USSR 1991

Synopsis

Beginning under Nikita Khrushchev from 1953 to 1964 and throughout the period after his resignation as general secretary, the USSR stagnated. The leaders of this totalitarian regime had a thirst for power but questionable ability. The economy suffered from lack of investment, and the government's reaction to general dissatisfaction was to counter with repressive measures. Though many historians agree that Yuri Andropov, general secretary from 1982 to 1984, was a reformer, his only achievement was to promote younger, more liberal communists on to the Politburo. The fact that the Politburo elected the conservative former KGB officer Konstantin Chernenko as Andropov's successor, however, highlights the fact that the liberal element lacked decisive influence. By the time of Chernenko's death, 13 months after Andropov, many of the "old guard" Brezhnevites had also died. This allowed Mikhail Gorbachev, a Leninist reformer, to be elected with the unanimous support of the Politburo, a...