above: Former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev
Dr Tristan Ewins
Mikhail Gorbachev has passed away at the age
of 91. In the West Gorbachev is still held
in high esteem for ‘ending the Cold War’.
His policies of Glasnost (‘openness’)
and Perestroika (‘Restructuring’) opened the way for reform, but also perhaps
sadly the disintegration that then followed, with the effective theft of
peoples’ assets and industry that was later to occur under Boris Yeltsin. The world of (capitalist) ‘oligarchs’ that
has followed the collapse cannot seriously be considered as in any way better
than the former state of affairs ; and liberties did not last long in the former USSR following
Gorbachev’s fall from power. Though it’s
interesting that we do not call our own billionaires ‘oligarchs’ in the West ;
and especially in the United States where corporate lobbyists have unmatched
power.
Gorbachev
understood that the USSR could not compete militarily with the West while it
failed to compete economically. In the
80s military competition had accelerated and there was a widespread fear of
nuclear war which we have now forgotten. Gorbachev agitated for peace at the same time
as Reagan pursued his ‘Star Wars’ plan, which aimed to make a nuclear war ‘winnable’. At the
same time there was repression, Terror and mass murder closer to home, in countries
like Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
And yet the United States outpaced the East largely because of a
ruthless exploitation of its economic periphery. (eg: including Central and
South America) In many ways Gorbachev
heralded the kind of reform democratic socialists had long been hoping for, legitimising
the USSR for many, but also helping to precipitate a collapse. In retrospect it would have been better if
the USSR had not collapsed. But decades
of Stalinism meant there was little in the way of a mobilised and independent
civil society. The consequence was that
when the collapse occurred there was little resistance. In light of all this it
would have been better if Gorbachev had mobilised civil society in defence of
democratic socialism from the outset.
Gorbachev’s passing reminds us of missed
opportunities, and begs the question of whether there was a better way forward.
Today there is war in Ukraine ; and the Russian
Government entertains ideas of an Imperial restoration. Russia may find a place as an important
trading partner of China, but cannot really hope to restore ‘former glory’ when
opposed by almost the entirety of Europe ; and the US. Also the rupturing of Russia’s trade ties with
Europe is harming both sides immensely. Though Russia’s still-massive nuclear arsenal
deters uncontrolled escalation.
In later years Gorbachev commonly referred
to himself as a Social Democrat ; and tried to establish a
social-democratic party in Russia. On the other hand, arguably the USSR was still
ahead of Western Social Democracy on many fronts prior to its collapse. Mainly in regard to the spread of socialised
industry. Maybe Gorbachev was trying to
move with the times, and promote the best possible outcome available at the
time. Though his efforts to promote social democracy in the Russian Federation
largely met with failure. In some ways
China demonstrates how in certain respects compromise with capitalism can help an ostensibly
socialist state to economically compete with the West. Though this could also
lead to a crisis of legitimacy and identity.
Perhaps attempts to consolidate a
democratic USSR might have failed given the influence of various nationalisms,
but now we will never know. In the mid
to late 1980s Mikhail Gorbachev represented the best hope for peace, détente and
avoiding nuclear war. With his passing
we should also consider the world that ‘might have been’ ; and mourn the
ultimate failure of Gorbachev’s reforms ; with capitalist restoration and the
rise of an Imperial Russian State.