The United States strongly resisted Brezhnev's policies. They limited the Soviet Union's ability to maintain its military and expand its borders. The United States was able to prevent the Soviets from gaining new military items. They did this by establishing and enforcing worldwide limitations on technology transfers. Without new technology, the Soviets could not build advanced weapons. The United States deprived the Soviets of the money required to maintain their existing military. They did this by driving down the value of the Soviet Union's chief export: oil. Finally, the United States gave aid to groups who were fighting Soviet expansion across the globe. Since the Soviet Union was spending over 26 percent of its output on its military, the economy faltered.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev took power in the Soviet Union. At that time, the Soviet economy was in horrible shape. Gorbachev dedicated himself to repairing the Soviet economy. First, he had to put an end to the Soviet Union's hostile role in relation to the United States. In his own words, Gorbachev wanted to "deprive the United States of an enemy." His intentions were simple. He wanted to move the Soviet Union's planned economy toward a market economy to improve it to the level enjoyed by the West. At the same time, he wanted to preserve communism and the Soviet Union. Gorbachev initiated several reforms under perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness).

CS Question #1: What made the reforms of glasnost and perestroika necessary?

Before 1985, the government ran all Soviet media agencies. The history of the Soviet Union was never discussed or published in books. In fact, at that time the government would not even admit to the horrible "purges" that had occurred when Joseph Stalin ran the Soviet Union. Glasnost literally means "openness." After 1985, for the first time in Soviet history citizens were allowed to criticize the government. Newspapers could run stories that publicly blamed the government for problems it created. The state republics were permitted to speak against the Soviet Union's central government in Russia. Glasnost was proposed for a specific reason. Gorbachev wanted to assure public support and discussion of his political and economic reforms under perestroika.

CS Question #2: What was glasnost?

Perestroika literally means "restructuring." The term referred to the changes to both political and economic life in the Soviet Union. These reforms were designed to introduce some aspects of a market economy into the Soviet command economy. Perestroika moved the Soviet economy toward capitalism. However, the actual goal was to preserve communism and the Soviet Union.

The reforms for industry had several components:

• limit the level of industry planning by the Soviet government
• permit factories to make planning decisions for themselves
• allow factory managers to buy and sell to whomever they wanted
• permit factory managers to hire and fire employees as they deemed necessary
• encourage the creation of small enterprises

CS Question #3: What was perestroika?

Gorbachev knew that Communist Party members would not like his ideas. They felt that decentralizing the Soviet economy and limiting expansion would weaken the power of the Soviet Union. When Gorbachev took power in 1985, the public was already wary of the government. With public opinion in mind, Gorbachev wanted to improve the economy by introducing capitalistic reforms. He proposed both glasnost and perestroika at the same time. Previous attempts to liberalize Soviet life and the economy had failed. Gorbachev was convinced that each failure had occurred because the public had not been involved. He felt that progress could be achieved and sustained only through democratic involvement. Besides, Gorbachev wisely used public opinion to overcome the objections of the Communist Party.

Gorbachev was able to gain popular support for himself and his reforms. Although he was quite powerful, he could not make the reforms work. In 1989, Gorbachev created the Congress of the People's Deputies. This was the highest branch of state executive power. Gorbachev became president of the Soviet Union. The new political model permitted each republic of the Soviet Union to appoint its own executive head of state. The democratization of political life was improved. However, the economy of the Soviet Union continued to fail. This, combined with increased tension among its republics, caused the Soviet Union to collapse in 1991.

CS Question #4: How did perestroika and glasnost interact?

Further Thought:

1. What do you think about Leonid Brezhnev's goals for the Soviet Union?
2. What do you think about Mikhail Gorbachev's goals for the Soviet Union?
3. Was it a good idea for the Soviet Union to simultaneously open the market and provide basic freedoms to the citizens and the republics? Explain your answer.