The Soviet Union Perestroika and Mikael Gorbachev

2669 Words6 Pages

Perestroika, means restructuring or reforming, which was exactly the goal of Mikael Gorbachev. Gorbachev's goal was to restructure the Soviet economy towards something that resembled something similar to free market capitalism, without losing the heart of socialism. He instituted this Perestroika along with his other policy of Glasnost; political freedoms and increased openness, while some of these issues overlapped this essay will focus on the goals and strategies of Perestroika and what its changes to the Soviet Union was, namely its eventual collapse. Firstly we will discuss the problems of the Soviet Union that Gorbachev was inheriting after his rise to power as General Secretary in 1985. Moving forward we will discuss the ideas behind it. Then we will discuss the successes, and failures, of Perestroika to reform the Soviet economy. Finally it will be concluded that while ambitious, the economic reforms that Gorbachev attempted to bring into place were,not committed to enough, rather poorly planned, and, not enough to repair the damages that the previous generations of Soviet Leaders had left behind and the open heart surgery on the economy exacerbated the problem to cause the rapid collapse of the Soviet Union.

Inheritance
The problems facing Gorbachev were numerous, indeed in his book Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World he lists them. Namely lack of technological progress, falling production rates, inefficiencies in food production and distribution, having the most doctors in the world yet still being unable to meet the needs of health, and an overall low standard of living for soviet citizens. He also notes that not only were there economic issues in the material needs of the people, there was also the...

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...tion from a Centrally planned economy to a capitalistic market driven system. Yeltsin took to the task by liberalising prices, at the beginning of 1992 85% of domestic prices were freed. This caused an inflationary surge of 400-500%, this meant that instead of rationing market prices took over, however this led to hyperinflation and required more work still. Today Russia is still attempting to regain its footing in the global economy, but has made some major strides, in 1992 Russia's GDP was 460 billion USD, by 2012 russia's GDP reached a total of 1899 Billion USD.

The Legacy of Gorbachev's Economic Reforms: Impact

Gorbachev attempted to

Works Cited

Peter Rutland The Economy: The Rocky Road From Plan to Market. Duke Anthology: Developments in Russian & Post Soviet Politics. Page 142
Russia’s Market Economy: a bad case of predatory Capitalism. Stefan Hedlund 86

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