Why Was Mikhail Gorbachev Important?

The end of the Cold War between the United States and the USSR was in large part due to the actions and policies of Mikhail Gorbachev. In fact, as the last General Secretary of the Communist Party, he was the last leader of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev was born in 1931 to a Ukrainian-Russian family on a collective farm. He grew up working on the farm. He went to school and eventually graduated from law school in 1955 at which time he decided to pursue a career in politics. While still in the University, Gorbachev joined the Communist Party in 1952.

Gorbachev remained extremely active in the Community Party and, in 1963, he was promoted to the Head of the Department of Party Organs in his home region, the Stavropol Agricultural Kraikom. In 1970 was named the First Secretary of the party in his home region, making him one of the youngest provincial chiefs in the entire Soviet Union. Then in 1971, he was named to the Central Committee of the Party. He moved to Moscow in 1978 after being promoted to the position of Secretary of Agriculture for the Central Committee. In 1980 he was promoted to the Politburo, the highest authority in the country.

During his time working for the party, he was fortunate enough to be guided by the party patron Yuri Andropov who became the General Secretary of the Central Committee in 1982. Gorbachev had risen through the ranks, in large part due to his tutelage by Andropov, and was appointed to the position of General Secretary of the Central Committee in 1985 after the deaths of Andropov and then Chernenko. At this point he became the defacto ruler of the Soviet Union and he began to make sweeping policy changes.

Gorbachev's Reforms

When Gorbachev became the rules of the Community Party in Russia, the Party had a significant number of problems. The country had fallen behind the United Sates in production and the country's economy was stagnant.

His reforms on the economic fronts were accompanied by his diplomatic overtures to the West during the time of Cold War when tensions were high. His policy changes were responsible for bringing together the USSR and the government of the United Kingdom and the United States. His leadership of the Soviet Union brought the world back from the times of a strong Cold War with the USSR.

Political Policies

His policies of Perestroika and Glasnost relaxed the iron grip the government held on the people of the USSR and on the surrounding socialist states in Eastern Europe.

While he did not offer total freedom of speech, Glasnost did allow people to express their feelings about the government without fear of arrest and punishment from the police.

Perestroika was an economic policy change that decentralized the planning of the country's economic issues. These changes led to the passage of the Law of Cooperatives in 1988 that allowed for the private ownership of businesses which, in turn, allowed new avenues of freedom to the people of the USSR. It also paved the way for foreign investments in the some of the new businesses in Russia.

Internal Policies

The improve the economic conditions in the country, Gorbachev demanded the installation of new, modern technology and increased industrial and agricultural productivity. He also changed the bureaucracy of the government to make it more efficient.

Gorbachev believed that alcoholism was a major problem in the Soviet Union and he attempted to restrict the sale of liquor.

Gorbachev and Diplomatic Relations

Gorbachev attacked another area of concern as well, easing the diplomatic relations between the West and the USSR. His overtures on the issues of nuclear proliferation helped to bring the world back from the brink of nuclear war, where it had been since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1961.

He also stopped the delivery of nuclear weapons to the Soviet satellite countries in the region of Eastern Europe. His landmark meetings with President Reagan further limited the nuclear stockpiles of weapons on both sides by reducing the number of medium range missiles by one half in both countries. He also issued orders to withdraw all the Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

Dissatisfaction with Gorbachev

He was responsible for furthering democracy among the east European states by rescinding the Brezhnev Doctrine that had been in place in Eastern Europe since the end of World War II.

The countries of Eastern Europe were going to be able to handle their internal issues without the input and guidance of the Central Committee of the USSR. This led these countries to rapidly flex their newly found independence and to express their growing dissatisfaction with the USSR.

Not all of these reforms were met with approval by the Soviet people and leadership. At the end of the eighties, the country had shortages of basic food and country's debt had increased. Individuals began to revolt.

His radical reforms and policy changes led to the fall of the USSR and ultimately to the break-up of the Soviet Union. The Communist Party was no longer the ruling party of the country.

The end of his reign as General Secretary and then as President of the USSR occurred in 1991 after a failed coup attempt that same year. He resigned his position and left political life.

He established the Gorbachev Foundation after leaving office to act as a think tank in international issues. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

Mikhail Gorbachev was important because he helped to change the face of Europe and the world by his sweeping policy changes and reforms in the USSR.