Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of Communism

Communism has seen a painfully short lifespan and limited success as a government for nations. Most government prefectures have lasted for at least three hundred years, and each developed plus expanded on over the years. Democracy had its roots in Athens, Monarchies in early Britain. The list goes on. But Communism hasn’t been given too much credit. Yes, it did become somewhat commonplace in Europe during the late 1800’s and into 1960, but that’s about as long it has lasted. Perhaps it was carried out inefficiently? Or perhaps, it was just not developed enough. Whatever the case, the USSR was among the last countries to have a completely communist society in 1985. But they would come to undo the work achieved by Vladimir Lenin, who brought communism to Russia. The leader of the de-communism movement was Mikhail Gorbachev.

Mikhail Gorbachev’s control over the movement of reforms has had its ties to the past. Gorbachev was born during the totalitarian state of Joseph Stalin. He faced a hard life working as a collective farmer on the government owned farms. The suffering he dealt with helped inspire him to make reforms to the nation he was born into. We he came to office in the 1980’s, he did not wish for his Russia to continue Communism. He saw how it had weakened his country, and wanted to avoid any severe economical consequences and political consequences that the Soviet Union had suffered during his childhood, when Joseph Stalin was dictator. In a nutshell, Mikhail Gorbachev was opposed to the restriction of freedom. When he was elected for General Secretary in 1985, he wished to change the USSR for the better.

Gorbachev set his marks to emulating the capitalist type economy and less conforming laws. This organized plan for the reform movement across the USSR was called Perestroika, Russian for “reconstruction.” In summer 1987, Gorbachev met with the CPSU, or Communist Party of the Soviet Union, where he laid the groundwork for goals he wished to be met in his society changing reform that was Perestroika. He also created a state of openness to ideas that the society could be improved upon. This was called the Glasnost, Russian for “transparency,” where ideas for change and what should be changed could be expressed, and criticized openly, contrary to the old Communist regime’ that encouraged people to keep everything to themselves. People became full of hope again: they’d finally be breaking out of the oppression of Communism, and back into freedom. The Perestroika program brought numerous and astonishingly quick changes to the USSR. It allowed religious practice again, after being abolished in the union in the 1930’s. Churches reopened as a result, and people were content with the change. The open policy of the union now allowed for a sort of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. As a result, dissidents who had gone against the Communist regime’ were released from prison. It also allowed authors to write as they wished again. In conjunction, people began to openly criticize how the USSR functioned, and without being thrown into jail for it. Besides social reforms, the Perestroika brought some very significant economic reforms. Most importantly, it adopted capitalism. People were no longer ordered what to do and how to do it. It was a free economy now, and people could begin whatever business they liked. There were two small downsides to this: one, business were no longer funded by the government, so if they failed, they failed, and two, the shift from “do the work because you have to” to “do the work because you can make money” was a shock to many, since now effort had to be outputted to make a living.

Can you see the stark differences between this new USSR policy compared to the old Communist policy? The change was from restriction to freedom, to working for the government to working for yourself, and from persecution for individuality to freedom of expression. The reforms paved a crystal clear path to the end of Communism, because one of the only governments to still use Communism was the USSR. What happens when the last country of Communism loses its Communist aspects? Its not Communist anymore.

Collapse of Communism

Communism seemed to have a permanent establishment in Europe at one point. They controlled nearly all of Eastern Europe, and established an Iron Curtain that prevented any sort of information to get into, or leave the USSR. Its stagnant hold on Europe during the Cold War looked as if it would never be perturbed and disintegrate. But instead, that’s actually what happened: its was severely perturbed with reforms and did disintegrate. When Mikhail Gorbachev was elected the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, his democracy-inspired reforms had ultimately set the course for the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union.

The surge of reforms in the Soviet Union began to fuel the people’s imaginations for more freedom. Being granted so much more freedom than they ever had since its becoming Communist by Vladimir Lenin, they decided they wanted more. The mixed USSR nationalities started to fight to obtain their freedom. The first to take action for freedom was Lithuania, who declared their freedom in March 1990. Gorbachev feared that more of the USSR’s republics would follow in the same footsteps as Lithuania, so he first issued a blockade against the nation, but then in January 1991, Soviet troops launched an assault on civilians in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. This shocking event lowered the people’s respect for Mikhail Gorbachev, allowing for a tidal wave victor of Boris Yeltsin to assume control of the Soviet Union as president in June 1991.

Maybe the USSR and Communism had a certain critical turning point in August hadn’t happened. August 18trh, 1991, the conservatives of the Communist regime’ attempted a coup against Gorbachev and the Soviet Union’s capital, Moscow. Two days later, the State Committee under the conservatives were ordered to destroy the parliament building. But they refused to. That night, the forces were withdrawn. Ironically, that same night, Gorbachev returned to Moscow. Because of the failed coup, the other members of the USSR became infuriated. Rebellions and mass riots broke out in many countries. Sudden chaos forced Yeltsin to make drastic changes to the government, or else the doom of the Soviet Union was impendent. He issued a free market economy, hoping that the people would quickly adapt and that the problems facing the union would cease. But it failed horribly instead. Inflation soared. As more economical and political problems erupted all over the sate, Yeltsin became increasingly dictator like, just as Russia first began Communist, developed democratic influences under Lenin, and converted to a totalitarian under Stalin sixty years earlier. Soon, the entire state was racked, and Communism had collapsed under the pressure of numerous rebellions, economical failure, and government failure.

