How far do you agree that the responsibility for the crisis of Communism in Soviet Union should be laid

at Gorbachevs doorstep?
The role of Gorbachev towards the crisis of Communism is aligned with Soviet initiative view (for questions on crisis or collapse of communism school of thought is not needed) and was more of an acceleration of the depth of the system rather than the entire cause of the collapse (being the one to be held responsible for initiating the crisis itself). Although the reforms that Gorbachev had implemented backfired, his reforms were created as a response to the flaws of the Soviet system contributed by the previous leaders, which ultimately led to the acceleration of the collapse of the communism in USSR. However, external factors such as the Western Triumphant, Peoples power and the long term interpretations also laid the foundation for the crisis of Communism. (NO SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS!) Link how Reagans hostile measures which pressured the irreversible implementation of Gorbys external reforms had been motivated by Brezhnevs motives of renewing the second cold war. Therefore, crisis of communism is a development motivated by a spectrum of factors. However, Gorbachev accelerated it more than Reagan because Western threat has existed for 40 years but it was the emergence of a new generation of Soviet leaders like Yeltsin and especially Gorbachev, whose actions towards their countrys deteriorating productivity and economic problems caused the accelerated outcome of crisis of communism cementing the inevitable collapse of communism. The inherent flaws of the Soviet system could be dated back till the era of Stalin where stagnation was the declining factor to the Soviet state. Stagnation had its roots in the time of Stalin where the veteran officials of Stalins era in the 1930s had won entrenched top positions in the Soviet bureaucracy and adopted a conservative outlook reluctant to accept change and reform. In addition, Brezhnevs era witnessed the growing prestige and influence of the Soviet military establishment. These military expenditures strained the Soviet economy. Brezhnev made the Soviet Union into a truly global player in the Third World, but at a heavy cost. Domestically, behind this glossy faade, he presided over an ailing and stagnating economy. The rate of growth of the Soviet economy was at its lowest since the WWII. Credit to you for acknowledging the Stalinist models and its inability to mould productive outcomes in the late 20th century. But you still need to evaluate the effect of military overspending the fatal implications of Brezhnev era on the Soviet economy: Military overspending had been a long term internal defect as a result of personal pursuits of Soviet leaders over the years, which had inadvertently seen a severe degradation to the crisis of communism. At the end of the Brezhnev era, the USSR had increased their expenditure three to four percent annually on defence spending under. This placed a strain on Soviet economy and during the Gorbachevs era, it fell apart, leading to the failure of the Soviet finance sector. His involvement in third world countries, like the invasion of Afghanistan and the high maintenance of USSRs nuclear programmes accelerated the bungle of the economy. In the long run, this accumulative defect led to the collapse of USSR. Brezhnev also failed to deal with challenges of communism at home and refused to accept Kosygins reforms, as he was much a consensus man who did not seek to challenge the interests of the elites and the military. This led to a culture of complacency and corruption in Soviet bureaucracy. The accumulative effect of the economic decay as a result of Brezhnevs in capabilities over emphasis on heavy industries, military build-up and overseas commitments, eventually led to the collapse of USSR.

