Reagan was of course high on my list of possible candidates; and you might say that for a European I made a fairly strong case for him—but to no avail. Amongst a group of 500 very bright first-year students, there seemed to be only one correct answer, and that was not Ronald Reagan but, rather, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. By a considerable margin it was the Russian rather than the American who won the overwhelming majority of votes (over 70 percent of the total). (History Now, 2012). I agree because by the time that the Berlin Wall fell, the Russian economy was not in good shape. Many people inside Russia felt that Communism had failed. Gorbachev was a leader that was not afraid to take a…
During The Cold War, There was a total of 4 change in power. Joseph Stalin being the first dictator of The Soviet Union during The Cold War, Nikita Khrushchev being the second, Leonid Brezhnev the third, and Mikhail Gorbachev the final leader of The Soviet Union. “While this meant change the underlying political reality was that the Soviet system did not trust the people. Government was retained in the hand of Party apparatchiks which the public had no role in choosing. Economically there were improvements.” Despite the improvements, living conditions were poor for the citizens of The Soviet Union. “Agriculture remained a major weakness with poor yields”. Although The Soviet try to improve life for people, life was still poor. The economics…
Glasnot- “Gorbachev set in motion in 1985 plans for increased openness, which he called glasnost” (903).…
The nation was created with poor decisions and dishonesty that throughout the years led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev’s decision to give more power to the people and how open elections which was similar to what was seen in a democratic government which began a slow process of democratization that destabilized Communist control. After 1990 elections, Gorbachev was faced with many political pressures which in turn sped up the process of his resignation. On December 25, 1991, the Soviet flag was taken down and replaced by the Russian flag that flies today. Gorbachev resigned as president and on December 26, 1991, The Soviet Union…
The advent of Gorbachev to power marked the beginning of the reconstruction. His first step on his rise to power was the partial liberation of the press, also known as glasnost. The first free newspapers emerged and some major newspapers such as “Novii Mir (New World),” Argumenti i Fakti “(Arguments and Facts) or” Moskovskie Novosti (Moscow News) changed editors. Books banned by the Soviet censorship began to appear in stores. Also, films which had been censored until this time were finally appearing on the screen. The policy change was also considerable. Under Gorbachev, 140 dissidents, victims of Stalinist repression, were honored and rehabilitated. From exile in Gorky, Sakharov, who condemned the war in Afghanistan – was released. Several opposition political organizations emerged as a Democratic…
Khrushchev had a lot of good ideas that he wanted to implement but due to the bureaucratic nature of the Soviet party officials weren’t keen on implementing certain reforms which offered no benefits to them despite being good for the population…
At the time, America and the Soviet Union were enemies, and America did not trust the Soviets. Reagan labeled the Soviet Union as “The Evil Empire,” but Gorbachev was able to persuade him and America that they mean America no harm and that they want to both be at peace with one another (PBS). For the Soviet Union and the United States to be allies is a major step forward to peace being made in the world. Gorbachev and Reagan worked together to end the war, and during that period of time, a real friendship had kindled between them. The end of the Cold War was beneficial to both the United States and Russia, but the Soviets had an extremely tough time dealing with the aftermath. Gorbachev’s economic reforms began to fail and some Soviets demanded independence by using the word glasnost, which translates to openness from Russian (PBS). Since Gorbachev was able to make peace with one of his many enemies at the time adds to the list of how he was an impactful…
Due to problems in Russia originating from the slow recovery from WWII, Gorbachev made changes and saw how the country was falling. Citizens were in desperate need for supplies, shelter, and allies. United States President at the time, Ronald Reagan, demanded that Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall which divided Germany in two for both the U.S. and Russia. Gorbachev knew his country wouldn't be able to survive the war so he tore down the wall and the peace between Russia and the rest of the world slowly started to build. The Russians were able to become friendly with citizens from other countries which enabled the country to flourish.…
Igor Gouzenko was a Russian who did a great deal of damage to communism and the USSR. Some may see him as a selfish man, who betrayed his country for money and personal freedom, but others may see him as a selfless man, who despite the severe consequences for him and his family, did what would ultimately benefit the whole world. My opinion is that he was a great, selfless man who sacrificed all he had for the freedoms we enjoy in democratic countries around the globe. Gouzenko's sacrifice also included the imprisonment of 11 people who had barely done anything wrong, but was unavoidable because the supporters of communism had to be stopped if they couldn't be converted.…
Many people considered Khrushchev reckless because he tore the ideas of communism down. He allowed freer expression of opinion, made modest efforts to meet the demand for more consumer goods, decentralized economic planning, and removed many restrictive regulations on private cultivation.…
Following World War II, tensions rose between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies. These tensions soon lapsed into a Cold War. Nikita Khrushchev emerged as leader of the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War following Joseph Stalin's death in 1953. On occasion, the new leader threatened to make this cold war a hot one and was even close to instigating a nuclear war. Due to Khrushchev's unpredictable nature, he was responsible for escalating the Cold War.…
Nikita Khrushchev won the struggle for power and in 1958 becomes the Premier of the USSR. As Premier, Khrushchev was known for the destalinization of…
In the 1980’s Americans at home and millions of Russians living in the Soviet Union said U.S. President Ronald Reagan was a great communicator because he was the first to openly say the Soviet Union was an “evil empire” that must be defeated. However, in today’s Russia, a high percent of Russians regret the Soviet Union collapse which was so relentlessly pursued by the United States. Mr. Putin has called the empire’s break-up “A national tragedy of enormous scale.” This conflict made Mr. Reagan’s Presidency controversial, some saw him as a hero while others saw him as a zealot wanting all the power. People can be seen as a hero to some and a villain to others because of their actions and how they are perceived.…
As de facto ruler of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev tried to reform the stagnating Party and the state economy by introducing glasnost ("openness"), perestroika ("restructuring"), demokratizatsiya ("democratization"), and uskoreniye ("acceleration" of economic development), which were launched at the 27th Congress of the CPSU in February 1986.…
The very end of the Cold War happened 'suddenly' in 1991. A dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was consequentially connected to the Cold War's end. However, The Soviet Union had a strong military power both conventionally and strategically until 1985, and its economy could still endure more. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, was inaugurated as a leader of the Soviet Union. After six years of Gorbachev's leadership, the Soviet Union collapsed. At this time, Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States of America since 1981 until 1989, implemented various policies against the Soviet Union, and some of those policies were actually effective. In historical debate, scholars have argued about who brought an end to the Cold War indicating that this matter is quite controversial. Also, knowing who played a crucial role is historically significant to understand why and how the Cold war ended. In historical debates on the reasons for the end of the Cold War, Peter Schweizer and Raymond L. Garthoff pronounced very different point of view. Peter Schwerzer, a conservative author and a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution analyzed, in his thesis, the collapse of the Soviet Union in the context of a systematic crisis. In his point of view, the end of the Cold war was caused by an inherent systematic crisis of the Soviet Union exacerbated by Reagan's policy; Gorbachev is rarely mentioned in his text. One of the few mentions of Gorbachev is "Absent this systemic crisis, Gorbachev never would have begun his walk down the path of change" (Peter Schweizer, Victory: The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy That Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union (1994), p. xii). Not only is he intentionally excluding Gorbachev in his thesis, but he is also disparaging…