Chapter 21 - Gorbachev and the Ending of the Cold War Flashcards
What problems occurred under Brezhnev?
- 1972 = Crop failures = food shortages
- 1964-82 = 25% Soviet gross GNP spent on military supplies
- 1971-75 / 1976-80 = Ninth and Tenth Year Plans to increase production of consumer goods failed
- 1970s = worldwide petrol shortages = USSR didn’t increase production to exploit demand for oil and high prices
What successes occurred under Brezhnev?
- Allowed farmers to return to working on state-owned plots (kept or sold surplus product = more likely to meet goals)
Who were the Presidents of the USSR between Brezhnev and Gorbachev?
- Brezhnev
- Andropov
- Chernenko
- Gorbachev
What factors were undermining Soviet economic growth when Gorbachev came to power?
- Alcoholism (low production, absenteeism, injuries)
- Lack of foreign investment
- State controlled businesses (Little regard for consumer demand)
- Inflation and worker discontent (workers wages didn’t reflect inflation = strikes = low productivity)
What was ‘New Thinking’?
- Gorbachev’s first major reform (targeting alcohol)
- Prices raised on beer, wine and vodka
- Places and times for selling alcohol restricted
- Arrests for public drunkenness and drunk at work
What was Perestroika?
- ‘Restructuring’ = social, political and economic reforms
- State-owned enterprises to receive budget and managers could use it as they saw fit
- Businesses to function as profit-making organisations selling in wholesale markets
- End state price controls (knew would lead to high prices and low living standards)
- BUT enterprises to remain state-owned
What was Glasnost?
- Announced 1988
- ‘Openness’ = allowed citizens more freedom to discuss political problems
- Allowed open debate on past government actions (e.g.: forced collectivisation, Party purges)
- Former enemies of state rehabilitated
Why was Glasnost introduced?
- April 1986 = Chernobyl disaster surpassed according to Soviet censorship policies
- BUT Swedish support showed radiation coming from Ukraine = forced USSR to reveal truth
- Sakharov travelled around USSR and world = told of conditions in Soviet prison camps
- Led to criticism of gov and how past was portrayed in USSR
What were Gorbachev’s New economic laws?
- Law on Joint Ventures allowed foreign ownership of no more than 49% of business
- Extended to 100% by 1990
- 1988 Law on Enterprises to decentralise authority and give decision-making to businesses themselves
What was the impact of the Reagen’s election for the USSR?
- US President Carter’s economic sanctions and embargoes AND 1980 boycott of Moscow Olympics helped election of Reagan (anti-Communist)
- Reagan announced Strategic Defence Initiative (1983)
- Filled Soviet leadership with fear = nuclear armament accelerated again
Why were Soviet foreign policies unsuccessful?
- USSR couldn’t export fuel and raw materials to satellite states as too costly
= alienated Eastern European states
= closer to Western capitalist economic system - European Commission
= established trade and cooperation with individual Comecon members
= states in Soviet orbit could make own trade agreements
How did USSR economic problems affect their role in the Afghanistan war?
- Type of conflict in Afghanistan made war costly on economic AND social level
- USSR could no longer afford war
What were the effects of Perestroika?
- General public had lower living standard BUT entrepreneurial class benefitting
- Most Soviet citizens’ wages didn’t match inflation = food very expensive
- Economic system failing in USSR
What is some evidence for the consequences of Gorbachev’s policies?
SUCCESS:
- By 1988, USSR made 61 joint-venture agreements with Western companies
= capital and technological developments
NOT SUCCESS:
- By 1988, Soviet budget deficit 13% Soviet GNP
= (US budget deficit 3.5% US GNP)
- Alcohol policies cost state 100 billion rubles in taxes lost
What were the effects of Glasnost?
- Paved way for agricultural reform and eventually wider economic changes
