Mikhail Gorbachev dies at 91
RIP:
After taking power in 1985, Gorbachev’s introduction of limited economic and political freedoms – including his “glasnost” policy of free speech – ultimately led to the USSR’s demise.
He refrained from using force to crush pro-democracy protests in the Soviet bloc nations in Eastern Europe two years prior to the Soviet Union’s fall. The protests ended with 15 republics demanding autonomy from the USSR.
His final hold of power was effectively taken away in an August 1991 coup, after which he watched from the sidelines as Soviet republics announced their independence.
By the time Gorbachev resigned as USSR leader on Christmas Day of 1991, the world’s largest country was already unraveling due to deepening economic woes and secessionist bids…
Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his efforts to end the Cold War but was never forgiven by some Russians for the volatility that came with the sudden fall of the Soviet Union.
“He gave us all freedom – but we don’t know what to do with it,” liberal economist Ruslan Grinberg told the armed forces news outlet Zvezda after visiting the ailing former leader in the hospital earlier this summer.
Reagan had a big role, too.
The USSR was held together for so many years by terror at the hands of the government; Orwell’s “boot stamping on a human face.” Once the leaders no longer had the inclination for that, the unraveling occurred.
“He gave us all freedom – but we don’t know what to do with it,” liberal economist Ruslan Grinberg told the armed forces news outlet Zvezda …
Ain’t that the truth. It’s partially true nearly everywhere. In the case of Russia, my impression is that human initiative was snuffed out to a frightening extent. Perhaps it was the high level of criminality that suppressed initiative when the union unraveled.
Perhaps the reason may by that Russia never really had a renaissance and an enlightenment. They just went from feudalism right into communism, from power centralized in a monarch (a Czar) to power centralized into a tiny political elite (a Premier). Maybe the Russian people expect to be ruled by an authoritarian despot, a “strongman”?
I saw the headline about Gorbachev’s passing toward the end of my workday. Wow. My good friend and office neighbor is approaching the age of thirty, and though intelligent, I’m sure he has no idea how big that man was back in the day.
Rush called it gorbasm the way he fooled the west a similar thing can be said about yeltsin thd johnny appleseed of the oligarchs
Neo says, Reagan had a big role, too.
Indeed. Lest we forget: Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate in June 1987:
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IguMXrgfrg8&ab_channel=TheHeritageFoundation
Philip Sells’ friend wasn’t yet born in 1987, but those of us who were adults then remember Gorbachev as well as Reagan. May they both rest in peace.
Sebestyens 1989 has the best sequencing of events with reagan playing a significant part
“He refrained from using force to crush pro-democracy protests in the Soviet bloc nations in Eastern Europe two years prior to the Soviet Union’s fall. The protests ended with 15 republics demanding autonomy from the USSR.”
Unlike China in Tiananmen and more recently in Hong Kong, Gorby and his (future oligarch) friends / allies, decided on “not terror” to stay in power. Only terror would have kept the old commies in power.
But the best “entrepreneur” type folk were commies – do anything needed, anything possible, including arguably (or obviously) illegal stuff, to be successful.
How many top Russian bankers and other oligarch wannabees were murdered in the 90s? Some dozens of influence fighting top guys killed in turf wars in 90s Moscow dominated Russia.
A huge problem of honest dissidents is that the same principles they have which allowed them to resist the dictators makes it more difficult to compromise those principles in order to do “good” stuff rather than the “perfect” stuff of their principles. But successful elected leaders need to get good stuff done, even if it’s not perfect.
Not sure how much USAID went to ex-commies, but there wasn’t a lot of honest investment in new consumer companies, as compared to oil & natural resource extraction. With the all-too-usual “resource curse” of countries having valuable resources becoming corrupt based on elite in-fighting over control of the free money.
Gorbachev deserves huge credit for avoiding the deaths that were all too likely – far fewer, at the time, than Yugoslavia (do folks even remember that commie country?).
What’s the difference between Joe Biden and Gorbachev?
One is a corrupt, would-be tyrant who hates half the people of his country. The other was the last premier of the Soviet Union.
Of the post World War II politicians that I admired most the three (besides Reagan) are Margaret Thatcher, Anwar Sadat, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Chinese Communists were able to modernize their economy without losing control of the government. Gorbachev couldn’t. Maybe he was too Western. Or Russia was. Or maybe Russia was just too Russian. It’s a good thing for the world that the Soviet Union is gone, but many Russians wish it were still around, if they could only have combined that system with more access to consumer goods.
After Gorbachev, we were able to ensure that people who supported us controlled the country, but we weren’t able to integrate Russia into the West. Will that go down in history as a great mistake? Or was Russia just too different from the West and too determined to be a world power in its own right for that ever to have happened?
I suspect that the path to the top of the Politburo required the same mindset and same willingness to do whatever it takes that would be required to rise to the top of the mafia. Hinderaker’s post on Gorby tries to claim he was a good guy. Hmmmm.
Mafia dons have also been known to be nice to little children at photo ops.
Gorby obviously figured out how to play to the crowd once he’d bungled keeping the USSR together. That’s evidence that he wasn’t an idiot. Not sure we should conclude much else.
George Wallace pivoted quickly in the 70s and was very good at attracting the votes of blacks in Alabama (over 90% of black vote in Ala in 1982). But I wouldn’t go so far as to say that proves he was a supporter of equal rights in his heart. Any more than the nasty, racist LBJ gave a damn about blacks in 1964.
Ruthless, dishonest politicians devoid of scruples and acting in their own selfish interests don’t have to be stupid.
Actually I believe George Wallace underwent a real conversion about blacks and civil rights and all the issues associated therewith.
Gorbachev was a communist and the leading figure of an evil system presiding over an evil empire. But I suppose he had some good qualities.
LBJ was disgusting, straight up.
And yet many individuals and institutions on the left laud Gorbachev for his role in ending the the soviet union (they euphemize it as “the cold war”) while they simulaneously agitate to establish exactly that same failed system in the u.S.