ABSTRACT
When Gorbachev became Secretary-General of the CPSU in March 1985 he indicated that the reversal of the post-war decline in economic growth was an urgent priority, both to satisfy the demands of the population for a steady improvement in living standards and to preserve the status of the Soviet Union as a superpower. Despite the priority attached to the improvement of economic performance, the pace of implementation of economic reform under Gorbachev was far slower than the pace of reform in domestic social policy, constitutional reforms and reforms to foreign policy. The failure to implement a coherent economic reform and to create a properly functioning economic system over a seven-year period was a major factor contributing to the deterioration in economic performance in 1990-91, which in turn contributed to the disintegration of the Soviet economy and the collapse of the Soviet Union itself at the end of 1991.
