LECTURE No. 20. Economic development of Russia in the period of perestroika

1. Background of perestroika. Prerequisites for its occurrence

After the death of L. I. Brezhnev on November 9, 1982, the struggle for leadership began again in the highest echelons of power. Its severity is evidenced by the fact that in a short period of time 2 times the post of general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU turned out to be persons who were physically weak and because of this, obviously "temporary" as leaders of the ruling party: Yu. V. Andropov and K. U. Chernenko.

The first of them, a communist-conservative by conviction and a long-term chief of the KGB, was remembered by the people for the fact that he began a serious fight against corruption, including the middle and highest levels of the state apparatus, and strengthening labor discipline. The second general secretary began by inviting about fifty high-ranking apparatchiks demoted by Andropov to the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Again, propagandistic fanfares about the unprecedented successes of socialism and the "visible sprouts of communism" sounded all over the country.

Meanwhile, in the aging party-state elite, the positions of relatively young and energetic politicians gradually strengthened, not only fighting for power, but also ready, to a greater or lesser extent, to update the system. In March 1985, M. S. Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and N. I. Ryzhkov became the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (in December 1990, he was replaced by V. S. Pavlov). Thus began the next and last stage in the history of the USSR, which was soon called "perestroika".

The main task was to stop the collapse of the "state socialism" system, as well as to guarantee the interests of its ruling elite - the nomenklatura, which formed these politicians and pushed them to the top (moreover, the first part of the task was subordinate to the second and pretty soon it was discarded). The chosen means is a cautious transformation of social structures, primarily the economy. However, there was no coherent and predetermined concept of how to do this.

The decisions of the Gorbachev administration often did not go ahead of social processes and did not direct them, but followed them - with zero effectiveness in such cases. To a large extent, this was due to the belatedness of the reforms, the depth of the general crisis that had managed to cover the main links of the system. Another circumstance also played a negative role - in the first years of "perestroika" there were no serious socio-political forces capable of putting pressure on the state leadership, prompting it to look for effective and adequate solutions to the situation. There was only a rather abstract desire for change in society; before the conscious readiness of the broad masses for radical transformations, for a change in the model of social development, there was still a long and difficult way to go.

2. Reforming the political system. Electoral reform. Analysis of liberal and other movements.

Experiencing growing difficulties in the economy, the country's leadership, headed by M. S. Gorbachev, from the summer of 1988 decided to reform the political system of the USSR. Another circumstance pushed him to reforms: the emergence of new political forces that threatened to further undermine the CPSU monopoly on power.

At the first stage, the goal of the political transformation was to strengthen the leading role of the CPSU in the country by revitalizing the Soviets, establishing the separation of powers and elements of parliamentarism in the Soviet system.

A new supreme body of legislative power appears - the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR and the corresponding republican congresses. Elections of deputies took place in 1989-1990. alternatively. The permanent Supreme Soviets of the USSR and republics were formed from people's deputies. A new position was introduced - Chairman of the Council (from Supreme to District). The Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR became the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee M. S. Gorbachev (March 1989), the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR - B. N. Yeltsin (May 1990).

Even earlier (since the middle of 1987) a policy of "glasnost" was proclaimed. This was government-controlled easing of censorship over the media, the elimination of "special depositories" in libraries, the printing of previously banned books, etc. Activities began to rehabilitate the victims of repression.

The process of formation of new political parties with an extremely narrow social base, but of the widest spectrum, from monarchist to anarchist, has sharply intensified.

Mass movements and parties of national (and often nationalist) orientation appear in the republics. In the Baltic States, Armenia, Georgia and Moldova, they received a stable majority in the Supreme Soviets. In a number of large cities of Russia, similar socio-political formations also arose, differing in composition and goals.

Most of the new political parties and movements openly adopted anti-communist and anti-socialist positions, reflecting the growing dissatisfaction of the people with the inability of the ruling party to stop the collapse of the economy and the fall in living standards.

The crisis is also affecting the CPSU. Three main trends emerged in it: social-democratic, centrist and orthodox-traditionalist. There is a massive exodus from the Communist Party. In 1989-1990 The Communist Parties of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia announced their withdrawal from the CPSU.

New centers of real power are beginning to emerge in the country. These were republican congresses of people's deputies and the Supreme Soviets, where politicians of a liberal-democratic orientation, who entered the "parliaments" on the wave of criticism of the CPSU, and old experienced partocrats were blocked.

In the spring and summer of 1990, the union republics adopted declarations of state sovereignty that established the priority of their laws over the laws of the Union. The country has entered a period of disintegration.

For decades, the center systematically pumped material and financial resources from Russia to the national republics, seeking to speed up the development of backward regions, where to “appease” the peoples forcibly included in the Soviet empire with a higher standard of living compared to the whole country. But, having turned Russia into a "donor" and bled it dry, the leadership of the USSR did not succeed in removing the tense relations between the nations. An important role here was played by too strong centralism in management, and instructions from federal bodies on what should be done in the field of the use of natural resources, the demographic, social and economic development of the republics without due consideration of their own interests, and numerous facts of disrespect for national culture, language, and customs. It seemed that everything was calm, speeches were made about the friendship of peoples, but in fact the centers of interethnic hatred, misunderstanding and disagreements did not die out.

