Gorbachev was annoyed 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the West promised him after the reunification of Germany that "NATO will not advance eastward by a centimeter", but the facts are very different.
After Gorbachev came to power in April 1985, he carried out democratization and economic reforms. The first was the politicization of the purge, from the criticism of Stalin to the criticism of Lenin, the October Revolution and the socialist system, and the complete denial of the historical role of the CPSU in the Soviet Union. In this context, those who dared to attack the CPSU and its history became anti-conservative and anti-authoritarian reform heroes.
After Yeltsin's visit to the United States in May 1989, he waged a more active political struggle against the leadership of the CPSU, with the primary goal of abolishing the provisions of Article VI of the Constitution on the leadership of the CPSU, which has now become the first barrier for democrats to mobilize the masses to seize power throughout the country. And this set the stage for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In February 1988, Azerbaijan and Armenia clashed over the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, and although the Soviet regime relied on the intervention of the army to suppress the matter, ethnic hatred deepened, sowing the seeds for the independence of the Soviet union states.
During this period, due to the democratization of Gorbachev, the trend of liberalization was rampant, the political ideology inside and outside the CPSU was confused, the prestige of the Central Government of the Soviet Union was reduced, and the cohesion was weakened.
In April 1989, demonstrations and riots of varying degrees occurred in Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, and Gorbachev began to lose his leadership over the republics and Soviet power began to decline.
That moment still came!
On December 25, 1991, the Soviet Union disintegrated and split into 15 countries. Including Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova.
Common sense is that a mother should support each other and treat each other kindly, but in fact, these former allies of the Soviet Union have occasional wars. In August 2008, the Russo-Georgian War; in November 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed in Nagorno-Karabakh ...
The most recent is the problem of troops on the border between the Russian and Ukrainian armies. Ukraine, which is close to the United States, vows to join NATO to the death, and if it is realized, it will greatly compress Russia's strategic space, and in recent years, NATO's continuous eastward expansion has in fact greatly reduced Russia's strategic space.
As the largest of the allies of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia will certainly not agree, not to mention that Russian President Putin still has the good wish to make Russia strong, after he came to power, he has been trying to restore the glory of the Soviet Union, hard bar NATO, hard top of the United States, is not to let the West eat russia again. Therefore, Russia's troops demanded that the United States and NATO not expand eastward.
In recent years, Russia and the United States and Europe have essentially approached the state of the Cold War, the United States can have thousands of sanctions against Russia, and the two sides have sought diplomatic solutions, but it is difficult for the two countries on two tracks to reach an agreement.
Against the backdrop of the confrontation between the United States and Russia, some in Russia are even more distressed by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the "greatest geopolitical tragedy of the twentieth century," especially the older ones, who miss the Soviet era and hate Gorbachev as the culprit in the collapse of the Soviet empire.
In 1996, Gorbachev ran for president, but his approval rating was only 0.5 percent.
In 2009, Gorbachev topped the Russian poll on "Who was the worst Russian leader of the 20th century on national development."
In October 2005, Gorbachev was splashed with water by an attendee while attending a round table in Moscow.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia also rapidly declined. For such "merits", the unanimous evaluation in the lecture halls of the Russian University is that Mr. Gorbachev once naively gave up the Russian "security fence", but got an insignificant reward, and we will not make such a mistake again.
It can be said that Gorbachev has not yet received the understanding of the people.
In March 1985, Gorbachev was elected leader of the Soviet Union. After taking office, he launched a comprehensive reform of democracy and economy. But institutional abuses, ethnic hatred, opposition instigation, non-cooperation from the lower strata, and disturbances in the United States have all frustrated the reforms.
To the displeasure of the military, Gorbachev announced a disarmament plan without drawing up a resettlement plan in advance. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers and their relatives who were reduced for a time had no basis in life and were dissatisfied with the government, which greatly dampened the morale of the Soviet army. The Russian army, known as the "fighting nation," lacked combat morale and felt like no one was in charge.
What is shocking is that such a decision on disarmament came from a good friend of Gerson's proposals. Gorbachev may have had a good wish at the time, advocating peace and leaving military spending to develop the people's livelihood. But on the other hand, this reflects Gorbachev's weak experience in international politics and his lack of awareness of a military power.
Historians of Gorbachev's leadership, whether from the United States, Europe, or Russia, agreed that Gorbachev was no match for U.S. President Ronald Reagan at the time.
