the dismantling of the USSR. Perestroika went through two phases and entered a third and dangerous phase in the mid-1990s. Between 1985 and 1987, glasnost (transparency, clear and public information) was consolidated little by little, without which everything that followed cannot be understood and in which the majority of political prisoners regained their freedom. In the second phase (1988-1990), it strengthened its democracy of “positive steps” towards disarmament, which gave it great popularity in Europe and the United States. The third phase, no longer perestroika but of Gorbachev’s government, began in the late 1990s, a period in which he felt more threatened and became a more threatening politician to the world.
Perestroika was more effective in politics (especially internationally) than in economics, when the goal was economic; it did not consolidate the USSR’s politico-military strategic strength, but instead caused its downfall, and favored something that Soviet strategy since 1945 had sought to prevent, the formation of a mighty united Germany. It would not have been possible without Gorbachev. But also without the men who abused it and ran it. Gorbachev emerged and worked on the logic of the Soviet system, but he had to put the finishing touches on a sclerotized system. Equal parts architect and victim, history will judge his legacy.
Source: La Verdad
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