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Ever since the early 180's, anyone who did some analysis of what the situation was in the Soviet Union, could easily see that the U.S.S.R. was going to face serious economic, political, population and other problems, during the 10's going into the new the millennium. Even people in the Soviet Union were coming up with the same type of analysis. Mikhail Gorbachev also felt that Soviet Union needed economical and political reforms in order to be able to compete with the United States. Hypothesis can be made that Gorbachev was an instrument to social change in a Soviet Union.
Social movement theory is based on the model, where some kind of strain or disturbance in the social environment, such as an economic depression creates disruptive psychological states in individuals, such as anxiety, and individuals then direct their energy into a social movement in order to relieve their emotional difficulties. Gorbachev led people to believe that changes were needed and started to make reforms that people were not ready for. The only person who knew that U.S.S.R. was really in trouble was Karl Marx. He predicted the first revolution that occurred in 117. Unfortunately government officials did not learn from this example, because second revolution happened only a couple of decades later. The ideas of Marx were not used in Soviet Union, or any other communist countries. Marx felt that workers should be more in control of the government, but communist governments were too strict. Also, government officials censored the press before it was printed out. Journalists were not allowed to print news stories that criticized the government. And people who did write or say something against the Soviet Union government were punished, be being killed or put to jail. And that is the type of government that people in Soviet Union lived.
Marx felt that in order to get to communism, there must be proper steps taken, starting with primitivism, and than going to agriculturism, then going to slavery, and feudalism, then to capitalism, then to socialism and only then to communism. However Soviet Union jumped from feudalism all the way to communism. That was a big change for people that they were not ready for, that caused the second revolution. People were not ready for that change mentally, physically, or economically. People of the Soviet Union were still living an old fashion life style, so a big change was too much for them to handle.
So for about 8 decades people lived in communism, where they did not have a freedom of speech, where government decides where people work, and also people were not allowed to own private businesses. People did not enjoy this life, but that is what they were used to, because their parents lived this life, their grandparents lived that life and they thought that their kids will live that same type of life. However, everything was about to change.
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After the death of Konstantin Chernenko, in 185, Mikhail Gorbachev was selected as a general secretary of the party, even though he was the youngest member of the politburo. Even before he came into power he has reached to the conclusion that things needed to change dramatically in his country, otherwise his country will be hitting the bottom very soon. Soviet Union was already in a very bad situation due to the economic problems. The only income in the Soviet Union was natural resources, and everyone knew that there would be an end to that source soon.
Gorbachev started on a complete program of political, economic and social liberalization by using big words like glasnost (openness), perestroika (restructuring), demokratizatsiya (democratization), and novaya myshleniya (new way of thinking). Through glasnost, Gorbachev initiated a strategy that allowed citizens of the Soviet Union to criticize, question and challenge its leadership. It was something that Soviet citizens never had, and were not used to. By giving people 'voice' it allowed Gorbachev to put pressure on the people whom he knew would oppose his economic and political reforms, which he was planning to undertake. Glasnost was a part of Gorbachev's strategy to initiate a revolution for people of the Soviet Union, and also he wanted to put under pressure nomenklatura (party elite) and apparatchiks (party leaders), because they were strongly opposing his coming up reforms.
Perestroika was Gorbachev's program of cooperatives, management reform and economic accountability. Through perestroika, Gorbachev was encouraging decentralization and private initiative in the economic sector. This program did not become successful right away, because Soviet people lived in communism for a long time. For almost 8 decades they saw their parents working nine to five at the same job throughout their entire life. So the idea of privatization and becoming an owner of a house was unusual to them. Through Perestroika Gorbachev wanted to transform inefficient command economy of the Soviet Union into a decentralized market-oriented economy. Gorbachev also introduced political democracy, where people would get to vote for the president. Before the Congress of People's Deputies were to choose the president and now Gorbachev has given people voice and promised an election that people have not seen since the fall of 117, which was the last democratic election that people of the Soviet Union have witnessed.
The main idea behind open elections that Gorbachev promised to the people was to democratize the Communist party. And the last strategy that Gorbachev introduced was novaya myshleniya, through which Gorbachev wanted to address foreign policy. In a way he was introducing a different way of thinking. While all the changes that Gorbachev has introduced were great; and it was something that people wanted, but were too afraid to say anything about; it was something that people did not know how to deal with. People who were taking advantage of those changes that Gorbachev made, were in a way engaging in collective behavior. Collective behavior is any event during which groups of people engage in unusual behavior. Even though the new type of behavior introduced by Gorbachev was legal, people felt that it was unusual due to the fact that it was wrong for most of their lives.
