What events occurred during the rebuilding of the table. Reasons for the failure of restructuring. Changes in foreign policy

Perestroika in the USSR in 1985-1991 became a large-scale period in history, covering social, political and economic life in the state. Many consider perestroika to be the stage that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Prerequisites and main reasons for perestroika

The period of the reign of L. I. Brezhnev from light hand M. S. Gorbachev was called the era of stagnation.

Rice. 1. Portrait of M. S. Gorbachev.

Despite the growth in the well-being of the population, a recession was observed in the economy. There was a constant shortage of goods on the market. Only the sale of oil helped the USSR financially stay afloat, thanks to the embargo of the Arab countries. However, after the lifting of this embargo, oil prices began to fall rapidly. The Brezhnev government did not want or could not solve the accumulated economic problems that could affect any change in the situation in the world. This showed the imperfection of the control system. In addition, the war in Afghanistan was also economically unprofitable for the Soviet Union. The capitalist world imposed sanctions against the USSR to stop hostilities, which reduced the amount of exports and affected the country's income.

It was these phenomena that showed the weakness of the Soviet economy.

perestroika

March 1985 was the beginning of the transition to a new policy of MS Gorbachev, who immediately made it clear that he would carry out a number of changes. The goals of perestroika were to reform the social economic development countries, the rejuvenation of personnel in the political system, the softening of foreign policy and the rise of industry.

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In April 1985, Gorbachev first used the term "acceleration" of economic development. His tasks were administrative reforms, modernization of mechanical engineering and heavy industry. However, attempts to reform the economy did not give the desired results, and it was decided to move from acceleration to global restructuring.

Perestroika was proposed to be divided into several stages.

Table “Events during the period of perestroika of the USSR”

The activities carried out in the second stage split the society into democrats and communists. This created some tension in the social environment, which gave rise to the uncontrollability of perestroika processes.

Glasnost was proclaimed by Gorbachev in 1985. Many victims of Stalinist repressions were acquitted, the literary works of Solzhenitsyn and other dissidents began to be published, the Vzglyad program began to work on TV, the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper was printed, and many previously banned films (for example, Heart of a Dog) appeared on television screens. The authorities allowed themselves to be criticized and did not take reactionary measures against harsh criticism.

Rice. 2. Portrait of Solzhenitsyn.

Restructuring began in foreign policy. The Soviet Union took a course on "warming" relations with the West. The Cold War was effectively lost when Gorbachev made substantial concessions to the United States, hoping for the lifting of sanctions. During negotiations with US President Reagan, a disarmament agreement was concluded, and in 1989 all Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan.

Rice. 3. The withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

At the second stage of perestroika, the tasks set for the country's transition to democratic socialism were not achieved. The third stage was completely outside state control and was left to chance.

The growth of political contradictions in the second stage of perestroika led to a national confrontation. Peripheral republics increasingly began to declare their disobedience to Moscow. Starting from the second half of 1989, a parade of sovereignties took place in the country. Local authorities declared the priority of local laws over all-Union ones if they conflicted with each other. In March 1990, Lithuania announced its withdrawal from the USSR. In the same year, the post of President of the USSR was approved, who was elected by general direct popular vote. This reform failed to achieve positive results.

The consequences of the third stage of the perestroika process was the putsch of 1991, which also led to the collapse of the USSR for political, social and economic reasons.

What have we learned?

Speaking briefly about perestroika in the USSR, it should be noted that in order to bring the country to a new level, gross miscalculations were made that led to the disintegration of the whole country, which changed the fate of tens of millions of people.

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In the early 1980s, the Soviet Union was in a state of economic and political crisis. Before there was a task of comprehensive renewal. The reason for the broad transformations was the arrival of an enterprising and energetic team of reformers to the government of the country, headed by the young party leader M.S. Gorbachev.

Mikhail Gorbachev believed that the socialist society had far from exhausted all its potentialities. It seemed to the new leader of the country that in order to restore the balance disturbed in the social sphere and economy, it was enough to accelerate economic development, make society more open, and activate the so-called “human factor”. It is for this reason that the course of acceleration, publicity and indigenous society was announced in the state.

