Causes Of Gorbachev's Disintegration

Disintegration of the USSR happened mainly because the late Soviet leadership renounced the very forces that forged the Soviet empire and that propped up Bolshevik government’s modus operandi since its inception. In 1917, the yoke of repression was heated by Lenin, and through 1953 cooked by Stalin in complete totalitarian fashion. Gorbachev, however, resolved to govern differently not realizing the policy contradictions that would ultimately lead to USSR’s demise. If Gorbachev were the same person as Lenin or Stalin, the Soviet Union could have remained intact for a little longer, but certainly not indefinitely given the status quo, as other factors played a role. Above all, however, Gorbachev was not a personalist leader, and so he was unable to exert tight control over his state and people as his predecessors had. Once the illusion of progress was shattered both abroad and at home, …show more content…
However, the forces unleashed by granting freedoms were overwhelming. Gorbachev could have perhaps temporarily avoided the disintegration of the Soviet Union through a decisive use of force and harsher approach, though its eventual destruction was inevitable. Soviet stability relied on two main factors: a strong leader and the use of force to stifle political opposition. The pattern in pre-revolutionary Russia has seemed to be frenzied bursts of change followed by long periods of tyranny. Vladimir Lenin, proving the infallibility of this cycle, took control of the government in a time of political turbulence. As John Parker alludes to in “The Coming Russian Boom” ,the Russian people