Mikhail Gorbachev

 Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev was the ruler of Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – USSR) when it got disintegrated in 1991. Thus, he was the last ruler of united Soviet Union.

He was born on 2 March 1931. He completed the Law Degree from the Moscow State University. While studying for law he became the member of Communist Party of Soviet Union. Subsequently he went on to climb the ladder in the Communist Party.

In 1971 he became the member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The Central Committee was considered as one of the topmost bodies of the Communist Party of Soviet Union. Later on he also looked after agriculture department. He was appointed as the member of Politburo of the Communist Party in the year 1979. Politburo was the highest level outfit within the Communist Party which made decisions about the policies of the Soviet Union. The Politburo had a ttremendous control over the political system of Soviet Union. After the disintegration of Soviet Union in 1991 the Politburo ceased to exist automatically.

On 11 March 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Soviet Union. He succeeded Konstantin Chernenko who died on 10 March 1985.

Gorbachev as mentioned above was a highly qualified person and trained in law. He sincerely wanted to rejuvenate the economy of Soviet Union. He had realised that in order to strengthen the Communist regime in Soviet Union it was necessary to bring economic and political reforms. By bringing economic reforms he wanted to achieve the development and economic growth which would have brought positive changes in the overall life of the people of Soviet Union. Out of this thinking the policies of Glasnost and Perestroika originated.

Glasnost meant more political freedom and openness. People and press was given the freedom of expression and even the criticism of the Party and government was tolerated. The political power and control of the Communist Party was brought down as a part of policy of Glasnost. Due to it the amount of criticism of the wrongdoings of Communist rule was so high that the policy of Glasnost boomeranged on the government. It definitely led to the loosening of the grip of Communist Party on overall polity of Soviet Union and played an important role in the collapse of Communist regime and disintegration of Soviet Union.

Perestroika envisaged the economic growth which would make Soviet Union to compete with the developed economies of United States of America, Japan and other such economies. The grip of the Party and government on economy was loosened and even the private enterprise was allowed on certain extent. Unfortunately, the Perestroika did not result into bringing change in the economy which was expected. There were tremendous economic problems and shortage of many consumer goods in Soviet Union.

The failure of well intentioned policies of Glasnost and Perestroika played crucial role in the collapse of Communist rule and disintegration of Soviet Union.

Apart from the above mentioned domestic problems, one more reason was responsible for Soviet Union becoming history. This factor was that Soviet Union lost control over its Eastern European Communist followers such as East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc. Not only so, Gorbachev helped the Communist East Germany and Democratic West Germany to get unified again. Thus, in 1990 the East and West Germany got united. In other words the Communist regime in East Germany collapsed and United Germany embraced the Democracy. The unification of Germany in the year 1990 can be considered as the prelude to the collapse of Soviet Union.

The weakened Communist Party and central government emboldened many minorities and provinces such as Georgia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Lithuania and many more to ask for independence. Political figures like Boris Yeltsin from Russia took advantage of the unstable political conditions in Soviet Union and pushed for more reforms and even for granting independence to the provinces and ethnic groups who wanted so. Ultimately on 25 December 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned from the high profile posts of Soviet Union which was nothing but the end of Soviet Union. This was also the collapse of Communist system in Soviet Union. Provinces like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan declared their independence and Soviet Union, which had emerged as the Superpower after Second World War and competing with the United States of America became a history. With the end of Soviet Union even the Cold War ended and United States of America remained the only Superpower in the world.

In 1996 Mikhail Gorbachev contested the election for the Presidency of Russia but lost it. Nevertheless he was active in the public life after that as well. He can be considered as an unlucky person and politician whose sincere efforts to strengthen Communist system and Soviet Union resulted into exactly opposite outcome. Mikhail Gorbachev died on 30 August 2022 in Moscow at the age ninety one.