After the great amount of changes that people in the Soviet Union seen in a very short time, nuclear disaster at Chernobyl that occurred in 186, forced Gorbachev to allow even greater freedom of expression. Changes were so extreme, that government officials started to release political prisoners, who were in prison most of the time because they were against communist party; also emigration was becoming legal, people started to attacked corruption and it also encouraged the critical reexamination of the Soviet history. All of these things were allowed now, however before Gorbachev came in power, Soviet people were killed or put to jail if they were to commit any of those things that I have just listed.
Giving people more freedom was not the only good thing that Gorbachev did, he also worked on improving relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States. In a series of summit talks, which occurred from 185 to 188, Gorbachev started to develop positive relationship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, with whom he signed and Intermediate Nuclear forces arms limitation treaty of 187, also know as INF. Gorbachev also brought back all the troops from Afghanistan, and put an end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan at the end of 18. Gorbachev was also awarded the 10 Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to reducing the East-West tensions. However, by the end of 10, perestroika has failed to bring significant improvement in the economy that he has promised to the public. In addition the elimination of political and social control in the Baltic States allowed for leaders of Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova to meet up and discuss the decisions that were made by Gorbachev. Those four republics, were joined by Yeltsin, organized a meeting and they have decided to chose a president for each republic, which made Yeltsin president of Russian Republic. Even though Yeltsin became president of Russian Republic, he was still run by Gorbachev, who was a president of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was not pleased with that meeting, and since then there were always conflicts between Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
When it came time for reelection, Gorbachev who promised democratic elections, was elected as an executive president in March of 10, by a newly created in 18 congress of People's Deputies. He was did not let people elect him because of fear of loosing. And this is where in my opinion Gorbachev made his biggest mistake. Instead of letting people choosing him as a president, Congress of People's Deputies have chosen him. People expected a different election, and since Gorbachev has given people freedom of speech, now they could openly talk about it. Also, Gorbachev's perestroika was not showing much changes in Soviet Union's economy, which even further frustrated people. And angry people were not his only problem. People, who used to be part of the government before Gorbachev came along, were also unhappy.
Member of politburo, where Gorbachev was once a member of, were joined by heads of the Soviet military and the security services to form an organization called 'Committee of the State of Emergency'. They were extremely unhappy with all of the changes that Gorbachev has been making. During communism, all of the people who worked for the government were doing really well financially, and also Soviet people were taught to live by the rules that government made. And since Gorbachev came along, it was nothing but a headache for government officials, because they started loosing power, people who used to obey by the rules started questioning every move that a government official made and they were also unhappy about the relationship that Gorbachev was building with the United States, calling Gorbachev a trader and even were trying to start a conspiracy by suggesting that United States has paid Gorbachev to make the changes the he worked on throughout his years of presidency.
During 10 and 11, the members of politburo who could not get over all the changes that were made by Gorbachev held up the reform drive. Gorbachev was attempting to make peace with member of politburo, who were angry over what they called deterioration of the Soviet empire. Although Gorbachev has tried to make peace with them, his attempts were unsuccessful. So the day before signing ceremony for a new union treaty for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, Committee of the State of Emergency, has broken up the Congress of People's deputies, and went on to detain President Gorbachev at his villa in Crimea. Committee of the State of Emergency, claimed that Gorbachev had been removed from his position as president due to unsuspected illness. The leaders of the Committee of the State of Emergency formed an eight-man leader group, and attempted to assume control of the government. However their assumptions did not take into consideration Boris Yeltsin and the people of the Soviet Union.
Boris Yeltsin, who was a leader of parliamentarians expected for something like this to happen, and was trying to take advantage of it, that is why he had a meeting with leaders of Armenia, Gerogia, Ukraine and Moldova. Boris Yeltsin, and Russian Parliamentarians led popular resistance to the Committee's leadership. So Committee of the State of Emergency, on August 18th, sent tanks and soldiers to arrest Yeltsin. To their surprise, they found Russian Parliament building surrounded by both armed and unarmed civilians, supporting Boris Yeltsin. The soldiers did not know what to do, because they did not expect any resistance. So some of them went back, others went home, and others joined Yeltsin and his group. Many junior offices and officials in the Moscow ministries, as well as the leadership of the Soviet Union constituent republics, denounced the new leadership. The Committee of the State of Emergency collapsed, not only because they did not have legitimate authority, but also because they were trying to change things back the way they were before Gorbachev came along. Even though people were not ready to accept all of the changes that Gorbachev wanted to implement upon them, they knew one thing for sure; they did not want to go back to communism. While most of the changes that Gorbachev brought upon the Soviet people were hard to get used to, Soviet people really quickly adapted to freedom that was given to them, which allowed them to express their opinions about political and economic status of their country. And even though being able to talk about political problems have not changed things for better, now people could freely analyze things.