In terms of individual rights, Gorbachev was also criticized. Valery Wilitschko, director of the KGB's Ninth Bureau, once recounted that once, when Gorbachev and his family were on vacation in Foros, his daughter was hit on the head by a curtain stand that suddenly fell while pulling the curtains. Fortunately, she was not injured. However, all staff members related to this were dismissed. The outstanding architect who participated in the construction of the Baikonur Space Center, the deputy director of the Ninth Bureau, who was also the recipient of the title of "Hero of Socialist Labor" twice, also because of the curtain frame incident, his status plummeted.
Indeed, the collapse of the Soviet Union was inseparable from Gorbachev, and he himself admitted it.
In March 2016, the Russian Liberal Democratic Party submitted a bill to the Russian State Duma to convict Gorbachev of criminalizing the policies during Gorbachev's reign at the national level, and their main accusation against Gorbachev was the illegal establishment and leadership of the Soviet State Council, which was subsequently involved in the abolition of the Soviet Union because the Soviet Constitution did not establish this body as an organ of state power.
The deputies who participated in the presentation of the bill also pointed out that 77.85% of the citizens of the Soviet Union who participated in the March 1991 referendum were in favour of retaining a unified state, and that the illegal actions carried out by the supreme leader of the Soviet Union led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Initiator Nikitchuk said Gorbachev had all the leverage of power and the ability to solve problems, but he did nothing. We believe that "he is carrying out the instructions of others, deliberately causing the collapse of the Soviet Union".
Co-sponsor Jeggarev argues that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a geopolitical tragedy, with millions of people either dying or unemployed or lowering their standard of living. Lots of broken families. Jegkarev hopes that the investigation will give the first legal evaluation in history of the collapse of the Soviet Union. In his view, the full facts show that the dismemberment of the SOVIET Union was a planned operation and that the guilty, including Gorbachev, should be punished.
In response, Gorbachev issued a statement in April 2016 saying that he did not shirk his responsibility for the collapse of the Soviet Union. But, in his memoirs, from time to time, Goethe defended himself, trying to prove to people that there was nothing wrong with his line of reform, that his decisions were correct, and that the Soviet Union and history had failed him, not that he had failed the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev, who is on the sidelines 20 years later, is much more sober than he was when he was in office. To his particular chagrin, the Western countries promised him after the reunification of Germany that "NATO will not advance eastward by a centimeter", but the facts are very different. Gorbachev slammed the Americans for not keeping their promises and the Germans showing indifference on the issue, "which has caused Russia to lose trust in its Western promises."
After Gorbachev's ouster, the Russian economy fell into the most difficult situation in history, and inflation also greatly depreciated Gorbachev's pension, and the only $80,000 deposit was wasted due to bank bankruptcy.
But Gorbachev made his life worry-free by writing books. His 80 works, mostly reminiscences and reflections on the reform period, among which the best-selling "Truth and Confessions: Gorbachev's Memoirs" has become a valuable source for the study of cold war history in countries around the world, and the book has earned him millions of dollars in royalties.
Between 1992 and 2008, Gorbach made 266 trips abroad, visited 50 countries, and his books were translated into 10 languages and published abroad.
His books were very popular in Europe and the United States, and western governments, universities and non-governmental organizations awarded him various awards and honorary titles, and in 1990 he was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He is also an "honorary citizen" of nine Western cities, including Berlin, Florence and Dublin.
While Russians can't understand Gorbachev, in the West, Gorbachev is seen as a hero who peacefully dismantled the Berlin Wall.
In a reunified Germany, Gorbachev even became a hero for many. In the words of former German Foreign Minister Genscher: "Gorbachev changed the history of the world and made it better." ”
Rodrik Braswaite, Britain's former ambassador to Moscow, wrote for the Financial Times as Gorbachev as "a key figure in the transformation of Eastern Europe". He writes that there is no reason to forget that the process of communism's end in Europe would have been much bloodier and more enduring, had it not been for Gorbachev.
Dr. Barshchenkov of Russian history believes that people often blame Gorbachev for the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it is inappropriate to ask questions in this way. Gorbachev's inability to keep the SOVIET Union at bay was the main problem.
Putin once said that "the collapse of the Soviet Union was caused by weakness", perhaps the result of the will of the politicians of the time, the objective process of history and economy is one thing, but politicians should fight for the territorial integrity of the country.
There are various theories about why the Soviet Union collapsed and on Gorbachev's merits and demerits, and we can only see the benevolent and the wise. But history will always enlighten people, we absorb what is useful to us, and it is the truth not to repeat the mistakes of the Soviet Union! (Inoue Frog)