Discuss how the policies adopted by Mikhail Gorbachev were responsible for the disintegration of the USSR.

Answer:

Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985 intending to reform and revitalise the Soviet system, not destroy it. However, his policies of perestroika, glasnost and democratisation weakened the old structures without creating stable alternatives. These reforms accelerated the disintegration of the USSR.

Perestroika and Economic Crisis

Restructuring:

• Perestroika aimed to decentralise the command economy and improve efficiency.
• Enterprises received more autonomy and limited market mechanisms were introduced.
• Cooperatives and small private activity were permitted.

Unintended consequences:

• The old planning system weakened, but a functioning market economy did not emerge.
• Shortages, inflationary pressures and uncertainty increased.
• Economic failure reduced confidence in the Communist Party.

Glasnost and Loss of Legitimacy

Openness:

• Glasnost relaxed censorship and allowed public debate.
• Citizens discussed Stalinist crimes, corruption, economic failure and political repression.
• The moral authority of the Soviet system declined.

Rise of criticism:

• Intellectuals, media and reformers openly challenged the party’s monopoly.
• Public opinion became increasingly anti-bureaucratic and nationalist.

Democratisation and Weakening of Party Control

Political reform:

• Elections to the Congress of People’s Deputies allowed limited competition.
• The Communist Party’s monopoly weakened.
• Article 6, which guaranteed party supremacy, was eventually removed.

Power vacuum:

• Old institutions lost authority before new democratic institutions became stable.
• Rival centres of power emerged between Gorbachev, Yeltsin and republican leaders.

Nationality Question

Rise of republic nationalism:

• Glasnost allowed suppressed national grievances to surface.
• Baltic republics, Georgia, Ukraine and others demanded sovereignty or independence.
• Moscow could no longer control nationalist mobilisation as before.

Failed union reform:

• Gorbachev attempted to create a looser union treaty.
• The August 1991 coup by conservatives weakened him further.
• Republics moved rapidly towards independence.

Critical Assessment

Gorbachev’s policies were responsible in the sense that they removed coercive controls and exposed the system’s weaknesses. However, the USSR was already facing economic stagnation, national tensions, bureaucratic rigidity and loss of ideological faith. Archie Brown sees Gorbachev as a genuine reformer, while critics argue that he mismanaged sequencing. Therefore, his reforms did not create the crisis, but they accelerated and shaped the final disintegration of the USSR.