Gorbachev CPSU — perestroika, glasnost, and Soviet dissolution 1985-1991

Doctrine — stated goals and content

Gorbachev's reform programme attempted to modernise Soviet socialism via perestroika (economic restructuring) and glasnost (openness) but unleashed forces that dissolved the USSR by December 1991. Economic school: reform-socialism gradualism — cooperative-sector legalisation, state-enterprise autonomy, price-reform proposals deferred, and multiple rival shock-therapy plans (500 Days, Abalkin, Pavlov) none fully adopted. Left-right axis: centre-left within Soviet framework — ambitious politically but economically cautious on price liberalisation and private property. Core policy content: (i) 1986 law on individual labour activity legalising limited private enterprise; (ii) 1987 Law on State Enterprises transferring budgetary autonomy to SOEs (self-financing, khozraschyot); (iii) 1988 Law on Cooperatives — major step legalising significant private cooperative sector; (iv) 1989 first competitive Congress of People's Deputies elections; (v) 1990 Shatalin-Yavlinsky 500-Days shock-therapy plan proposed and rejected; Gorbachev adopted Ryzhkov-Pavlov hybrid; (vi) January 1991 currency-confiscation reform withdrew 50/100-ruble notes; April 1991 Pavlov price reform raised administered prices ~200%; (vii) August 1991 hard-line coup attempt, Yeltsin's RSFSR resistance, Baltic-states independence, December 1991 Belovezha Accords dissolved the USSR; (viii) external policy — INF Treaty 1987, unilateral troop withdrawals, German reunification acceptance 1990, withdrawal from Afghanistan completed February 1989. Macro: GDP contracted ~5% 1990, ~15% 1991; inflation accelerated to ~200% end- 1991; budget deficit reached ~20% of GDP; foreign debt doubled. Popularity: Gorbachev's domestic approval collapsed from 80%+ in 1987 to <20% by 1991; resigned 25 December 1991. Coherence: low — gradualist reforms internal to preserving socialism clashed with the glasnost-enabled political mobilisation demanding deeper change; the institutional hybrid of party-state autonomy without price liberalisation proved unstable.