After the stabilization of Stalinist system by Brezhnev and the uneventful Andropov-Chernenko interlude, Gorbachev attempted a reform program but it encouraged revolutionary forces which threatened the eventually toppled communist rule in the Soviet Union in 1991. The problems which pressurized the need for a reform include the stagnating economy, the increasing dissatisfaction of Soviet people against the CPSU and the elite nomenklatura. However, when it came to the implementation of policies such as Glasnost and Perestroika, Gorbachev had little understanding of history and a superficial comprehension of economic issues. He underestimated the nationality problem, not seeing the effects of his reforms on the non-Russian republics. Gorbachevs glasnost created openness for the people and used it to continue Khruschevs destalinization by opening blanks in Soviet history about the harsh reign of Stalin. Glasnost was seen as an overt success as the criticism by the public went beyond Stalin to Lenins time. It uncovered that Lenin had taken power illegally, disillusioning the Soviets with the basic foundations of communism. Glasnost also uncovered the dark secrets of the CPSUs past, tarnishing the reputation of the CPSU as the Soviets question the CPSU the right to rule. With Glasnost allowing the public to voice their criticism, it provided the key in unleashing torrents of dissent from non-Russian republics and ethnic tension as they voice their grievances against Russia for having imposed Russification in all of USSR and venting of their anger towards the communist power for allowing this to take place. The policy of Perestroika also led to the grave decline in the USSRs economy as the people lose started losing their faith in communism. Perestroika was meant to reform the economy and to increase the incentives of the works and increase productivity. However, it failed as it removed the safety net of communism. By 1989, basic necessities were in great shortage. Gorbachev had neglect the agriculture sector in the process and had to import huge amounts of grain and food from the West, leading to an immense state deficit. Also, importing from the West makes USSR look inferior. This drove the decline of the economy in USSR, destroying the confidence, loyalty, faith in Soviet communism as a system that can ensure its people a proper living. The Soviet economy not even having the ability to provide basic necessities such as food undermined communisms credibility and legitimacy to stay in power. This also led to Eastern Europe beginning to lose interest and dependency on the USSR as they could no longer satisfy economic wants of the other states. You cannot possibly state the focus of everything under one long paragraph. E.g.: Glasnost which allowed for open criticisms and unhappiness, mainly the atrocities committed by the Soviet state was too successful and resulted in the eventual collapse of USSR. Glasnost was actually aimed at shaping the minds of the Soviets to accept the idea of perestroika, a more capitalist reform. Glasnost allowed the media to report on corruption, waste, bribery and other problems that plagued USSR. It not only caused the criticisms of past leaders, but shook the very foundations of communism, allowing the legitimacy of the CPSU to be questioned, hence challenging Soviet communism. In a way, by implementing Glasnost, Gorbachev unleashed a Pandoras Box as it revealed the lies and falsifications by the Soviet government allowing the people to focus on the failure of the communist party which fuelled their anger. As a result, the crisis of communism took a more severe plunge. Glasnosts permit for free expression also brought about the explosion of the growing nationalistic and ethnic sentiments towards the Soviet government which was initially suppressed by the tight Stalinist control. Ethnic groups in USSR used the freedom provided by glasnost to air their discontentment with the Soviet government and to demand for even greater freedom. Tensions between the various ethnic groups flared leading to Gorbachev resorting to using Soviet troops to quell the rising tide of violence. His actions only aggravated the situation motivating even more people to demand independence. Therefore, due to Glasnost the appeal for communism declined causing its eventual collapse and the end of the CW.

Remember to note that the implosion internally would affect external events. So you need to make brief references to the breakaway of Eastern Europe. Gorbachevs failure in restructuring the Soviet economy through Perestroika which was launched in 1986 cascaded into questioning the credibility and legitimacy of Soviet rule since it could not deliver the basic necessities in life. Perestroika failed due to its inherent flaws and Gorbachevs superficial understanding of the problems in the economy as it only targeted the problem on the surface. Gorbachev did not realize that the Soviet economy did not need reform but a complete overhaul because the command economy was unworkable. Gorbachev focused on heavy industries and neglected the agricultural sector which was the backbone of Soviet economy, causing an immense problem since if agriculture did not success first, it would drag down his other economic reforms. Collective farming remained so reforms in this area were limited. The result was a chaotic hybrid economy which included both capitalist and communist characteristics. Also, Perestroika allowed local managers to set the wages and process or their product and to come up with their own production plans and this is very significant because it