Since his involuntary retirement, Gorbachev has raised money for … Perestroika was an attempt to modernise and ‘rebuild’ the Soviet state. The new policy of "reconstruction" was introduced in an attempt to overcome the economic stagn… In 1985 Gorbachev brought Boris Yeltsin to Moscow to run that city’s party machine. He owed a great deal of his steady rise in the party to the patronage of Mikhail Suslov, the leading party ideologue. He joined the Komsomol (Young Communist League) in 1946 and drove a combine harvester at a state farm in Stavropol for the next four years. Gorbachev quickly set about consolidating his personal power in the Soviet leadership. Nobody knows that burden like Mikhail Gorbachev, the final leader of the Soviet Union. In so doing, Gorbachev helped end the Cold War. 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). Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian parliament despite the bitter opposition of Gorbachev. Under his new policy of glasnost (“openness”), a major cultural thaw took place: freedoms of expression and of information were significantly expanded; the press and broadcasting were allowed unprecedented candour in their reportage and criticism; and the country’s legacy of Stalinist totalitarian rule was eventually completely repudiated by the government. Yeltsin’s politics reflected the rise of Russian nationalism. (From left to right) Nancy and Ronald Reagan and Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev on the Reagans' ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif., 1992. In the face of a collapsing economy, rising public frustration, and the continued shift of power to the constituent republics, Gorbachev wavered in direction, allying himself with party conservatives and the security organs in late 1990. In 1990 Gorbachev received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his striking achievements in international relations. Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeyevich mēkhəyēl´ sĭrgā´yəvich gərbəchof´ [ key], 1931–, Soviet political leader. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). That same day, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Ronald Reagan (left) and Mikhail Gorbachev in Red Square, Moscow, 1988. He graduated with a degree in law in 1955 and went on to hold a number of posts in the Komsomol and regular party organizations in Stavropol, rising to become first secretary of the regional party committee in 1970. His changes in foreign policy led to the democratization of eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War. 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. 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. Yeltsin for the first time had a national platform. 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. Directed by Werner Herzog, André Singer. 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. He thus pursued an economic policy that aimed to increase economic growth while increasing capital investment. 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. Mikhail Gorbachev (centre) in East Berlin, 1986. Mikhail Gorbachev was a Soviet politician. Gorbachev launched glasnost (“openness”) as the second vital plank of his reform efforts. In October 1988 General Secretary Gorbachev was elected to the chairmanship of the presidium of the national legislature (the Supreme Soviet). In 1988 Gorbachev became Soviet president and chief of state. Gorbachev was named a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1971, and he was appointed a party secretary of agriculture in 1978. Gorbachev also did not trust Reagan's promise to share the technology with the Soviet Union once it was developed. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned the presidency of the Soviet Union, which ceased to exist that same day. This responsibility was to pass to the local soviets. Gorbachev remained the undisputed master of the ailing Communist Party, but his attempts to augment his presidential powers through decrees and administrative reshufflings proved fruitless, and his government’s authority and effectiveness began a serious decline. 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 … When he took office, Yegor Ligachev was made head of the party’s Central Committee Secretariat, one of the two main centres of power (with the Politburo) in the Soviet Union. 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. The new body superseded the Supreme Soviet as the highest organ of state power. He became a candidate member of the Politburo in 1979 and a full member in 1980. The consequences of this form of a semi-mixed economy with the contradictions of the reforms themselves brought economic chaos to the country and great unpopularity to Gorbachev. Chernenko died on March 10, 1985, and the following day the Politburo elected Gorbachev general secretary of the CPSU. 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. 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. Former Soviet Union leader Michael Gorbachev has said he hopes President-Elect Joe Biden's victory in last week's U.S. election will lead to better Washington, D.C.-Moscow ties, though has … Yeltsin came into conflict with the more conservative members of the Politburo and was eventually removed from the Moscow post in late 1987. Gorbachev worked with U.S. President Ronald Reagan to lessen the political and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. Yeltsin banned the Communist Party in Russia and seized all of its property. 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. Gorbachev, however, never succeeded in making the jump from the command economy to even a mixed economy. Gorbatchev, lui, n’apprend la nouvelle qu’à son réveil. This meant that all the republics, including first and foremost Russia, could have a similar type of presidency. Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of Soviet Power London: Macmillan, 1993. 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. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. He did not, however, develop the power to implement these decisions. Non-Russian representation at the top of the party and the government had declined over time. The Politburo was dominated by old men, and they were overwhelmingly Russian. 1987 Gorbachev: October and Perestroika. Mikhail Gorbachev delivering a speech at the 11th congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in East Berlin, 1986. Gorbachev therefore transformed Soviet foreign policy. 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. Mikhaïl Gorbachev, l'ancien président de l'Union Soviétique, à Leipzig, en Allemagne, le 15 mars 2013. 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. Updates? Mikhail Gorbachev announces that he is resigning as president of the Soviet Union. There were increasing complaints that the “Soviets” had destroyed the Russian environment and had impoverished Russia in order to maintain their empire and subsidize the poorer republics. Please select which sections you would like to print: Corrections? Soviet television has since been broadcasting regular condemnations of Mr Gorbachev's policies. 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. He proved less willing to release the Soviet economy from the grip of centralized state direction, however. In July 1987, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union passed the Law on State Enterprise. This effectively undermined all attempts by Gorbachev to establish a Union of Sovereign Socialist Republics. 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. In foreign affairs, Gorbachev from the beginning cultivated warmer relations and trade with the developed nations of both West and East. (Scholarly.) 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). By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. His efforts to democratize his country’s political system and decentralize its economy led to the downfall of communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. In addition, he believed that the path to economic and social recovery required the inclusion of people in the political process. Entering into an unavoidable alliance with Yeltsin, Gorbachev quit the Communist Party, disbanded its Central Committee, and supported measures to strip the party of its control over the KGB and the armed forces. 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. 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). Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Clearly, Yeltsin wished to rid Russia of the encumbrance of the Soviet Union and to seek the disbandment of that body. In March of that year the Congress of People’s Deputies elected him to the newly created post of president of the U.S.S.R., with extensive executive powers. Gorbachev served as the last general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1985–91) as well as the last president of the Soviet Union (1990–91). Mikhail Gorbachev played a key role in ending the Soviet Union’s post-World War II domination of eastern Europe. Even in his dotage, stooped and tissue-skinned and walker-dependent, the former (and final) Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev is an imposing, even … Global Look Press. Gorbachev realised military spending had to be reduced and this meant ending the arms race with the USA. 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). 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. 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. This had led to cuts in expenditures in education, social services, and medical care, which hurt the regime’s domestic legitimacy. 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. In the later Gorbachev years, the opinion that the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and establishment of the U.S.S.R. were mistakes that had prevented Russia from continuing along the historical path traveled by the countries of western Europe and had made Russia more economically backward vis-à-vis the West gained greater acceptance. Gorbachev sought a compromise between these two diametrically opposed alternatives in vain, and so the centrally planned economy continued to crumble with no private enterprise to replace it. Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. He traveled abroad extensively and was brilliantly successful in convincing foreigners that the U.S.S.R. was no longer an international threat. When Gorbachev became head of the Communist Party in 1985, he launched perestroika (“restructuring”). 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. However, a Siberian deputy stepped down in his favour. Learn about Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts to reform the Soviet Union. Capital investment was to improve the technological basis of the Soviet economy as well as promote certain structural economic changes. The life of Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and final President of the Soviet Union in chronological order. Mikhail Gorbachev became a delegate to the Communist Party Congress in 1961. In May 1989 Gorbachev was elected chairman of this Supreme Soviet and thereby retained the national presidency. It was replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a free association of sovereign states founded by the elected leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus (Belorussia). His policies were simply not put into practice. 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. 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. Andropov believed that the economic stagnation could be remedied by greater worker discipline and by cracking down on corruption.