The Name of the Winds of Change in the 1980s: Mikhail Gorbachev

Gorbachev was an important name for those born in the late 1960s and early 1970s who were interested in economics and politics. As this generation of university graduates embarked on their lives, they listened to the song “Wind of Change,” witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall , and watched maps change. The world was changing rapidly.

Born in 1922, the last president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Gorbachev, resigned on December 25, 1991 after a 6-year, 9-month term as president, closing an era in world history but also opening a new one. With his resignation, there was no longer a country called the USSR, and 15 new countries were established with the dissolution of the USSR. According to George Kennan, who was appointed to the US ambassador in Moscow in 1952 , the greatest bloodless revolution in history had taken place. This revolution also put an end to the Cold War years.

Gorbachev, who took over the USSR in 1985, inherited a country in extremely poor economic conditions. The economy was at a standstill and corruption was a major problem. People could not get the consumer goods they needed. There was a country where the Communist Party controlled every aspect of social life. Gorbachev was a reformist. There was no chance of things continuing as they were before.

He believed in the necessity of restructuring the economy and transparency in politics and the public sphere. He based his thoughts on two concepts and sailed with the winds of change: Perestroika andGlasnost .

Perestroika meant restructuring. Glasnost meant opening up. Perestroika represented economic change, Glasnost represented democratization.

Gorbachev saw the deadlock that the USSR was in and had reform goals, but what kind of reforms? Was his goal to reform the communist foundations of the USSR, or to move to a Western-style free market economy? Did the process get out of control as a result of the developments that took place while he was attempting to reform the communist foundations? If so, why? Did the USSR collapse because of this state of being out of control? Did Gorbachev's ideas change over time towards the implementation of a free market economy while he was trying to reform the communist regime?

There are many interpretative answers to the questions above. Over the years, many policy analysis articles have been written seeking answers to these questions. We do not have the opportunity to discuss these answers in this article. However, we do know that Gorbachev's goal at the beginning of his term was to revive an outdated system with reforms. While he was doing this, he was forced to resign due to pressure from groups he made unhappy, but he left his mark on history with only his almost 7-year rule. Gorbachev, who aimed for reform, had no intention of ending the USSR. However, the course of history resulted in the dissolution of the USSR. Russia, which was founded after the USSR, continued on its path with a free market economy.

One of the reasons for the current Russia-Ukraine war can be considered to be Gorbachev. Putin holds Gorbachev responsible for the collapse of the USSR and the surrounding of Russia with NATO. According to Putin, the collapse of the USSR was the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century and a real tragedy for millions of Russians.

Gorbachev released political prisoners and made it possible to read and watch banned books and movies. He signed an arms control agreement with Reagan, who was the US president during his term. He took on corruption and ousted many bureaucrats. He released Andrei D. Sakharov, who was exiled in 1980 for criticizing the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan. He withdrew the USSR from Afghanistan. Putin's Russia, on the other hand, has lost all sense of democracy and transparency. Putin's Russia's relations with the West are even worse than they were during the Cold War.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev

Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He started publishing a newspaper called Novaya Gazeta with the money he won from the prize.

The wave that began with Perestroika and Glasnost spread to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Albania, thus removing the Iron Curtain.

Gorbachev did not want to destroy the USSR. There are still debates about this, but what I have read and witnessed so far makes the thesis that Gorbachev initially made plans to restructure and open up in order to consolidate a communist regime strong. However, there is also the fact that some of the steps he took in the economy softened the rigid communist regime in the direction of the market. Despite this, he was not successful in the economy. The process that led to his resignation developed with his failure to get the economy back on its feet in the eyes of the people.

It should not be overlooked that, during the period when Gorbachev was trying to open up with Perestroika and Glasnost, there was also a capitalism that was renewing itself on the opposite front. The capitalist world had left the Bretton Woods system in the early 1970s and was changing its form and content under the leadership of US President Reagan and British Prime Minister Thetcher. In other words, another type of effective and radical change that Gorbachev had brought to the USSR was being experienced in the capitalist world.

The process of change that capitalism was in also had a significant impact on the reform movement initiated by Gorbachev getting out of control and spreading to all the Iron Curtain countries. The high profit margins that would be provided by the new markets that would open up with the collapse of the Iron Curtain would accelerate the change that capitalism was experiencing.

The generation that I belong to was launched into life at the beginning of the changes described above. The world would become a planet of brotherhood. On the one hand, it was said that the concept of the nation-state would disappear, nations would collapse, and humanity would not try any other system except capitalism . On the other hand, the concept of a clash of civilizations was being put forward. The author of these lines thought that Turkey would be a part of this clash of civilizations in those years. Because Turkey was moving towards being trapped in the clutches of a nationalism that was religiously biased and devoid of reason.

At first, capitalism seemed to be winning the processes that were passed. However, today, humanity is going through a crisis. The processes brought about class inequalities between and within countries.

The Great Recession of 2008, the biggest crisis since the Great Depression of 1929 , was a result of the capitalist wave that caused Gorbachev’s reforms to get out of control. Democracies were damaged. Inequalities and economic hardships gave way to autocratic regimes. However, capitalism, which changed its form and content, was said to be compatible with human nature. However, this process was managed so wrongly that humanity has come to the point where it is going through a crisis today.

I saw the changes that took place in the 1990s in most of the countries mentioned above. I saw many of them in the 1970s, when change was not even a thought. While these countries that I saw in a state of change were opening up to capitalism, I had a job where I tried to understand how which supply chains could be established in which industries. I was right in the middle of what was being told in the 32nd Day programs that I had been following with excitement since my high school years. I was enjoying witnessing history with my suspicions that this order would also come to a standstill somewhere and with dozens of questions. Because the 2020s were very far away. Therefore, I could enjoy it a little. The climate crisis was also coming with a bang. I was also seeing this in my business life. The rapid growth of the European Union and especially the Eurozone being structured in a way that was contrary to economic theory were increasing doubts and question marks. Capitalism should not have lost new markets to anyone.

Gorbachev said goodbye. A piece of history passed away. He was a leader with great meaning and depth for my generation. Instead of analyses such as what if he had done this, what would have happened that way, it seems more meaningful to me to try to understand what happened and look to the future.

Goodbye youth.