The best friend the Americans had in the Kremlin

Sep 01, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – For more than 40 years, the United States was engaged in an ideological war against its archrival the Union of Socialist Republics (USSR). It tried all manner of means to bring the USSR’s economy to its knees, to stem the USSR’s overseas influence, to ensure western supremacy on all fronts – political, technological, military, scientific and even sport – and to target the Kremlin’s political leadership.

The USA and its allies consistently called for greater economic and political freedoms in the communist bloc. It justified its relentless efforts at destabilising the USSR and other socialist bloc countries on the basis of their denial of these freedoms.

The USA failed abysmally. Ironically, it was the emergence of the very freedoms that the West was demanding that led to the unraveling of the USSR. Glasnost and perestroika were responsible for the implosion within Russia and the USSR.

Glasnost refers to the political reforms which led to greater political openness such as freer discussions on political and social issues. Perestroika, on the other, refers to the reforms of the economic system.

The man who was at the helm at the Soviet Union and who is widely believed to have been instrumental in spearheading these policies, Mikhail Gorbachev, died this past week. He was 92 years old.

He is reviled as being responsible for the demise of the USSR, the wider communist empire and the loss of credibility of the left-wing politics.  Gorbachev has borne the brunt of the blame for the break-up of the USSR and the weakening of Russia, leaving the world with only one superpower, a situation which has had dire implications for revolutionaries and socialist countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

To his credit, Gorbachev recognised the need for the USSR to modernise quickly if it was to keep up with the greater efficiency gains being made by the West. He saw his policies of perestroika and glasnost as part of this process of modernising the economy and political system so as to preserve the USSR.

His mistake which was that, unlike China which has also since implemented some capitalist reforms, the processes of glasnost and perestroika were implemented too quickly. Mistakes were made and Gorbachev did not fully grasp the implications which his policies of openness would have had on communist and socialist countries and parties around the world.

Castro was harsh in his judgment of these policies. He once sarcastically said that if the USSR wanted to implement capitalist reforms that was its right. In his assessment, Gorbachev did not consider the implications of his policies on left-wing governments and revolutionary movements outside of Europe.

Cuba in fact was left stranded. For years, it had depended on USSR’s economic support to counter US economic aggression. After the USSR imploded, that support shrunk. Castro was forced to do his own economic reforms. But his changes were slower, more moderate and did not involve political reforms. He had learnt from the mistakes of Gorbachev.

Glasnost had undermined political authority which for so long had held the Soviet Union together and prevented internal dissent. The emergence of glasnost led to the emergence of ethnic tensions as minorities were given greater latitude to express their concerns. A strong sense of ethnic nationalism developed as evident in the Chechnya question.

Perestroika in Russia destroyed the state-centric economic system creating a situation which displaced thousands of workers in the name of economic efficiency and greater private participation in the economy. Perestroika did not bring the anticipated economic benefits. Instead, it led to economic ruin in Russia and other socialist republics that belonged to the USSR.

Guyanese know all too well the effects of sudden liberalisation. When Hoyte was pushed by the IMF into a structural adjustment programme in the late 1980s, the liberalisation led to a deluge of imports which destroyed the artisan sector, throwing thousands out of livelihoods. As to openness, Hoyte was more circumspect, keeping as tight grip on state control but allowing the emergence of a private newspaper, the Stabroek News. He too would later shoulder the blame for being too democratic.

The world today is paying for the mistakes of Gorbachev. He made a gentleman’s agreement with the West that in return for not opposing the unification of Germany, the West would not expand eastwards. Well, no sooner had Gorbachev removed the 380,000 troops from East Germany, he was toppled by Boris Yeltsin, the West began its eastern push, thus now endangering Russian security.

Gorbachev unwittingly turned out to be the best friend the West had in the Kremlin. His errors were a gift to the Americans and Europeans.

But despite his mistakes, Gorbachev must be judged more in terms of his intentions rather than the unforeseen (to him) consequences of those mistakes. Fidel Castro was clear that what Gorbachev was doing was not aimed at destroying the Soviet Union but rather his aim was the perfecting of socialism. But as Castro later intoned, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

 

 

 

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