Gorbachev’s reform efforts led to the collapse of the

Soviet Union.

Collapse of the Soviet System

Fall of Communism in RussiaEconomic and political stagnation revealed the

need for reformThe Solidarity movement in Poland revealed the degree of workers’ discontent and offered a model for reform

Gorbachev, who became head of the Soviet Union in 1985, initiated a series of reforms called glasnots (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) to allow for freer discourse on the problems facing the Soviet Union and for economic reforms such as the loosening up of price controls and introduction of profit-making cooperatives.

Democratization and the end of one-party rule allowed for free elections and the transformation of the Congress of People’s Deputies into a bona fide legislature.

Glasnot and democratization ultimately went much further than Gorbachev had planned.

The economic reforms were too little and too meager; inflation, shortages of goods, created hostility to Gorbachev and his reform movement.

Gorbachev lost further support with his handling of the Lithuania Revolt and by not agreeing to election by universally suffrage.

Yeltsin, now an advocate of democracy and Russian nationalism, outmaneuvered Gorbachev, although Yeltsin rescued him from kidnapping by the anti-reformists, and then effectively replaced him when Yeltsin became president of Russia.

Collapse of the Soviet UnionNationalistic urges grew in member

states of the Soviet UnionGorbachev renounced the Brezhnev Doctrine When Lithuania’s newly elected government declared independence, the Soviet Union did not send troops.

Yeltsin asserted the independence of Russia from the Soviet Union in 1991.

All remaining Soviet republics quickly followed suit, and the Soviet Union collapsed.