By Dr. Tapiwa Mashakada
Mikhail
Gorbachev died few days ago on the 30th of August 2022. He is remembered for
catalyzing the collapse of the once powerful Soviet Union by the stroke
of a pen. Gorbachev did what America and its Allies had failed to do in 50
years. To the western world he was a hero. For he dismantled the most robust
and formidable superpower which paved the way for the creation of a unipolar
global system and security architecture. But to others he was a
treacherous traitor or a CIA agent. All this depends on one's ideological
vantage point.
The
Soviet Union was established in 1922 by Vladimir Lenin who died in 1924 and was
succeeded by Joseph Stalin who was ruthless but modernized and industrialized
Russia. Stalin led the Soviet Union in the phase of the 2nd World War and
helped defeat Nazi Germany in 1945. The Soviet Union bore the biggest brunt of
the war losing millions of its people. Thereafter the USSR expanded its
influence in eastern europe and expanded its Communism to East Germany.
Communism spread to Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania,
Czechoslovakia, Albania and Poland. Alarmed by this expansion of
Communism, Churchill called it the Iron Curtain descending on Western
Europe. The Soviet Union developed its industry, science and technology and
even sent astraunaghts to the moon. The Soviet Union under Stalin developed
nuclear arms.
After
Stalin there came many Soviet leaders who maintained communism during the cold
war. These are Krushchev, Brezhnev, Constantin Chenenko. Krushchev almost
brought the world on the edge of a nuclear hollocaust during the Cuban Missile
crisis. Fast forward. After the death of Chenenko, Gorbachev took over
the Leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union becoming its
Secretary General in 1986. He then became the last Soviet lerader. Gorbachev
introduced political and economic reforms through a process he called "
Glasnost and Perestroika". Simply translated it means
"openness". He began to lean towards the West. Gorbachev began to
weaken the Soviet Union through disarmament and reduction of nuclear
proliferation. He entered many arms control treaties with Ronald Reagan of the
United States.
Gorbachev
liberalized the inefficient parastatals and introduced a market economy to
replace the Command economy. He gave soviets freedoms. His reforms ended up
with unintended consequences. Russian nationalism erupted and Gorbachev was
toppled in a bloodless revolution led by Boris Yeltsin in 1991. Soviet tanks
rolled into the streets but this did not work. The collapse of the Soviet Union
sparked a chain reaction in other Soviet Republics.
Following
the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1991 the remaining 15 Soviet Republics
followed Russia and declared independence. These are Estonia,
Moldava, Lithuania, Georgia, Armenia, Kigistan,
Azerbaijan, Turkmania, Ukraine, Latvia Belarussia, Tajikistan
and so on. Former Soviet allies in Eastern Europe shook off Communism. The
first eastern European country to collapse communism was Romania. In 1992
Romannians went into the streets and toppled the Romanian dictator Nicolai
Caesesceau. Him and his wife were put on firing squad. Eric Honecker of East
German was lucky to be spared his life after the collapse of the Berlin Wall
and the Bundersburg gate that separated east and west Berlin.
Gorbachev
was later self exiled in America where Americans helped him establish his
Gorbachev Foundation.
This
became the legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev. He collapsed the once mighty Soviet
Union through his so-called glasnost and perestroika little principles.
After
Boris Yeltsin died, Vladimir Putin who was a KGB spy in East Germany took
over the reins of state power in a weakened Russian Federation.
The
death of Mikhail Gorbachev has divided the opinion of Russians. Many curse him
and see Putin as a hero trying to restore the Soviet glory -- Too little too
late. As his body lied in state at the Kremlin, all Putin could do was
lay his wreath at the coffin of Gorbachev. Putin skipped the
funeral ostensibly for Security reasons.
Fare
thee well Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet Leader.
Dr. Tapiwa Mashakada
is the Director, Maji-Marefu Institute of International Relations and Security
Studies and a member of the Pan-African Parliament
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