The collapse of the Soviet Union was a victory for the West, but a disaster for the Soviet people at stake. There are many reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union, among which "open press reform" played a crucial role.
Since Gorbachev's accession to the Kremlin in March 1985, he has faced a grim international and domestic situation. As the leader of the new generation of the Soviet Union, he was eager to make a difference and sought to carry out a profound reform of Soviet society in all aspects.
At a time when economic reform was in trouble, Gorbachev tried to find a new breakthrough in politics. Thus began a great movement of political reform.
In order to realize the so-called political ideal, Gorbachev put forward the slogan of political "democratization", the first of which was the policy of "openness" in the field of news and public opinion. This policy accompanied Gorbachev through his final days as the last leader of the Soviet Union.
The so-called "political openness" was first seen in the period when Peter the Great of Russia pursued a policy of Westernization. During Gorbachev's reign, "openness" was further deepened and became a basic state policy that he mainly promoted after he came to power.
In February 1986, under the planning of Gorbachev and his close associate Yakovlev, the 27th Congress of the CPSU formally raised the so-called issue of "openness". However, compared with the "limited, principled" openness of Lenin's time, the "openness" advocated by Gorbachev has become unscrupulous.
For Gorbachev, "openness" became synonymous with democratization and transparency in politics. He believed that "openness" should let the Soviet people know everything, leaving no "forgotten figures and historical gaps". Under the cover of such slogans, by the end of Gorbachev's administration, openness had evolved into a tool for exposing the dark side of the Soviet state's history, and they used the connivance of the current policy and even falsified and distorted history, causing irreparable consequences to Soviet society.
"Openness" is certainly good, but blind unrestrained openness can only cause Soviet society to fall into panic.
According to records, the Soviet government, in commemoration of the historical merits of Lenin, Dzerzhinsky, Stalin, Sverdlov and others, erected statues of Lenin, Dzerzhinsky, Sverdlov and others in the center of Moscow for people to see. And after Gorbachev announced the beginning of the "open" reform of news and public opinion, in the frenzy of denying Soviet history, these statues symbolizing lofty ideals were overturned to the ground, and some were even damaged beyond recognition, and were frantically attacked and smeared.
Is this called "openness"? It's almost on par with what the mob did.
Caputo, former head of the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union, has a real feeling about the consequences of Gorbachev's "open" reforms. Caputo has said many times: "Openness is a very shocking thing in the Party, but when this mouth is opened, it is completely closed." All the reports were not a little truthful and socially responsible, and they became tools for the West to attack the Soviet Union. ”
As Caputo put it, the starting point of "openness" is good, but as soon as the power is opened, it cannot be closed at all. No one is willing to pay for Gorbachev's mistakes, even Yakovlev and the like tend to be bound by fame and fortune, and cannot make clear provisions on the Soviet press, which is the sadness of the late Soviet Union!
Press reform was an important window for Gorbachev's "openness" and "democratization." What is stifling is that this kind of press reform has embarked on an evil road, or that the general direction has been wrong from the beginning, and it has eventually deviated from the principles of the Soviet state and led to the loss of control of public opinion.
According to common sense, the principle of party spirit is the fundamental criterion of socialist journalism and the core of the Soviet state press system. However, the press reform work carried out by Gorbachev after coming to power not only failed to uphold this point, but explicitly abolished the "interference" of government departments in press work.
In order to strengthen the leadership of the so-called "open" work, Gorbachev specially selected his close confidant Yakovlev as the head of propaganda of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union, responsible for the reform of the press field.
Soon after, Gorbachev personally promoted him to head of the field of journalism, in charge of Soviet ideology. As soon as Yakovlev took office, he made a drastic adjustment to the Soviet press leadership, excluded the Bolsheviks who safeguarded the interests of the Party and the state, and placed Gorbachev's cronies in various leading positions in the journalism circles, thus achieving the goal of mastering news and public opinion.
In fact, this abandoned the state principle of journalism, led to the upward and downward movement of the press departments in various parts of the Soviet Union, fell into chaos, and encouraged western public opinion to attack the Soviet Union.
In June 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR even passed the Press and Publications Act, giving the green light to the Soviet Union's tendency to "liberalize". The law stipulates that all State organs, political parties, organizations and citizens who have reached the age of eighteen have the right to create instruments of public opinion. This has gradually legitimized the opposition's control of the tools of public opinion. In October of that year alone, more than 700 newspapers and periodicals sprang up in Soviet society. Of course, these newspapers did not appear to maintain the rule of the Soviet government, but their main task was to support the "democrats" and "liberals" throughout the Soviet Union.
The of a thousand miles collapsed in the ant nest. In the case of the Soviet people in confusion and ignorance of the truth, the loss of control of news and public opinion shook people's belief in nationalism, and eventually triggered the intensification of various contradictions in Soviet society