Political groups and crisis

Abstract

By 1990, groups and movements across the political spectrum were voicing discontent with Gorbachev's reforms. Their reasons varied, as did their political strategies. What they shared was a view that ‘crisis’ existed and that Gorbachev was to blame. Although none of the groups discussed below was able on its own to unseat the president, they each indicated his lack of credibility in society at large. One of the paradoxes of Gorbachev's leadership was that when his de jure authority was at its height, his effective authority was at its weakest.