The Electronic Passport to Gorbachev and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Older leaders who were trained under Stalin had led the Soviet Union for many years, but in 1985 the Soviets turned to a younger generation as they selected Mikhail Gorbachev as their leader. Gorbachev was a Communist, but he gave the Soviet citizens more freedom and tried to reform the Soviet economy. He began policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).

Gorbachev hoped that by allowing the citizens more freedom, he could reform and strengthen the Soviet system. His glasnost policies allowed for freedom of the press in the Soviet Union. People were allowed to criticize the government without fear of persecution. Gorbachev allowed the first open Soviet people to select their own local leaders beginning in 1979, and they rejected the Communist candidates by a wide margin.

Russian President Boris Yeltzin In 1991, old style Communists attempted a coup, or a takeover of the government. Gorbachev was able to stop the coup, but he clearly did not have the support of the people. At the end of the year, the Soviet Union quietly ceased to exist. Boris Yeltsin became president of the new democratic nation of Russia and the other Soviet republics absorbed by Lenin were allowed to form independent governments.

Russia and Communism

To cite this page:
Dowling, Mike., "The Electronic Passport to the Gorbachev and the Fall of the Soviet Union," available from http://www.mrdowling.com/707-gorbachev.html; Internet; updated