Anthony Lu

Mr. Castillo

IB History Period 1

23 April 2017

To what extent did the policies of glasnost and perestroika contribute to the collapse of the Soviet

Union?

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power as the leader of the Soviet Union, with a goal

of reforming the communist system through the policies of glasnost and perestroika, which mean

openness and restructuring. The policy of glasnost led to increased tolerance for dissenting views

in the Soviet Union and the rest of the communist bloc, especially the Eastern European nations,

while perestroika led to attempts at economic reform to achieve more prosperity like the nations

in the west. Combined, the policies of glasnost and perestroika were crucial for the fall of

Eastern European communist states, who no longer had the military support of the Soviet Union

after Gorbachev rose to power and revoked the Brezhnev Doctrine, and the fall of communism in

Eastern Europe was the most influential event in the declaration of the independence of Soviet

Socialist Republics, which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The policies of glasnost and

perestroika contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union to the extent that they exposed many

significant issues in the communist system that was in place in Eastern Europe and the Soviet

Union, which was the most important event in a chain of events involving the overthrow of

Eastern European communist states largely through political action that led to the collapse of the

Soviet Union and independence of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Before the policies of glasnost and perestroika were enacted, events in the Soviet Union

demonstrated many problems with the communist system that would be difficult to reform, and
these existing problems were significant in causing glasnost and perestroika to lead to the fall of

communist states. The Chernobyl Disaster in 1986, when a nuclear explosion occurred in

Ukraine, and withholding of information both within the USSR and to the international

community regarding the nuclear accident demonstrates the political climate within the Soviet

Union prior to the policy of glasnost. The Soviet withholding of information and downplaying of

such a significant event demonstrates one of the major international criticisms of the Soviet

policy. The Soviet Union also refused foreign aid following the Chernobyl Disaster, and the

Soviet refusal to admit the failure of the communist economic system would also be exposed by

glasnost, leading to widespread protest by Soviet citizens. The Chernobyl Disaster exposed many

issues in the Soviet system that would only contribute to the fall of the Soviet Union after

dissenting political opinions were permitted under glasnost. However, in addition to the

Chernobyl Disaster, the disastrous war in Afghanistan would also expose many economic issues

in the Soviet system. The Soviet Union was spending a large portion of its budget on the military,

but it was unable to sustain this budget during the war in Afghanistan due to the communist

economic system. This economic weakness of the Soviet Union that was exposed by the

disastrous war attempt forced the Soviet Union to spend less effort putting down resistance in

Eastern Europe through the military, as Gorbachev enacted a policy of non-intervention in

Eastern European satellite states in part due to Soviet economic struggles following the war. This

policy, which negated the Brezhnev Doctrine and was necessary due to the failure of the Soviet

economic system, allowed Eastern European states to reform their communist systems much

more easily following glasnost, and this led to the collapse of the Soviet Union because the fall

of the satellite states was a major event that preceded the independence of Socialist Republics

from the Soviet Union.

 The enactment of the policy of glasnost in 1988 allowed for the protests that brought

communist states down in Eastern Europe as the problems with the communist system became

more apparent, and thus contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. While Gorbachevs

policy of glasnost was intended to reform the communist system, it demonstrated that the

communist system was irreparable, leading to agitations in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and the

Soviet Union that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The policy of glasnost allowed for the

reemergence of Solidarity, an opposition group in Poland that served as an alternative to

communism in the early 1980s but was suppressed by martial law in 1981. The policy of glasnost

and Soviet non-intervention in Eastern European satellite states allowed for the reconstruction of

Solidarity in 1987, during which the Polish government held elections and Solidarity won in a

landslide, leading to Polands transition to a democracy. The increased tolerance for political

dissent to communism in Eastern Europe due to Gorbachevs policies also led to the fall of

communism in Romania and Bulgaria. In Romania, the communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu

was executed due to his blatant human rights violations, which protestors voiced due to increased

tolerance for political dissent under glasnost. Similar demonstrations in Bulgaria led to the

renunciation of power by the communist government, and thus the policies of glasnost and

Soviet non-intervention in communist states was instrumental in the fall of communism in

Eastern Europe. During this time, communism was also being challenged in the Soviet Union, as

citizens supported the reevaluation of Soviet history while they exercised the freedom to

demonstrate and demonstrated their opposition to the Soviet governments monopoly on power,

and these protests directly contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. These protests against the

preexisting issues in the communist system were made possible by glasnost, and thus glasnost

led to the exacerbating of preexisting issues that would lead to the fall of the Soviet Union.
 The policy of perestroika also exposed economic issues of the communist system

compared to the prosperity of the West, and protests of the economic system as well as the

inability for the communist economic system to reform to a satisfactory degree also contributed

to the fall of the Soviet Union. In Hungary, dissatisfaction of the failure of the economy

compared to the West led to government reforms such as the taking down of the border fence

with Austria, increased trade with Western Europe, and democratic government reforms.

Similarly, in the Czech Republic, after Gorbachev made it clear that the Soviet Union would not

intervene militarily with any protests, demonstrations occurred due to the peoples dissatisfaction

with the Czech economy compared to what they had seen of Western prosperity, and the

communist government soon resigned, leading to the election of Havel as president. While

Gorbachevs policy of perestroika was intended to allow for economic reforms for the

communist system, events in Soviet satellite states demonstrated that reforming the political

system would lead to prosperity more easily than reforming the communist economic system,

which is how perestroika contributed to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. Perestroika

also led to agitations in the Soviet Union, as even after Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in

1990, Soviet citizens protested that economic reforms had not been successful in bringing the

living standards of the Soviet Union up to the standards of Western prosperity. This agitation was

also very significant in the Soviet Social Republics, as the policy of perestroika demonstrated the

inability for the communist economic system to reform to a satisfactory extent. Thus, the policy

of perestroika exposed the economic issues in the communist system, and lead to the agitations

within the communist world that would culminate in the collapse of the Soviet Union after the

declaration of the independence of the Soviet Socialist Republics.

 While Gorbachevs policies of glasnost and perestroika were significant in causing the

collapse of the Soviet Union, they only led to the collapse of the Soviet Union to the extent that

they exposed existing political and economic problems within the communist system that were

too fragile to reform without leading to the collapse of communist states. Disastrous events

within the Soviet Union such as the Chernobyl Disaster and Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan

demonstrated the issues caused by the withholding of information in the tense Soviet political

climate as well as the economic struggles of the Soviet Union as it spent a significant portion of

its budget on its military. The policy of glasnost exposed the amount of political opposition there

was among the citizens of communist states while the policy of perestroika, during which the

Soviet Union admitted the need to reform to reach the level of prosperity of the west, led to

economic reforms in satellite states that were accompanied by political reforms. The fall of

communism in satellite states culminated in the fall of the Soviet Union as the Soviet Socialist

Republics declared independence from the Soviet Union, and thus glasnost and perestroika were

the policies that exposed issues of communism and started a chain of events that led to the

collapse of the Soviet Union.