Reasons for perestroika in the USSR

The new leadership came to power at a difficult time for the country. Even in the past decade, the rate of economic growth in the USSR dropped sharply. The country's economy by that time was already supported only by high world oil prices. However, subsequently the situation on the energy market changed. Oil fell sharply, and the USSR had no other reserves of economic growth.

The party elite, which at that time was headed by L.I. Brezhnev, could not decide on fundamental structural changes in the economy, since this would require retreat from socialist principles: allow private property and develop entrepreneurial initiative. This would inevitably lead to the replacement of socialist relations by bourgeois ones, which meant the collapse of the entire party-state system built on the communist concept of development.

The country's political system was also in crisis. The elderly party leadership did not enjoy the authority and trust of citizens. The party and state nomenclature was inert and showed no initiative. Adherence to the official ideology and loyalty to the authorities became the main criteria for selecting candidates for leadership positions. Those who possessed high business qualities, knew how to be principled in solving important issues, the road to power was closed.

Society on the eve of perestroika was still under the influence of the dominant ideology. Television and radio vied with each other to talk about the successes in socialist construction and the advantages of the way of life adopted in the USSR. However, the citizens of the country saw that in fact the economy and social sphere were in deep decline. Disillusionment reigned in society and a dull social protest was brewing. It was during this peak period of stagnation that M.S. Gorbachev began his perestroika reforms, which resulted in the collapse of the USSR and the entire socialist camp.

In the mid 80s. in the USSR there were radical changes in ideology, public consciousness, political and state organization, profound changes began in property relations and social structure. The collapse of the communist regime and the CPSU, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the formation of new ones in its place independent states, including Russia itself, the emergence of ideological and political pluralism, the emergence of civil society, new classes (among them the capitalist) - these are just some of the new realities of modern Russian history, the beginning of which can be dated March-April 1985.

Strategy of "acceleration"

IN April 1985, at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, M.S. Gorbachev

outlined a strategic course for reform. It was about the need for a qualitative transformation of Soviet society, its "renewal", about profound changes in all spheres of life.

The key word of the reform strategy was “ acceleration". It was supposed to accelerate the development of the means of production, scientific and technological progress, the social sphere and even the activities of party organs.

Terms “ perestroika" And " glasnost b” appeared later. Gradually, the emphasis was shifted from “acceleration” to “perestroika” and it was this word that became symbol course produced by M.S. Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s.

Publicity meant the identification of all the shortcomings that impede acceleration, criticism and self-criticism of performers “from top to bottom”. A perestroika assumed the introduction of structural and organizational changes in economic, social, political mechanisms, as well as in ideology in order to achieve acceleration of social development.

To ensure the implementation of new tasks, a change was made in some of the party and Soviet leaders. N. I. Ryzhkov was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and E. A. Shevardnadze, who had previously been First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia, was appointed Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In December 1985, B. N. Yeltsin became secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee. A. N. Yakovlev, A. I. Lukyanov advanced to the highest party hierarchy.

In 1985, the task of technical re-equipment and modernization of enterprises was set at the center of economic transformations. For this it was necessary accelerated development of mechanical engineering. This was the main goal in the national economy. The program of "acceleration" assumed the advancing (1.7 times) development of mechanical engineering in relation to the entire industry and its achievement of a world level by the beginning of the 90s. The success of acceleration was associated with the active use of the achievements of science and technology, the expansion of the rights of enterprises, the improvement of personnel work, and the strengthening of discipline in enterprises.

The course proclaimed in 1985 at the April plenum was reinforced in February 1986. on XXVII Congress of the CPSU.

There were few innovations at the congress, but the main thing was support Law on labor collectives. The law proclaimed the creation of councils of labor collectives at all enterprises with broad powers, including the selection of executives, regulation wages in order to eliminate equalization and observe social justice in wages and even in determining the price of manufactured products.

At the XXVII Congress of the CPSU, promises were made to the Soviet people: to double the economic potential of the USSR by 2000, to increase labor productivity by 2.5 times and to provide each Soviet family separate apartment.

