Did Mikhail Gorbachev mean to break up the USSR?

Comments ( 5 )

1. phillip_bournemouth says

   Gorbachev never meant to destory the Soviet Union. With Peristrokia and Glasnost he wanted to reform the Soviet Union but his intention was to try and have an limited form of democracy. He miscalculated the underlying resentment people felt at the poor standard of living within the Soviet Union but his biggest miscalculation was the nationlist feelings evoked within the more reluctant republics (Baltics, Ukraine & Georgia). By untapping this, this caused the ulitmate breakup of the Soviet Union. However, it must be remebered that Gorbachev at any time could have surpressed these protests and uprisings within the Soviet Union (as Brezhnev did after overthrowing Kruschev) but he decided not to. It is a myth that the western reaction held Gorbachev back as it did not hold the USSR back in 1956 in putting down the Hungarian protests or 1968 in supressing the Czechoslovakian uprising. The western inaction to the Tianamian Square massacre gives an indication to how the west would have reacted.
   Perestroikia was an attempt to rebuild the infrastructure within the Soviet Union. These reforms were not new, they were a ressurection of the New Economic Policy set out by Lenin during the 1920's and Gorbachev always said he was a Leninist. The collapse of the economy is because, like the political situatiuon Gorbachev allowed it to spin out of control.
   The Coup in 1991 was the response of the hard liners to the proposed new Union Treaty agreed by Yeltsin and Gorbachev. Due to political pressure from the smaller republics it was agreed they would be given greater autonomy. In the first and last referendum within the USSR the people agreed to the modified Union Treaty(although it was boycotted within certain areas of the Baltics). It allowed political and economic freedom to all the republics but the Soviet Union would be responsible for the defence and foriegn affairs. The hard liners saw this as a threat to the integerity of the USSR and the first step to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. There was also anger and resentment at the way Gorbachev had mismanged the political situation and allowed dissent against the Soviet Union. The coup was shambolic and the thought to arrest Yeltsin never occured to them, as was the idea that Gorbachev, in his Dacha in the Crimea, would never give up power. The final nail in their coffin was when the Red Army refused to fire at the protesters outside the White House in Moscow. After it failed, Yeltsin declared Russia's independance from the Soviet Union and banned the Communist Party. After that the remaining Soviet Republics declared their independance. It is ironic that the coup was attempted to preserve the USSR, wheras it speeded up its demise and by the end of 1991 the USSR was dissolved.

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2. Ducks says

   Perestroika was just that big of a failure. The citizens could now see how stuff was going in the rest of the world, and they realized "Hey, this sucks." Bam, USSR gone.

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3. josflachs says

   No, of course not. He tried to reform the USSR into something that would work. Unfortunately, for him, it didn't.

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4. Nail says

   Gorbachev wanted to preserve the USSR by making it a bit less repressive. But the forces that he unleashed destroyed the USSR in spite of his desires.

   The same will happen to modern Russia. It will disintegrate.

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5. sesshou0 says

   the coup was a failed attempt to overthrow gorbachev

   gorbachev did not mean to break up the USSR.

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