removed the safety net that the Soviet system was notorious for and would give managers the incentive to make their factories profitable and competitive but the factory managers used their new powers to increase workers wages to pacify them contributing to inflation. The budget deficit quadrupled and in 1989, to Gorbachevs surprise, a full-blow economic crisis broke out. These economic problems reduced Gorbachevs popularity with the citizens not just because of the failure of Perestroika but also due to the fact that they were worse off than they were in decades as the economy has been in long-term decline since 1985. The failure of Perestroika had rippling effects on the various Soviet republics that had no more incentive to remain in the SU if USSRS economys was in ruins. In 1990, Baltic states such as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia broke away from the USSR. The remaining 12 states also refused to join Gorbachevs proposed 12 state federations leading to a rapid succession of Ukraine, Georgia and Kazakhstan in 1991. Perestroika also caused the bureaucracy reluctance to support Gorbachev. In essence, Perestroika discredited CPSUs power, Gorbachevs credibility and Yeltsin seized the opportunity to challenge Communism by taking responsibility for the economy causing the eventual collapse of USSR and the end of CW. Transitional paragraph: show how the failures of perestroika led to Gorbachev implementation of a short term measure to appease the people through political democratization, which emerged in the background of Glasnost. The failure of perestroika and implementation of political democratization serves as a recipe for disaster. To add, the democratisation of USSR by Gorbachev led to the loss of CPSUs power. Gorbachev tried to make up for his failures in the economy by granting greater political freedom to the Soviet people. In 1989, through the political liberalisation in elections for Soviet Congress of Peoples Deputies, the opposition won an unexpected number of seats, shrinking the CPSUs original power. Also, in order to appease Yeltsin during his political emergence, Gorbachev agreed to remove Article 6 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution which enshrined the leading role of CPSU and the CPSU could now be legally ousted from power. The failure of Perestroika also gave Yeltsin much ammo to fight Gorbachev by promoting the removal of communism, weakening CPSUs power and the rising of political instability. In 1989, to the surprise of Gorbachev, a full blown economic crisis developed. Hence Perestroika instead of boosting the Soviet economy worsened it and reduced Gorbachevs popularity and CPSUs legitimacy with Soviet citizens, paving the way for Yeltsin to overthrow the communist party in Gorbachevs attempt to introduce political liberalization in 1989 to distract the Soviets

from the failure of Perestroika which legalized Yeltsins rise to power after he was pressured to discard the Article 6 which allowed CPSU to monopolize the power. Yeltsin was able to make use of Soviets unhappiness as a means to wrest power from Gorbachev in the 1990 elections with pro-Yeltsin winning more than 50% of the seats. Hence Gorbachevs internal economic reforms had failed to save USSR, but instead invited the radical Yeltsin into politics which would end communist rule in USSR and ban the CPSU. Gorbachevs mishandling of the events after the August Coup in 1991 had made destabilized USSR. It was a conspiracy set up by the hardliners in the Kremlin who aimed to reverse the reforms that Gorbachev has put in place. The failure of the coup was directly the fault of the military betrayal of CPSU. It gave Yeltsin the chance to step in, and instead of giving Gorbachev a push, his main agenda was to not allow communism to return, and to manipulate peoples sympathy for Gorbachev, and hence rise to power. After the independence of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia was eventually granted independence too. This was a rapid succession unleashed not only nationalist forces but also autonomous groups district of USA. Gorbachev had navely believed in persuading the other of all 12 republics under a union treaty. However on December 1st, Yeltsin had decided that if Ukraine leave, USSR will follow suit. Coup leaders felt that the Union treaty he had negotiated dispersed too much of the central government, hence stirring unhappiness within CPSU. Instead of suppressing the radical changes in the Soviet Union, the coup had served to strengthen and accelerate the collapse of communist rule. Despite only lasting for 3 days, it has developed the destabilization of the USSR which was significant in causing Yeltsin to ban the CPSU, forced Gorbachev to step down and the arrested the hardliners, leading to the final dissolution of USSR. Lastly, Gorbachevs new political thinking led to the capitulation of USSR to the West. There were sweeping changes in international relations when Gorbachev made attempts to reconcile with the West. For example, Gorbachev was willing to compromise of strict matters like arms control and Eastern Europe, withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and Eastern Europe to appease Washington, and drastically reducing stockpile of weapons. This over compromising of policy created unhappiness in the people of the Soviet Union as they saw it as a sign of weakness. This led to the loss of faith of the people in communism as the public saw that communism had to succumb to capitalism. Through these avalanches of problems by the imposition of reforms and bad decisions by