By Kevin Wang
Summary
Political intervention does not help: it is a debt; it is repression. The international community should find the right Haitians and support them without asking for anything in return.
Introduction
On Thursday, September 1, 2022, President Vladimir Putin of Russia went to pay his respects to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, who died that week. For many, this was a peculiar sight: the two were very much at odds with each other. Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the twentieth century (Pleitgen and John). Gorbachev, towards the end of this life, became disillusioned with the direction today’s Russia is heading, seeing his life’s work as having been undermined by the conflict in Ukraine (Ljunggren). He called for a “speedy cessation of hostilities” that Putin started shortly before his death (Berger).
Even the funeral itself is somewhat strange: while a guard of honor is present, the Russian government refuses to call Gorbachev’s funeral a state funeral. His treatment at his death thus differs vastly from his one-time companion and rival, the first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, who received a state funeral and a day of national mourning upon his death in 2007 (Pleitgen and John). But this was just the tip of an iceberg of the paradoxes surrounding Gorbachev the man.
But this was just the tip of an iceberg of the paradoxes surrounding Gorbachev the man.
Gorbachev was Popular, But Only in the West
Even before he died, he was hailed as a hero and a liberator in the West. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for contributing to the peaceful dismantling of the Berlin Wall (Reuters). Even George F. Kennan, the author of the Containment doctrine, praised him as a “miracle” from the rigidities that characterize the Soviet system (Berger). After his death, French President Emmanuel Macron, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Wheeldon), former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, U.S. President Joe Biden, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (Ljunggren) were quick to pay tribute to him, silently ignoring how he had also sent in the Soviet troops that massacred over 100 Azerbaijani nationalists in 1990 (Berger).
But it was never his intention that his reforms were to lead to the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the dissolution of the Soviet Union into fifteen independent countries. This did not prevent him from regretting how the Ukraine crisis undermined his life’s achievements, but not in keeping a fragile superstate together, but in bringing freedom to the peoples of Eastern Europe, a freedom that Russians ultimately couldn’t figure out what to do with (Ljunggren). Meanwhile, Putin saw Ukraine as the key to reversing the damage to Russian power and prestige caused by the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
As Peter Reddaway, a scholar in Russian history, says, “We see the best side of Gorbachev. The Soviets see the other side, and hold him to blame” (Berger).
Reform or Revolution?
When he first became the final leader of the Soviet Union, a superpower that will soon be no more, he enjoyed massive popular support at home, and Gorbachev was a loyal Communist (Reuters). However, he soon saw the corruption and economic stagnation at home and the capitalist West’s growing advantage over the Soviet Union in science and technology, Gorbachev decided that the Soviet system couldn’t continue in the same way anymore, and change was needed (Berger). This was easier said than done, but within six years, glasnost (political openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring) loosened government control over society and granted people free speech (Reuters).
But the reforms only served to embolden people to freely criticize his rule over his country at home, especially as store shelves remain empty despite years of economic reform (Berger). It also enabled massive protests to quickly sweep away all the Communist governments across Eastern Europe (Reuters) and led to ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union itself to call for independence.
Gorbachev was a Failure
Perhaps what he would be remembered the most for was how the Soviet Union dissolved itself under his watch. He did try all he could to keep unruly republics like Georgia or Lithuania within the union (Berger). But ultimately, the August coup of 1990 by the Communist hardliners fatally weakened his position, and Yeltsin seized the opportunity to dissolve the union completely (Reuters). When he went on television to tender his resignation as president of a superpower that no longer existed, he said, “I support the preservation of the union state and the integrity of this country.” He also regrets how “the people in this country are ceasing to become citizens of a great power” (Gorbachev).
To put it simply, Gorbachev was a failure. The epitome of his failure was his inability to prevent the collapse of the superpower that he tried so hard to preserve. But his failure did not end there. When the Soviet Union finally disintegrated despite his best efforts at political ande economic reform, the Russian economy finally quit its stable but stagnant state, but what replaced it was not prosperity but shock therapy and hyperinflation, which quickly destroyed what remaining savings that Russians have (Wheeldon).
To put it simply, Gorbachev was a failure. The epitome of his failure was his inability to prevent the collapse of the superpower that he tried so hard to preserve.
A common saying about Gorbachev is that in a genuinely free vote, he could be elected president anywhere but in his own country (Berger). This could not be truer. When he did run for the Russian presidency in 1996, he secured only 0.5% of the vote (Reuters).
But did He Prove Realism Wrong?
Would Gorbachev have enacted the same reforms if he had instead taken over a country without economic stagnation, prevalent corruption, and severe shortages of consumer goods and services? The reforms were enacted because Gorbachev saw problems in the Soviet system and committed himself to solve them (Berger). He did not necessarily see freedom as an end unto itself; rather, reforms were merely means to revitalize the Soviet system and to enable the Soviet Union to remain a world power, with all the changes to people’s lives that this would entail. While he would end up being remembered and commemorated mainly for bringing freedom (whatever that might mean) to much of Eastern Europe (Pleitgen and John), and even though Gorbachev would end up considering this as the highlight of his political career, which could have lasted two more decades if the Soviet Union did not collapse, this was not his ultimate goal as the Soviet leader.
In this sense, realism was not wrong. As such, the basic realist premise that states want to maximize their relative power and pursue their self-interests still holds. All Gorbachev wanted was to make his country more powerful and prosperous, and if he thought that glasnost and perestroika were not the keys to achieving this aim, his reforms would not be conducted. But he did think that political and economic reforms would strengthen the Soviet Union, so he introduced them, only to badly miscalculate the effects of these policies. Gorbachev will continue to be remembered for the unintended consequences and changes that he brought, but realism would continue to be relevant in how states act today.
Gorbachev will continue to be remembered for the unintended consequences and changes that he brought, but realism would continue to be relevant in how states act today.
Works Cited
Berger, Marilyn. "Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Reformist Soviet Leader, Is Dead at 91." The New York Times, 30 Aug. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/world/europe/mikhail-gorbachev-dead.html. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
Gorbachev, Mikhail. "End of the Soviet Union; Text of Gorbachev's Farewell Address." The New York Times, 26 Dec. 1991, www.nytimes.com/1991/12/26/world/end-of-the-soviet-union-text-of-gorbachev-s-farewell-address.html. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
Reuters. "Gorbachev Ended Cold War but Presided over Soviet Collapse." Reuters, 31 Aug. 2022, www.reuters.com/world/obituary-gorbachev-ended-cold-war-presided-over-soviet-collapse-2022-08-30/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
Ljunggren, David. "Last Soviet Leader Gorbachev, Who Ended Cold War and Won Nobel Prize, Dies Aged 91." Reuters, 31 Aug. 2022, www.reuters.com/article/russia-gorbachev-idCAKBN2Q01XA. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
Pleitgen, Frederik, and Tara John. "Russians Say Farewell to USSR's Last Leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Funeral Snubbed by Putin." CNN, 3 Sept. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/09/03/europe/mikhail-gorbachev-funeral-russia-intl/index.html. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
Wheeldon, Tom. "Why Gorbachev Was so Popular in the West – but Scorned in Russia." France24, 31 Aug. 2022, www.france24.com/en/europe/20220831-why-was-gorbachev-so-popular-in-west-so-unpopular-in-russia. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.
Comments