Heritage of the Gorbachev Era

In hindsight, it appears remarkable that Mikhail Gorbachev could receive so much acclaim for the economic policies that he pursued from 1985. From our current perspective, it appears all too evident that his rule was characterized by an unprecedented confusion in economic policies. Virtually every mistake that could be made was made. The Gorbachev administration carried out a massive destruction of the old Soviet system. In history, Gorbachev will go down as one of the greatest destructors of evil, ¹ while he failed in all his many attempts at construction. Gorbachev’s great achievement was that he swiftly and relatively peacefully broke down one of the most centralized and ruthless systems the world has seen to date.

In this paper, we scrutinize Gorbachev’s mode of policy-making in a first section. The consecutive two sections focus on principles of Gorbachev’s policy and how they have survived. The second section is devoted to Gorbachev’s major shortcomings, and the third deals with Gorbachev’s achievements. In a fourth section we sum up major remaining effects of his principles and actual policies. The fifth section draws conclusions. The economic policies carried out under Gorbachev’s aegis from 1985 until 1991 appear of less relevance to his heritage. On the one hand, Gorbachev did not appear to be the decisive engine behind these policies but rather co-opted the policies of others. ² The attempts at the revitalization of the old command economy from 1985 to 1987 by reinforcing morals and streamlining the system technologically failed altogether 185and suggested that the only way out was a fully-fledged change of economic system. Similarly, the endeavors of combining plan and market during the last years of the 1980s implied that it was necessary to go further. The introduction of quasi-property rights in small scale activities was not enough. The public as well as the policy-making elite became increasingly convinced that real capitalism was needed. Little of the policies pursued had any attraction after they had been tried.