Gorbachev, it had inevitably led to the decline of Communism and subsequently the collapse of communism. Too brief! Gorbachevs external reforms to set up good relations with the West had also led to the acceleration of the crisis of communism as he had given up Communism in the process of it. He started genuine commitment to arms control talks by resuming arms and troop reduction talks in Geneva and Vienna that had been discontinued by Andropov and Chernenko. In 1985, he had the medium range nuclear missiles in Europe removed, and suspended underground tests for 18 months. The missiles in Europe had been a major thorn in the East and West relation in late 1970s and early 1980s and removing it will pave the way to better relations with the West as it shows his sincerity to forge better relations. In 1987, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty (INF) was signed in Washington and the START treaty in 1991 which led to the reduction of strategic weapons. Soviet would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, and cut its conventional force by 500000, help end the regional conflict in the 3rd world countries. USSR was essentially cease expansion of its influence and the ideological struggle between both superpowers can be said to have ceased. The

concept of Domino Theory was seen in the context of the Eastern European countries where Gorbachev had override Brezhnev doctrine in attempts that were in favour of the Sinatra Doctrine. This is evident in EE countries like Poland where Solidarity was legalized and defeated the communist party in Polands first election in 1989. Gorbachev did not intervene, which led to the fall of Polish communist party. In Czechoslovakia, Gorbachev and the Warsaw pact countries issued an official statement condemning the 1968 Prague spring invasion, and promise to not intervene again. He had allowed the neighboring to be independent and he would relinquish power, with no CPSU involvement. Communist parties in countries like Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia had been toppled by the non-communist nationalist groups. This was the aftermath of Gorbachevs refusal to commit into military rule in EE, coupled with Glasnost as an outlet for dissents. With the Communists core characteristics lost, Communism were no longer respected, prestige of the CPSU fell. This resulted in the breakaway of EE states which signaled the end of communist rule, the end of Warsaw pact and erosion of Soviet power. However Gorbachev should not be blamed entirely for the Crisis of Communism as it had begun all the way back in 1945 during Stalin time. And it was worsened by Brezhnev, which eventually passed a herculean task down to Gorbachev which pressured him to introduce such radical reforms to save USSR. The fundamental framework of communist economic system (command economy) is flawed. It encourages a stagnating economy from its lack of incentives for the labour to work hard and hence an overwhelming amount of social problems. It was this realization which led to Gorbachevs New Political Thinking. The Stalinist model of economy was simply not appropriate for the late 20th century global market. This was one the demanded efficiency, productivity, improved quality control and improved infrastructure. In view of Westerns Triumphant, it was Ronald Reagans aggressive policies which accelerated the downfall of Soviet Economy. Reagans policies restarted the Cold War with a massive build-up of nuclear and military arsenal. As the US introduced the SDI proposal, the Soviet was forced to overexert their resources in order to bridge the large gap the US achieved in technology. This caused the Soviets to greatly allocate resources into military, neglecting the domestic sectors. The Soviet Union was therefore competing at a level that she could not economically sustain in the long run. In addition, the sponsoring of the Mujahedeen rebels in Afghanistan by the US was aimed to bleed the Soviet through a sustained, protracted war of attrition, causing the Soviet economy to bungle from such a new and accelerated level of competition. Reagan also engaged in an economic warfare with USSR through trade and technology embargoes. The US persuaded the OPEC to raise supply of crude oil to depress international prices of oil. This would ruin Soviets largest source of revenue needed to fun overseas commitments. The US also ended grain sales with the Soviet Union and also banned technology from being accessed by the Soviet Union. Through such actions taken by Reagan, it has left the Soviet Union in a weakened position and made it hard for her to catch up with United States, portraying communism to look inferior. Reagans ideological and hostile rhetoric? Long term containment and aggression of USA? **Not that the West had merely exacerbated the existing crisis but had not initiated the crisis, nor had it forced the crisis into collapse. It was Gorbachevs key decision to respond to USAs pressure in order to save the Soviet system that had ultimately spelled the collapse of USSR. In conclusion, it is evident that the collapse of Soviet communism was brought about mostly by the Soviet initiative, dating back from the period of Stalin. Subsequently, leaving Gorbachev to take the responsibilty of the collapse of Communism through his policies and course of actions. The role of US was only a catalyst to the cause of conflict as it was primarily the actions of Gorbachev which

instilled the people of the Soviet Union to undermine the system of communism and soon lost their faith to it. Revise your work and re-consolidate the conclusion.