Most of the Soviet people believed the new General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU M.S. Gorbachev and enthusiastically supported him.

Course towards democratization

IN 1987. began serious adjustments to the reformist course.

There have been changes in the political vocabulary of the country's leadership. The word "acceleration" gradually fell out of use. New concepts have emerged, such as democratization”, “command and control system”, “braking mechanism”, “deformation of socialism". If before it was assumed that Soviet socialism was fundamentally sound, and it was only necessary to “accelerate” its development, now the “presumption of innocence” was removed from the Soviet socialist model, and serious internal shortcomings were discovered in it, which needed to be eliminated and a new model created. socialism.

IN January 1987. Gorbachev recognized the failure of the reform efforts of previous years, and saw the reason for these failures in the deformations that had occurred in the USSR by the 1930s.

Since it was concluded that deformations of socialism”, it was supposed to eliminate these deformations and return to the socialism that was conceived by V.I. Lenin. This is how the slogan " Back to Lenin”.

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU in his speeches argued that in the "deformation of socialism" there were deviations from the ideas of Leninism. The Leninist concept of the NEP gained particular popularity. Publicists started talking about the NEP as a "golden age" Soviet history drawing analogies with the modern period of history. Economic articles on the problems of commodity-money relations, rent, and cooperation were published by P. Bunich, G. Popov, N. Shmelev, L. Abalkin. According to their concept, administrative socialism was to be replaced by economic socialism, which would be based on self-financing, self-financing, self-sufficiency, self-management of enterprises.

But main, the central theme of the perestroika time in the media was criticism of Stalin And command and control system generally.

This criticism was conducted much more fully and more ruthlessly than in the second half of the 1950s. On the pages of newspapers, magazines, on television, revelations of Stalin's policy began, Stalin's direct personal participation in mass repressions was revealed, a picture of the crimes of Beria, Yezhov, and Yagoda was recreated. The revelations of Stalinism were accompanied by the identification and rehabilitation of more and more tens of thousands of innocent victims of the regime.

The most famous at this time were such works as “White Clothes” by V. Dudintsev, “Bison” by D. Granin, “Children of the Arbat” by A. Rybakov. The whole country read magazines New world”, “Banner”, “October”, “Friendship of Peoples”, “Spark”, where the previously banned works of M. Bulgakov, B. Pasternak, V. Nabokov, V. Grossman, A. Solzhenitsyn, L. Zamyatin were published.

XIX All-Union Party Conference (June 1988)

At the end of the 80s. transformations affected the structure of state power. The new doctrine of political democracy has received practical implementation in decisions XIX All-Union Party Conference, which for the first time proclaimed the goal of creating a civil society in the USSR and excluding party bodies from economic management, depriving them of state functions and transferring these functions to the Soviets.

At the conference, a sharp struggle developed between supporters and opponents of perestroika on the question of the tasks of the country's development. The majority of deputies supported the point of view of M.S. Gorbachev on the need for economic reform and transformation political system countries.

The conference approved the course for the creation in the country rule of law. Specific reforms of the political system to be implemented in the near future were also approved. It was supposed to elect Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, the country's highest legislative body of 2,250 members. At the same time, two thirds of the Congress were to be elected by the population on an alternative basis, i.e. from at least two candidates, and another third of the deputies, also on an alternative basis, were elected public organizations. The congress, convened periodically to determine legislative policy and adopt higher laws, formed from its midst The Supreme Council, which was supposed to work on a permanent basis and represent the Soviet parliament.

The alignment of political forces in the country began to change dramatically from the autumn of 1988. The main political change was that the previously united camp of supporters of perestroika began to split: radical wing, which quickly gained strength, turned into a powerful movement in 1989, and in 1990 began to decisively challenge Gorbachev's power. The struggle between Gorbachev and the radicals for leadership in the reform process formed the main pivot of the next stage of perestroika, which lasted from autumn 1988 to July 1990.

MS Gorbachev to the presidency in March 1985. And already on April 23 of the same year, he announced a course towards perestroika. It is worth saying that the political course originally proclaimed by the president was called "acceleration and perestroika", while the emphasis was on the word "acceleration". Subsequently, it disappeared, and the term "perestroika" came to the fore.

