In the mid-1980s, under the leadership of the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, large-scale changes in politics and economics, called perestroika, unfolded in the USSR. Several years of reforms did not help create "socialism with a human face". In the early 90s, the Soviet Union ceased to exist as a single state.
Instructions
Step 1
The Soviet leadership was prompted to begin perestroika by negative phenomena in the political and economic life of the country. It seemed to the new leadership of the country that it was enough to give the economy an acceleration, to create conditions for the transition to the free development of the national economy, to ensure publicity so that the country would move to the forefront of the world. The first stage of perestroika, which began in 1985 and lasted for about two years, was met with enthusiasm in society.
Step 2
However, by the end of the 1980s, it became clear that the "cosmetic repair" of the old administrative system of state administration would not lead to the desired results. Therefore, a course was taken to introduce the principles of market economy into the economy, which was the country's first step towards capitalism. By the end of the decade, the country was in an acute political and economic crisis, which required drastic solutions.
Step 3
In the summer of 1988, the second stage of perestroika reforms began. Cooperatives began to be created in the country, private economic initiative was encouraged in every possible way. It was assumed that in three or four years the USSR would be able to fully integrate into the world system of the capitalist economy, which was called the "free market". Such decisions fundamentally violated all the previous principles of the Soviet economy and broke the ideological foundations. By the beginning of the last decade of the 20th century, communism in the USSR had ceased to be the dominant ideology.
Step 4
The road to the market proved to be extremely difficult. In 1990, there were practically no goods left on the shelves of domestic stores. The money that was in the hands of the population gradually ceased to be a measure of prosperity, because there was little to buy with it. In the country, dissatisfaction with the course of the government was growing, which was clearly driving society to a dead end.
Step 5
The party leadership has embarked on the third stage of perestroika. Party leaders demanded from officials to work out a program for the transition to a real market, in which there would be private ownership of the means of production, free competition and the independence of enterprises. Against this background, by the middle of 1990 B. N. Yeltsin has effectively formed his own center of political power in Russia, independent of the central leadership.
Step 6
Perestroika also affected the internal political processes taking place in the country. In June 1990, the Russian parliament adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty, which abolished the priority of union laws. The example of Russia became infectious for other republics of the USSR, whose political elites also dreamed of independence. The so-called "parade of sovereignties" began, which quickly led to the de facto disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Step 7
The events of August 1991, later called the "August putsch", became a turning point in Russian history that put an end to perestroika. A group of high-ranking leaders of the USSR announced the creation of the State Committee for a State of Emergency (GKChP). But this attempt to return the country to its former political and economic channel was thwarted by the efforts of B. N. Yeltsin, who quickly seized the initiative.
Step 8
After the failure of the putsch, fundamental changes took place in the system of power in the USSR. A few months later, the Soviet Union split into several independent states. Thus ended not only perestroika, but an entire epoch of the existence of the great socialist power.
