“President Gorbachev:
A man in a million,
A heart in a billion
And
A soul in a trillion.”
- Sri Chinmoy
(A reflection on the Gorbachev Phenomenon)
Even at the age of eighty, Gorbachev is still very young in spirit. His mind is still as clear and active as it was before. Everything he does is firm and to the point: he does not shake your hand, he grips it; he does not walk, he strides; he does not chat, he proclaims. As he himself confesses, he does not eat, he hoovers up every scrap on his plate. Even now he keeps himself very busy. His day begins with an early morning one hour walk followed by hot and cold showers. At the end of a hectic day of activity he still goes to bed at 2 am just like before. Gorbachev says if he were to slow down he would feel worse.
Before the mid 1980s many eminent scholars had observed that to transform the Soviet system from a repressive and authoritarian one to a system where there was freedom, democracy and the rule of law, a serious reform minded individual must climb to the top of the Communist Party leadership. But many western observers had ruled out the prospect of a reformer becoming the General Secretary of the Communist Party (de facto chief executive of the Soviet Union). Yet a reform minded Gorbachev with the sheer force of his personality, outstanding intelligence & courage and the important role Yuri Andropov played in advancing his career, managed to become the General Secretary.
Looking back on the Russian Soviet history it is quite obvious that not one of the communist leaders would have undertaken radical reform of the Soviet system or change its foreign policy in the way Gorbachev did. Khrushchev and Andropov were contemplating implementing reforms but the changes they were willing to bring in were far less fundamental than those Gorbachev embraced. He moved from reforming the Soviet system to completely transforming it and finally dismantling the pillars of Communism.
What is most interesting to note is that the changes that took place in Soviet-Russia during the time of Gorbachev were of a huge magnitude and these massive changes occurred peacefully with very little violence. This must go to the credit of Gorbachev - the highly skilled politician. Gorbachev knew how to play the political game at every level. He was a politician with a remarkably open mind and a fantastic capacity to learn and adjust.
It was Gorbachev’s dream to see the Soviet Union enter the new millennium 'as a great and prosperous power'. He wished to reform the Soviet system and not to destroy it. But the entire Soviet System was on a slow decline when Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Communist Party. According to the British scholar Archie Brown, “there is absolutely no reason to suppose that any conceivable alternative to Gorbachev in the mid-1980s would have turned Marxism-Leninism on its head and fundamentally changed both his country and the international system in an attempt to reverse a decline which did not pose an immediate threat either to the system or to him.”
When Gorbachev was transferred from Stavropol to Moscow as the agriculture Secretary, he brought a totally new approach to the Secretariat in Moscow. Unlike other members of the Communist party leadership, Gorbachev consulted a wide range of experts, most of who were from outside the Communist party apparatus. He invited leading reform minded economists, sociologists and foreign policy analysts to private meetings and seminars which sometimes lasted for several hours.This independent minded, democratic trait of Gorbachev distinguished him from all of his Communist predecessors.
Gorbachev’s foreign policy advisor Chernyaev notes “Gorbachev stood out among the other Party bosses for his singular passion, his desire to change, improve and organize, to ‘give an impetus’ and ‘get people going’.” Once while watching Gorbachev at a Central Committee meeting Chernyaev observed, “He's quick, instantly picks up on everything, and you can tell that he's well-informed and confident. He gets to the core of the issue, cuts out idle chatter, finds solutions, gives advice but also controls and disciplines. He's fun, but he also has character.”
Gorbachev was the central figure in the twentieth century world history. He was the key player in the ending of the Cold War, in the fall of the Berlin Wall and in allowing the countries of Eastern Europe to become free and independent. It was Gorbachev who facilitated the introduction of rights and liberties to the people of Russia. According to one Russian scholar, Olga Chaykovskaya, Gorbachev inherited 'a moribund, slavish country and made it alive and free.'
Even as one celebrates Gorbachev’s achievements, one cannot overlook the questions – why perestroika failed and why the Soviet Union collapsed. Many scholars have expressed many views – some similar and some very divergent. But it is Gorbachev himself who addressed these questions best. In his article ‘Perestroika Lost’ Gorbachev wrote that the radicals pushed them to move faster and the conservatives stepped on their toes. At a time when even an hour mattered, Gorbachev had to spend his precious time fighting political battles with these two groups and the implementation of reforms kept getting delayed. This was the main cause for the failure of perestroika. Apart from this Gorbachev acknowledges that he and the reformers themselves made mistakes. One of their main mistake was acting too late to reform the Communist Party and it became a hindrance to their moving forward. Also the attempted coup in August 1991 by the party’s top bureaucracy scuttled the reforms. The Soviet Union collapsed because they failed to find a away for the republics to exist as sovereign states within a decentralized democratic union. Finally they lost the support of fellow citizens because the economy collapsed. To quote Gorbachev, “In the heat of political battles we lost sight of the economy, and people never forgave us for the shortages of everyday items and the lines for essential goods.”
Perhaps in this context most significant is the conversation Gorbachev had with Raisa Maksimovna in August 1990 when they were returning from Yalta. Gorbachev told Raisa “We've got the most difficult time ahead of us. There is going to be political fighting . . . political squabbles . . . it's very alarming . . . You see, it will inevitably affect the economic situation and the solution of our economic problems. Our super-problem today is that we mustn't give in to the conservatives: we would never get out of that. But we mustn't surrender the fate of the country and its future to cowboys. They would ruin everything. We shall carry on step by step. Perhaps not every step will be the right one; they won't all hit the target. But they have to be taken!'
Taking a bird’s eye view of those six eventful years it is clear that for the sake of his people and for the good of the world, Gorbachev as leader of the Soviet Union relentlessly dominated world politics and gave history a turn that had profound impact on humanity. It marked the beginning of a new era in world history. Alexander Yakovlev, an important Russian reformer and a world class statesman who belonged to Gorbachev’s inner circle of power said, “I consider Gorbachev to be the greatest reformer of the twentieth century, the more so because he tried to do this in Russia where from time immemorial the fate of reformers has been unenviable.” In its opinion column The New York Times wrote ‘Gorbachev deserves to be remembered for what he did and, perhaps more important, what he refused to do. With a wisdom and decency that is sadly rare in international power politics, he chose not to defend a dying system with a final, futile spasm of murderous force.’
Looking at every minute detail of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev’s life – political or otherwise, one is compelled to salute Gorbachev with gratitude, admiration, reverence and goodwill.
Indeed, ‘President Gorbachev - a man in a million’. No exaggeration. An extraordinary man with an extraordinary dream.
Mallikarjun
March 2, 2011