Communist ideology was permeated by the idea of ​​the right of nations to self-determination up to secession. A single state - the USSR - in all constitutions, starting from 1924, was officially considered as a "voluntary union of sovereign Soviet republics" with the right to freely secede from it. In the republics, the bodies of power and administration, which did not differ much in real powers from similar bodies in the regions of the Russian Federation, nevertheless had all the attributes of their own sovereign statehood: legislative, executive, judicial, ministries, etc.

During the further weakening of the CPSU, all these constitutional provisions began to work against the center with increasing force, creating, among other things, a favorable international legal background for its collapse.

In such circumstances, the Gorbachev administration, losing the initiative, moved in the spring of 1990 to the second stage of political reforms. Gradually, they spread to the sphere of the state structure of the USSR. The salient features of this stage were:

1) post factum recognition of shifts in public sentiment, in the actual alignment of political forces and their legislative registration;

2) refusal to support the disintegrating CPSU in its former form and the desire to rebuild the party on the model of Western social democracy in order to find support from the communist reformers; this program was developed by the Secretary General and his associates, it was approved, but it was never put into practice;

3) the introduction of a new highest state position - the President of the USSR and the concentration of power in the presidential apparatus at the expense of allied Soviet structures that were losing control over the situation in the country and authority in society; in March 1990, the III Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR elected MS Gorbachev President of the USSR;

4) direct negotiations of the President of the USSR with the leaderships of the republics on the conclusion of a new Union Treaty.

3. Economic reforms. Economic Reform 1987 500 Days Program

In April 1985, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU proclaimed a course towards accelerating the socio-economic development of the country. The scientific and technological revolution, the technological re-equipment of mechanical engineering and the activation of the "human factor" were considered its levers.

The enthusiasm of the workers was assumed, but it was not supported by the necessary equipment and qualifications of the workers. This did not lead to a reduction in the terms of work, but to a significant increase in the number of accidents in various sectors of the national economy. The largest of these was the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in April 1986.

In the mid 1980s. two administrative campaigns are being launched throughout the country: the fight against alcoholism and "unearned income". The bureaucratic zeal and excitement resumed again. A sharp reduction in the supply of alcoholic beverages, cutting down vineyards, and an increase in alcohol prices led to an increase in speculation in alcohol, home brewing, and mass poisoning with surrogates. The fight against "unearned income" was reduced to the next offensive of the rural authorities on personal subsidiary plots.

The authorities turned to the actual economic reform in the summer of 1987. The rights of enterprises were noticeably expanded. In particular, they got the opportunity to independently move into the foreign market, to conduct joint activities with foreign firms. The number of ministries and departments was reduced, and "partner" rather than command relations were proclaimed between them and enterprises. The directive state plan was replaced by a state order. In the countryside, 5 forms of management were established: state farms, collective farms, agro-combines, rental collectives and peasant (farm) farms.

In 1988, laws were passed that opened up more than 30 types of production of services and goods. A side effect of this was the actual legitimization of the "shadow economy" and its capital. The Law on Leasing and Leasing Relations, adopted in November 1989, gave urban and rural residents the right to lease land for hereditary use for up to 50 years. They were free to dispose of the resulting products. But the land, as before, was in reality the property of the local Soviets and collective farms. And they were reluctant to meet new farmers. Private entrepreneurship in the countryside was also constrained by the fact that lease agreements could be canceled unilaterally by the top officials with a 2-month notice.

The next step in the economic reform was the resolution of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On the concept of transition to a regulated market economy", and then a number of other legislative acts. They provided for the gradual demonopolization, decentralization and denationalization of private entrepreneurship, etc. However, the mechanism and timing of the implementation of these measures were outlined approximately, vaguely. Their weak point was the study of socially painful, but vital for optimizing production issues of reforming credit and pricing policies, the supply system for enterprises and wholesale trade in equipment, raw materials, and energy carriers.

At the same time, an alternative "Program of 500 days", prepared by a team of economists headed by G. A. Yavlinsky and S. S. Shatalin, was offered to the attention of the public. It was planned to carry out in a short time a radical privatization of state-owned enterprises with a focus on a direct transition to free market prices, to significantly limit the economic power of the center. The government rejected this program.

In general, the economic policy of the Gorbachev administration was characterized by inconsistency and incompleteness, which increased the crisis of the national economy, the imbalance between its various structures. This was also facilitated by the fact that the absolute majority of the adopted laws did not work. They were spoiled by the local bureaucracy, which saw in the unusual undertakings of the center an open threat to its well-being and existence.

The economic situation continued to deteriorate. Since 1988, a decrease in production in agriculture as a whole began, since 1990 - in industry. Inflationary tendencies increased strongly due to the gigantic budget deficit.

The standard of living of the population was rapidly falling, making for ordinary people the disputes of the authorities about reform in the economy less and less credible. In conditions of inflation, money lost weight, and the rush demand for goods rose. In the summer of 1989, the first wave of mass workers' strikes swept across the country. Since then, they have constantly accompanied the "perestroika".