Second Revolution shows the development of collective behavior and how it proceeds from one stage to another. It started out with structural conduciveness, where physical and social conditions allow for development of collective behavior. Development of collective behavior was allowed because Gorbachev has given people new rules to live by, and although they were legal, due to the fact that people lived differently for over 8 decades, even when freedom was legal, it felt unusual to people. The second stage is structural strain, where sufficient number of people experience social strain. People of the Soviet Union lived their lives experiencing strain, because the government has always been really strict. The third step, is where participants accept similar beliefs which justify unusual behavior. Throughout Gorbachev's presidency people started to justify unusual behavior, because their president was telling them that it was normal to do so. So slowly people were getting used to the changes, although not quiet accepting yet.
The next step of collective behavior is mobilization of participants, where sufficient number of participants receives the necessary information. And that's when people of the Soviet Union received information that Gorbachev was not a president anymore and that things were going back to the way they were before Gorbachev came along. It caused people to get really angry; because they did not want to go back to they way it was before. People already were getting used to the freedom and being able to own a business. And that's where the last step in development of collective behavior takes place. The last step is social control, where social control agents fail or do not attempt to diffuse structural strain. And this is when Committee of the State of Emergency sent tanks and soldiers to arrest Yeltsin, however they run into hundredths of thousands of people who were not going to let them arrest Yeltsin. And control agents did not really do anything to stop those people, some of the agents even joined the people, who were protecting Yeltsin. So after completion of these five steps collective behavior is inevitable and will occur, which put an end to Committee of the State of Emergency and soon after that it put an end to the Soviet Union. The mistake that Committee made, was that they underestimated the power of people when they form a group.
Gorbachev was released after August Coup ended on August nd, 11. It only lasted four days, but it was enough to be remembered forever. However, when he came back to Moscow, Yeltsin was already in power. Yeltsin used the failure of the Committee of the State of Emergency to eliminate the political power of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. The August Coup shifted greater authority to the Russian Republic's president Boris Yeltsin. Gorbachev was trying to do everything he could in order to stay the president; he even dissolved the Communist party, granted the Baltic States independence and proposed a much looser, chiefly economic federation among the remaining republics. Unfortunately Gorbachev was too late. Even though his proposition sounded good, it could not compete with the other options that those republics had, if Yeltsin were to take over. The other problem that Gorbachev was facing is that he did not have anyone behind him for support. Since people did not elect him as a president, he had to get support from those who did elect him, but Congress of People's Deputies was broken up, meaning that Gorbachev did not have any support.
On December 8th, 11 a treaty signed at Minsk, Belarus established Community of Independent Nations by heads of the state of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. And between December 8th and 1st, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan joined original signatories. Some other republics have joined later, however, they are still partially in control by Russia. So since December 1st, one country Soviet Union turned into 1 different countries. And Gorbachev was left as a president of Soviet Union, which did not even exist anymore. He did not have a government behind him, which made him just a regular person instead of a president. On December 5th, finally realizing that his position as a president did not have any support and simply did not exist anymore, he resigned. Since 1 Gorbachev headed international organizations, written several books and had an unsuccessful run for the President of Russian Republic.
In conclusion, this social movement has started due to the economical problems, to the lack of industrialization, political problems, which Gorbachev has tried to fix with perestroika. Gorbachev was supported by the Congress of People's Depute, not by people, and that is in my mind the biggest mistake he has made, because he did not risk to have a democratic election. Through his slogans of glasnost, novoya mishlenia, and democratie his was trying to start his reforms. Even though his slogans have helped him to start the reforms, they did not help him succeed. This social movement was supported by most of the countries; the only countries that did not support this were communist countries. This movement got people really interested in the idea of freedom and in the idea of being able to own a business, however people were not ready for a complete change. So the social movement failed. It failed for the same reasons that it started problems with economy, problems with politicians who could not accept the change and also because people could not completely change. Another reason why it ended was due to the fact that Gorbachev did not really know what he wanted himself. Although he realized that changes must be made soon, he kept going back and force trying to figure out what is it he really wants, whether he wanted to completely change to democracy or whether he wanted communism to succeed, those questions are still unanswered today. Since Gorbachev left his role as the President of the Soviet Union, things has only gotten worst. Yeltsin, who was a communist his whole life, all of the sudden wanted democracy. He never really understood what democracy meant, and throughout his presidency, he took his country through a lot of embarrassment.
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