The former USSR: Prospects in the post-Gorbachev era

Abstract

The appointment of Mikhail Gorbachev as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the former USSR in March 1985 opened a new and revolutionary chapter in Russian and Soviet history. Gorbachev's reform programmes introduced elements of democracy, press and other freedoms, economic experimentation, and collaboration in international affairs hitherto unknown in that country. His great experiment failed due to lack of experience in true democratic processes, the working of a market economy, and the opposition of hard-line opponents in the Party, the Security Services and the armed forces. A failed attempt to reverse his programmes of reform by these leaders led to the collapse of the old Soviet system, the disintegration of the Union into independent republics, and the fall of Gorbachev. Attempts are being made, notably by the Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, to keep some form of confederation in existence under the title of the Commonwealth of Independent States, but prospects are not good, and the outside world, including the West and the Third World may have to come to terms with a variety of disparate states with differing ambitions and power across the territory of what was the Soviet Empire.