Perestroika was a program implemented by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 to reform the USSR’s bureaucracy and economy. It aimed to increase economic awareness and autonomy, and move away from centralized policies. While it enabled political debate and opposition, it ultimately led to economic crisis and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It introduced democracy and a new way of life and governance, but was criticized for being a failed economic policy.
Perestroika was the name of the programs that began to reform the USSR’s bureaucracy and economy in 1987. Translated into English as “restructuring,” perestroika was implemented by then Soviet leader and future president, Mikhail Gorbachev. Originally intended to represent a reform in labor efficiency, the program came to indicate increased awareness in economic markets and was soon adopted as official Soviet government policy. It has been hailed by some as a democratic move towards reform, and by others as a failed economic policy.
During a plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the country’s governing body, Gorbachev outlined Russia’s plan for perestroika. He introduced into his plan a future channeling out of the country’s communist leadership and ways to increase the autonomy of local governments. He tried to restore Russia to the superpower position it experienced from the 1940s to the 1970s. Seeking to keep pace with the still booming economies of the United States and Japan, perestroika sought to move away from the centralized economic policies prevalent under Stalin.
The policies of perestroika dissociated Russia from the old Marxist-Leninist policies, towards a reality of openness and transparency, the rule of law, checks and balances and pluralism. The program enabled political debate and opposition in the country and paved the way for a new capitalist economy. This new economy under perestroika, however, plunged the country into depression and economic crisis, from which the Soviet Union would eventually collapse in 1991.
The reforms enacted since perestroika have pushed much of the country’s control beyond the reach of communist practical methods. These new methods and a new reliance on non-communist practices enabled the Russian people, through perestroika, to emerge from the Cold War only four years after its implementation, albeit at the cost of the dissolution of the Soviet empire. A people now free in democracy, deprived of much of its empire and an economy in crisis.
While the program heralded a new era in the country’s history, many criticized its motivations. Blocked by much of the economic bureaucracy, perestroika was seen as a way for Gorbachev to improve his political position by presenting a democratic facade. However viewed, perestroika was a failure as an economic policy, pushing the country into excessive inflation, but it succeeded in introducing democracy and a new Russian way of life and governance.
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