The essence of the new political course truly amazed sane politicians, because Gorbachev put the accelerated development and industrial production on an unprecedented scale at the forefront. From 1986 to 2000, it was planned to produce as many goods as produced in the previous 70 years.

However, such a grandiose plan was not destined to come true. The term "acceleration" lost popularity by the end of 1987, and perestroika lasted only until 1991, and ended with the collapse of the Union.

The first stage of the new era

Perestroika began with a radical change in party leaders. It must be said that the personnel nomenclature of the times of the rule of the country by Chernenko and Andropov has grown so old that the average age of the party leader was more than 70 years. Naturally, it was unacceptable. And Gorbachev seriously took up the "rejuvenation" of the party apparatus.

Another important sign of the first period of perestroika was the policy of glasnost. For the first time in many years, reality in the Soviet Union was shown not only in a life-affirming light, but also reflected negative aspects. There was some freedom of speech, of course, still timid and not in full force, but then it was perceived as a breath of air on a stuffy afternoon.
In foreign policy, Gorbachev sought to strengthen and improve Soviet-American relations. This was expressed in a unilateral ban on nuclear tests.

Results of the beginning of perestroika

It is worth saying that the first stage of perestroika brought some changes to the life of the Soviet person and society as a whole. It was possible to rejuvenate the composition of the party leadership, which only benefited the country and its inhabitants. Glasnost led to the removal of tension in society, and thanks to nuclear disarmament, the situation in the world was defused.

However, then mistake after mistake, the discrepancy between words and deeds on the part of the government led to the fact that the results achieved came to naught.

In the late 70s, a serious socio-economic crisis was brewing in Soviet society. Due to his advanced age and chronic illnesses, L. I. Brezhnev could no longer lead the state.

Reasons for the start of perestroika

He delegated his powers to the ministers, who carried out state policy at their own discretion. Society increasingly felt the backwardness of the USSR from Western countries, but, unfortunately, there was no leader in the state who could initiate reforms.

The main reasons are:

• - Centralization of power in the hands of the Party;
• - As a result, censorship of information, lack of publicity;
• - Low competitiveness of Soviet goods on the world market, low labor productivity;
• - Shortage of goods on the market.

In the mid-1980s, the post of General Secretary of the USSR was taken by Mikhail Gorbachev, who, unlike his predecessors Chernenko and Andropov, was not afraid to start large-scale reformist activities.

The beginning of perestroika

In 1985, the new leader of the Soviet state announced the course of his policy, which was aimed at the complete renewal of society. The implementation of reforms required the support of the population, for this Gorbachev significantly softened censorship, control over the media, allowed to criticize the actions of the authorities.

The first step towards the reformation of public life was an attempt to reorganize the economy from planned to market. The inconsistency of the economic reform led to a severe crisis: deficit, inflation, lack of jobs became an integral attribute of the life of the Soviet people.

The changes also affected political structure the Soviet state. For the first time in the history of the country, there was an actual transfer of power from state executive bodies elected parliament to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

During the period of perestroika, the government of the USSR completely changed the priorities of foreign policy. M. Gorbachev and his closest associates understood that without borrowing the experience of European capitalist countries, they would not be able to renew and modernize state socialism.

M. Gorbachev paid an official visit to a number of Western European countries and the USA. As a result of the restoration of dialogue with democratic states, the period of geopolitical confrontation between the socialist USSR and the capitalist Western world, which began at the end of World War II, ended.

In 1989, M. Gorbachev initiated the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the Republic of Afghanistan, which can be regarded as a compromise step for rapprochement with the West. At the end cold war There was a union of the FRG and the GDR, which for many decades were at enmity with each other.

Historical significance and results of the perestroika period

M. Gorbachev, initiating fundamental changes in the system of state power, ignored the historical pattern: the existence of any empire is possible only under the conditions of a tough despotic regime.

The period of perestroika, which began with the slogans of socio-political renewal, ended with the granting of the Union republics the right to make their own political decisions, which inevitably led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communist ideas.