MIKHAIL GORBACHEV: Perestroika Lost

NY Times ^ | March 14, 2010 | MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

[neverdem]

Op-Ed Contributor

Moscow

PERESTROIKA, the series of political and economic reforms I undertook in the Soviet Union in 1985, has been the subject of heated debate ever since. Today the controversy has taken on a new urgency — not just because of the 25th anniversary, but also because Russia is again facing the challenge of change. In moments like this, it is appropriate and necessary to look back.

We introduced perestroika because our people and the country’s leaders understood that we could no longer continue as we had. The Soviet system, created on the precepts of socialism amid great efforts and sacrifices, had made our country a major power with a strong industrial base. The Soviet Union was strong in emergencies, but in more normal circumstances, our system condemned us to inferiority.

This was clear to me and others of the new generation of leaders, as well as to members of the old guard who cared about the country’s future. I recall my conversation with Andrei Gromyko, the foreign minister, a few hours before the...

--snip--

Russia will progress with confidence only if it follows a democratic path. Recently, there have been a number of setbacks in this regard.

For instance, all major decisions are now taken by the executive branch, with the Parliament rubber-stamping formal approval. The independence of the courts has been thrown into question. We do not have a party system that would enable a real majority to win while also taking the minority opinion into account and allowing an active opposition. There is a growing feeling that the government is afraid of civil society and would like to control everything...

Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until its collapse in 1991. This article was translated by Pavel Palazhchenko from the Russian.

[Kozak]

Mikhail Gorbachev, the greatest magician the world has ever seen. He made the Soviet Union disappear...

[americanophile]

Pretty interesing commentary. Even he can see what Putin is. Good post.

[Parley Baer]

“There is a growing feeling that the government is afraid of civil society and would like to control everything...”

Like starting with the take over of health-care?

[drc43]

I remember the meetings with Reagan. I remember that Margaret Thatcher said this is a man we can work with. I remember when it did fall apart, he was kidnapped.

I do not agree with this man on all things.

I will always remember him as a man of great courage, and was on the world stage when communism did fall. He tried to make it a peaceful transition, and I believe he succeeded.

I will always have great respect for him.

[GoodDay]

The Soviet system, created on the precepts of socialism amid great efforts and sacrifices, had made our country a major power with a strong industrial base.

He's learned nothing since the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The "strong industrial base" was so miscoordinated that it was fundamentally unable to produce things that the Russian people actually wanted and needed. The inability to undertake economic calculation is typical of centrally planned economies that lack private ownership of the means of production.

Additionally, whatever industrial base the former S.U. had by 1990 came about because of decades of direct subsidy from the western, semi-capitalist, non-socialist countries (including the U.S.). Read "Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1930 to 1945" by Antony C. Sutton, published by the Hoover Institute.

[hellbender]

whatever industrial base the former S.U. had by 1990 came about because of decades of direct subsidy from the western, semi-capitalist, non-socialist countries (including the U.S.)

Sounds just like what we've been doing with Red China since Tricky Dick and Machiavellian Globalist Henry K. opened the door to the Chicoms.

[hellbender]

a society where the government “is the biggest employer, the biggest publisher, the best producer, its own judiciary ... and ultimately a nation unto itself.”

I.e. the same kind of society (I almost made a Freudian typo: "soviety") which Comrade Hussein plans for us.

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

There is a growing feeling that the government is afraid of civil society and would like to control everything...

Gee, just like in the USA.

Oh, I forgot, we are Marxist run too.

Their hands (Stalin Lenin Marx) are, and always will be, covered in blood.

Stick that in your NY Times and smoke it.

[Thunder90]

Gorby cuttled Putin during the last few years of Putin’s open presidency of Russia, and wants a stronger Russia.

Gorby would do anything to be back as premier of the USSR, but Pootie-Poot is next in line for it (should it reappear).

[Senator Goldwater]

Mikhail Gorbachev, the greatest magician the world has ever seen. He made the Soviet Union disappear...

Actually it was Reagan who did that.

[Kozak]

Reagan, Thatcher, King Saud and the Pope John Paul II actually. But Gorbachev certainly helped....

[Senator Goldwater]

Gorbachev had no choice.

If it was up to him, his economy wouldn’t have been in tatters. Reagan fundamentally understood you cannot have economic freedom without political freedom, so he attacked the Soviet Union on all economic fronts, vibrant capitalism, the world oil market, the space race, technology, sabotage of the Siberian pipeline, on and on.

Reagan forced the Soviet Union into attempting economic reform, and the international communist empire imploded as a result.

Without Reagan, there is no Gorbachev.