Gorbachev’s Perestroika , 1985–91, and the Collapse of the Legitimacy of the Soviet System

Abstract

The existing descriptions of the break-up of the USSR usually suggest that the immediate reason for the rise of nationalism was the ‘collapse of communism’ or ‘cognitive liberation’ ushered in by Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost.1 These descriptions imply a view that glasnost brought the light of truth, and, having learned from it, the Soviet people turned away from the communist lie. We believe a better way to describe the immediate reason for the break-up would be by employing the concept of the collapse of the legitimacy of the Soviet system.2 This would emphasise the fact that the awakening of nations and the rise of ethnic aspirations and movements have been just one aspect of the fundamental process of ‘making away with formulas’, to use Thomas Carlyle’s phrase.3