He did not regard the structure of the Soviet economic system itself to be a cause of the country’s growing economic problems. New York, 1993. After the August Coup of 1991, Gorbachev understood that influence and support had shifted to Boris Yeltsin. He became the first president of … The reign of Peter I (the Great; 1689–1725), The reign of Catherine II (the Great; 1762–96), Government administration under Catherine, Education and social change in the 18th century, The Civil War and War Communism (1918–21), The Gorbachev era: perestroika and glasnost, Ethnic relations and Russia’s “near-abroad”, Consolidation of power, Syria, and campaign against the West. In 1989 the parliament elected from its ranks a new Supreme Soviet and made Gorbachev its chairman. Good pages, light soiling on top edge. The Russian government under Yeltsin assumed many of the responsibilities of the former Soviet Union. 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. Non-Russian representation at the top of the party and the government had declined over time. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. 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. Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev apparently blamed “Dallas” for the fall of his country. 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). Yeltsin appeared to be willing to go along with this vision but, in reality, wanted Russia to dominate the new union and replace the formal leading role of the Soviet Union. Upon his accession, he was still the youngest member of the Politburo. In 1987–88 he pushed through reforms that went less than halfway to the creation of a semi-free market system. Mikhail Gorbachev was named a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1971. Mikhail Gorbachev resigned the presidency of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991. 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). “Dallas” was a hit show on CBS that started in the late 1970s, and was one of the most successful television series ever made. He was elected general secretary in 1985. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Soviet television has since been broadcasting regular condemnations of Mr Gorbachev's policies. (From left to right) Nancy and Ronald Reagan and Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev on the Reagans' ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif., 1992. In 1988–89 he oversaw the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan after their nine-year occupation of that country. Updates? 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. 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. Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. 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). Mikhail Gorbachev played a key role in ending the Soviet Union’s post-World War II domination of eastern Europe. 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 was elected president of the Russian parliament despite the bitter opposition of Gorbachev. 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. Omissions? 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. Mr Gorbachev famously stated: “The most puzzling development in modern politics is the apparent determination of western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in western Europe.” 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. 1984 The City Where We Live: the Soviet State and Trade Unions. The CIS began operations in early 1992. In 1985 Gorbachev brought Boris Yeltsin to Moscow to run that city’s party machine. 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. In 1979–80 Gorbachev joined its supreme policy-making body (the Politburo), and in 1985 he was elected general secretary of the CPSU. Mikhail Gorbachev (centre) in East Berlin, 1986. New York: Random House, 1990. 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. Yeltsin’s politics reflected the rise of Russian nationalism. An ill-conceived, ill-planned, and poorly executed coup attempt occurred August 19–21, 1991, bringing an end to the Communist Party and accelerating the movement to disband 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. 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. Dissatisfaction with the Yeltsin administration prompted Gorbachev to run for president of Russia in 1996. 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. He returned to public life as an elected deputy from Moscow to the Congress of People’s Deputies in 1989. 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. Andropov believed that the economic stagnation could be remedied by greater worker discipline and by cracking down on corruption. This time is no different: Mikhail Gorbachev — yes, that Gorbachev, a.k.a. Gorbachev, however, never succeeded in making the jump from the command economy to even a mixed economy. 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 won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children in 2004, along with former U.S. President Bill Clinton. When Gorbachev became head of the Communist Party in 1985, he launched perestroika (“restructuring”). 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. Global Look Press. 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. 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. Russia systematically laid claim to most Soviet property on its territory. He did not, however, develop the power to implement these decisions. He thus pursued an economic policy that aimed to increase economic growth while increasing capital investment. 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. One of the Russian questions was whether the voters were in favour of a directly elected president. 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. 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. Shortly thereafter Gorbachev restructured the Soviet government to include a bicameral parliament. Gorbachev was also the first general secretary of the Communist Party not to have served in the armed forces during World War II. 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. Gorbachev also did not trust Reagan's promise to share the technology with the Soviet Union once it was developed. 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. Smith, Hedrick. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). This had been a goal of Russian leaders since Peter the Great unleashed the first great wave of modernization and Westernization. From a strictly legal point of view, this should have been done by court order, not by presidential decree. 