It was the internal reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last
Soviet leader, that contributed to the demise of the Soviet Union.
On March 11, 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General
Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. At 54, he was the
youngest member of the ruling Politburo that voted him into power
Former National Security Adviser, General Brent Scowcroft,
said the Soviet Union previously had a succession of elderly leaders.
"So Gorbachev, I think, was brought in to stimulate the
system. And exactly how, we didn’t know. And I’m not sure he did,” said
Scowcroft.
For the next six years, Gorbachev embarked on a series of
domestic reforms that radically changed the Soviet Union.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Thomas Pickering said,
"What he attempted to do is, he analyzed where Russia was going and
attempted to ride a horse - instead, he was on the back of a bucking elephant.”
Gorbachev’s reforms touched all segments of society. It
included freeing press restrictions and releasing political prisoners and
dissidents from jail and internal exile.
Gorbachev's Domestic Reforms Led to End of Soviet Union
Gorbachev's Domestic Reforms Led to End of Soviet Union
“He was not a democrat, but he was trying to get more
efficiency out of the system and reduce the extent of coercion and oppression,”
said Scowcroft.
One institution Gorbachev failed to reform, however, was the
Soviet Communist Party. And it is within its ranks, along with the leadership
of the military and the KGB, that hardliners attempted a coup against Gorbachev
in August 1991.
But the coup failed.
“It was a pretty inept coup attempt. It was not carefully
planned, not carefully carried out,” said Scowcroft.
Pickering agrees, saying “It had bankrupt leadership. It was
in some ways vodka-soaked, elderly, old think."
The Soviet Union collapsed four months after the failed coup
attempt. And, said Scowcroft, that allowed Boris Yeltsin, Gorbachev’s nemesis,
to take Gorbachev head on.
Gorbachev's Domestic Reforms Led to End of Soviet Union
Gorbachev's Domestic Reforms Led to End of Soviet Union
“Now how do you eliminate Gorbachev? You pull the Soviet
Union right from under him. And I think the end of the Soviet Union, the
technical end of it, was in large part because then Gorbachev had no job,” said
Scowcroft.
Many experts say Gorbachev unleashed forces he ultimately
couldn’t contain - forces that inevitably led to the demise of the Soviet Union
on December 25, 1991, when Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president.