4. Dialectics of "new thinking". The beginning of disarmament. Unblocking regional conflicts. The collapse of the socialist system

Having come to power, the Gorbachev administration confirmed the usual priorities of the USSR in the field of international relations. But already in 1987-1988. fundamental corrections are introduced into them in the spirit of the “new political thinking” already popularized by M. S. Gorbachev.

The turn in Soviet diplomacy was dictated by the urgent need to give a fresh impetus to the foreign policy of the USSR, which had come to a standstill in many serious positions.

Basic principles of "new political thinking":

1) rejection of the fundamental conclusion about the split of the modern world into two opposite socio-political systems, recognition of its interdependence and unity;

2) proclaiming as a standard method for resolving international issues not a balance of power between the two systems, but a balance of their interests;

3) rejection of the principle of proletarian (socialist) internationalism and awareness of the priority of universal human values ​​over any others (national, class, ideological).

The implementation of this course, on the one hand, had positive results, on the other hand, ended in foreign policy failures of the USSR.

A characteristic feature of the new stage of Soviet diplomacy was the annual meetings of MS Gorbachev with US leaders. The treaties concluded with the United States on the destruction of intermediate and short-range missiles (December 1987) and on the limitation of strategic offensive arms laid the foundation for a trend towards the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world.

At the same time, long negotiations began to reduce the level of conventional weapons. In 1990, an agreement was signed on their significant reduction in Europe. Also, the USSR unilaterally decided to reduce defense spending and reduce the number of its own Armed Forces by 500 people.

The successful formation of relations with the capitalist countries also affected Japan, which was greatly facilitated by MS Gorbachev's visit to Tokyo in April 1991. The Soviet delegation showed readiness to revive bilateral ties and officially recognized the existence of the question of the state ownership of the four islands of the South Kuril chain.

The new foreign policy methods of the USSR showed themselves positively in eliminating hotbeds of international tension and local armed conflicts. For May 1988 - February 1989 Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan. After that, the II Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR recognized the "undeclared war" against the neighboring country, which used to be a friendly, gross political mistake. Gorbachev's diplomacy made a lot of efforts to stop civil wars in some countries (Angola, Cambodia and Nicaragua), form coalition governments in them from representatives of the warring parties, to win the apartheid regime in South Africa through major political transformations, and to find a just solution to the Palestinian issue.

Sino-Soviet relations are improving. As conditions for this, Beijing put forward the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and Mongolia, and the Vietnamese - from Cambodia. Moscow complied with these conditions, and after Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to China in the spring of 1989, border trade was restored between the two countries, and a series of agreements on political, economic, and cultural cooperation were signed.

The same year became a turning point in the relations of the USSR with the countries of the "socialist commonwealth". Forced withdrawal of troops from Soviet bases in Central and Eastern Europe began. To the fears of many leaders of the socialist countries that some specific decisions dictated by "new thinking" could lead to destabilization of the socio-political situation there, the Gorbachev administration responded with economic pressure, threatening, in particular, to transfer economic mutual settlements with friendly countries to freely convertible currency. It was soon done. This aggravated relations between the CMEA member countries and caused the rapid collapse of both their economic and military-political union. Officially, the CMEA and the Department of Internal Affairs were disbanded in the spring of 1991.

The leadership of the USSR did not interfere in the processes that quickly and radically changed the political and socio-economic image of the former allied states.

Almost all the new governments of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe also took a course towards moving away from the USSR and establishing closer ties with the West. They were immediately ready to join NATO and the Common Market.

The USSR was left without old allies, but did not acquire new ones. Therefore, the country was rapidly losing the initiative in world affairs and found itself in the wake of the foreign policy of the NATO countries.

The deterioration of the economic situation of the Soviet Union, which was facilitated by a landslide decline in supplies to the countries of the former CMEA, forced the Gorbachev administration to appeal in 1990-1991. for financial and material support to the leading powers of the world, the so-called "seven".

During these years, the West provided the USSR with humanitarian aid in the form of food and medical goods (but it mostly went to nomenklatura circles or fell into the hands of dealers in a corrupt trade network). But there was no substantial financial assistance, although the GXNUMX and the International Monetary Fund promised it to the USSR. They were more inclined to support individual union republics, encouraging their separatism, and less and less believed in the political capacity of the President of the USSR.

The collapse of the Soviet Union made the United States the only superpower in the world.

Authors: Eliseeva E.L., Ronshina N.I.

<< Back: Economic development of the USSR (The economy of the USSR on the eve of the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet economy during the war. Post-war development of the national economy. The country on the eve of reforms. Reform of the Soviet economic system. Transformations in the social sphere. The economy of developed socialism. The search for new forms and methods of management. Reforms of the 1960-1970s years: essence, goals, methods and results)

>> Forward: Economic development of Russia since the early 1990s. (Russia in the first half of the 1990s. Continuation of the course of reforms, shock therapy. Issues of maintaining the unity of Russia. New Constitution. Privatization)

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