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. The new body superseded the Supreme Soviet as the highest organ of state power. 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. 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. He enacted policies of glasnost (“openness”) and perestroika (“restructuring”), and he pushed for disarmament and demilitarization in eastern Europe. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Gorbachev was the son of Russian peasants in Stavropol territory (kray) in southwestern Russia. 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. Both as general secretary and as president, Gorbachev supported democratic reforms. In parliament he pilloried Gorbachev, the Communist Party, corruption, and the slow pace of economic reform. Gorbachev’s radical economists, headed by Grigory A. Yavlinsky, counseled him that Western-style success required a true market economy. 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. Gorbachev therefore transformed Soviet foreign policy. Gorbachev quickly set about consolidating his personal power in the Soviet leadership. As the U.S.S.R.’s economic problems became more serious (e.g., rationing was introduced for some basic food products for the first time since Stalin) and calls for faster political reforms and decentralization began to increase, the nationality problem became acute for Gorbachev. Yeltsin for the first time had a national platform. 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). 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 July 1987, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union passed the Law on State Enterprise. Strongly believing that the Soviet Union needed massive liberalization in order to revitalize both the Soviet economy and society, Gorbachev immediately began implementing reforms. Gorbachev launched glasnost (“openness”) as the second vital plank of his reform efforts. The new policy of "reconstruction" was introduced in an attempt to overcome the economic stagn… 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. In so doing, Gorbachev helped end the Cold War. Gorbachev’s policies ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990–91. 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. 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. Moreover, Gorbachev radically changed Soviet political life when he removed the constitutional article according to which the only legal political organization was the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This meant that all the republics, including first and foremost Russia, could have a similar type of presidency. Even in his dotage, stooped and tissue-skinned and walker-dependent, the former (and final) Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev is an imposing, even … In May 1989 Gorbachev was elected chairman of this Supreme Soviet and thereby retained the national presidency. In 1990 Gorbachev ran without opposition for president of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev delivering a speech at the 11th congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in East Berlin, 1986. Gorbachev helped take down the long-standing Iron Curtain separating Eastern communist states and Western noncommunist states. Since his involuntary retirement, Gorbachev has raised money for … Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Mansky has known Gorbachev for more than 20 years. When these superficial changes failed to yield tangible results, Gorbachev in 1987–88 proceeded to initiate deeper reforms of the Soviet economic and political system. With Yuri Andropov, James Baker, Leonid Brezhnev, Konstantin Chernenko. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan at the Geneva Summit 1985. A new parliament, the Congress of People’s Deputies, was convened in the spring of 1989, with Gorbachev presiding. Yeltsin came into conflict with the more conservative members of the Politburo and was eventually removed from the Moscow post in late 1987. Perestroika was an attempt to modernise and ‘rebuild’ the Soviet state. Gorbachev worked with U.S. President Ronald Reagan to lessen the political and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. 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 … Gorbachev realised military spending had to be reduced and this meant ending the arms race with the USA. This effectively undermined all attempts by Gorbachev to establish a Union of Sovereign Socialist Republics. 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. His changes in foreign policy led to the democratization of eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War. His team was more heavily Russian than that of his predecessors. Reagan insisted the SDI initiative should not be considered a space weapon, but merely a defensive technology. Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeyevich mēkhəyēl´ sĭrgā´yəvich gərbəchof´ [ key], 1931–, Soviet political leader. Russians began to view the Soviet system as one that worked for its own political and economic interests at Russia’s expense. He proved less willing to release the Soviet economy from the grip of centralized state direction, however. (Perceptive journalistic account.) Remnick, David. 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. Gorbachev has appeared in Lous Vuitton print advertisements. After two years, however, Gorbachev came to the conclusion that deeper structural changes were necessary. Mikhail Gorbachev became a delegate to the Communist Party Congress in 1961. Mikhaïl Sergueïevitch Gorbatchev ou Gorbatchov1 (en russe : Михаил Сергеевич Горбачёв, [mʲɪxɐˈil sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ɡərbɐˈtɕɵf]2 Écouter), né le 2 mars 1931 à Privolnoïe (ru) dans l'actuel kraï de Stavropol, est un homme d'État soviétique et russe qui dirigea l'URSS entre 1985 et 1991. In October 1988 General Secretary Gorbachev was elected to the chairmanship of the presidium of the national legislature (the Supreme Soviet). Directed by Werner Herzog, André Singer. 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). 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. Mikhail Gorbachev announces that he is resigning as president of the Soviet Union. (Scholarly.) His policies were simply not put into practice. Due to senility, Brezhnev had not been in effective control of the country during his last few years, and Kosygin had died in 1980. 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.