Besides the fall of communism in the USSR (which became the CIS, or Commonwealth of Independent States in 1991, Germany was undergoing its own major change. In August 1961, the Berlin Wall was constructed in the center of Germany, with its purpose being to separate the Communist East Germany from the Western side. It was a strong fortification, and anyone who tried to trespass were either quickly shot down, or gassed. Even when fording the wall in groups, they were all killed. For 28 years, this stalemate between the two sides of Germany remained, that is until 1989. In that November, demolition work was taken up, and grew to hundreds of people coming with sledgehammers to tear down the wall. And soon, it fell. The barrier between communism and the outside had finally been broken down. Not to mention, it was not the government who broke it down. It was the people. Sledgehammer wielding people. They grew tired of communism and made the change.

Creation of Israel

Despite the Jews have appeared in many historical contexts and period, it is ironic that they haven’t had a home country since the time of Judaea. They have also tended to be the center of numerous conflicts within the world, ranging from the persecution of the Jews in the First Crusade, to the Holocaust in Europe.

The Jews have been harshly beat down over the years and all over the world. It all began in the Kingdom of Judea. Since the Paleolithic Age, this area has been inhabited by various groups of people, most notably the Jews. They retained their kingdom until 560BC when their homes were conquered by the Babylonians, and dissimilated its people into different parts of Europe. Prior to this was the expulsion of the Jews from Egypt, resulting in a higher degree of separation and developments of the Jews (this was recorded and added into the Torah and Bible as the Book of Exodus). When the Roman Empire was established, it initiated the Jewish Diaspora, Hebrew for “exile,” around 7 BCE. The Diaspora was responsible for moving Jews away from the Judea region in the Roman Empire. This contributed even more to the spreading of the Jews into Europe, and also a new front: the Middle East. From this point on, they had been continually moved from location to location. Nations and people alike have dispersed them to other nations as their way of avoiding to deal with them. This Diaspora has continued for two thousand years, and it could be argued that it is continuing today. The most recent re-location of the Jews, however, was in the recreation of a Jewish nation, one which was deserved after years of separation from their homeland. This new nation was Israel.

The first ideas for an all Jew nation were proposed by Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism. Zionism is the concept that an individual nation for the Jews should be created. It also refers to the actual mass movement of the Jews into the (spoilers) eventually created nation. In the late 1800’s, the beginnings of this mass immigration into Palestine resulted in conflicts with the Arabs who had the majority of control over the area; it was the beginning of the tensions that would rack the Israelis and the Arabs for years to come. Theodor Herzl was responsible for encouraging this mass movement. On September 3, 1897, he called for a congress for Zionists in Basel, Switzerland, where ideas for an independent Israel and the making of the World Zionist Organization. Fast forward to a year before the end of World War I, 1917. Arthur Balfour, a British Foreign Secretary, established a mandate for a creation of an all Jewish nation in Palestine. This mandate was called the Balfour Declaration. Not only did this concept had widespread support of nations around the world, it gained immense popularity with the Jews themselves. Since their forceful removal from Judea, Jews worldwide had been wishing to return to the “Holy Land” of their ancestors. It was essentially a form of nationalism that fueled their well purposed desperation for their own nation. When the oppressive pogroms of Russia further discriminated the Jews, and Adolph Hitler’s insanity racked through the Jewish population in the form of the Holocaust, the nationalistic feeling of the rightful owners of the Holy Land increased rapidly. But of course, the Arabs had a huge problem with this: Palestine was their nation. They ked riots against the British until 1939, when the British parliament issued the White Paper, a document that said only 75,000 Jews could immigrate into Palestine for the next five years (ironically coinciding with the length of Hitler’s Final Solution).

The second World War ended in British victory. I assume that because Britain was too weak itself to handle any political problems with Palestine, it ceased the Balfour Declaration, and dropped all the weight of the problem onto the United Nations. On November 29th, 1947, in UN Resolution 181, it was agreed that Palestine would be partitioned. One side would become all Jew and the other would become all Arab. As one would think, the Arabs rejected it, and the Jews accepted. Arabs argued that it was their rightful land. But the same applied for the Jews. The Arabs claimed to be descendants of Abraham, who said that this land would be for his descendants. But the same applied for the Hews. The Arabs said it was important for their religion. But the same applied for the Jews. This monotonous, but serious conflict needed a final agreement. Nations like the United States were for the proposal, so it came to be. On May 14, 1948, Israel, the land for and of the Jewish people and Judaism was created, as was it was predicted in Bible prophecy.

Apparently, Israel was hated. Really hated. The day after it was created, it was attacked on all sides by its everlasting enemies: the Arabs. Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq all combined forces and attacked Israel. Call it divine intervention, or just advance weaponry and a strategic location, Israel emerged victorious for the war in 1948. But it was not the end of conflict. To escape turmoil, many Jews and Arabs alike fled their countries. In the Rhodes Armistice of 1949, Arabian refugees settled along the West Bank, creating a crisis in that region still present today. More wars ensued in the region until present day.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid - It is a term synonymous to segregation. In South Africa, it was the separation of the Bantu (black), mixed people, and whites.

Acrimony towards the Bantu, or Blacks, of South Africa has been a commonplace practice in the early 1900’s. That is, until the coming of Nelson Mandela. The Bantu suffered from the laws of Apartheid, a derogative set of laws that slimmed the rights of the native blacks to nearly nothing. Mandela, who had felt the effects of Apartheid first hand, became president of the African Nation Congress (ANC), who in synchronization with the United Democratic Front (the UDF), combated for the abolition of apartheid and free rights for the native people.

The Apartheid laws were created by the Prime Minister of South Africa, Daniel Francois Malan and his cabinet in 1948. Its purpose was to retain imperialistic European superiority in the region, which it did achieve. Except this achievement was not something the Blacks of South Africa were particularly proud of. From this first horrible policy stemmed more racist policies that segregated the blacks from the whites to a higher degree. For example, the Separate Amenities Act of 1953 divided transportation and public places into two divisions: nonwhite and white. Similar to what was done in the United States, blacks were bound by the law to go exclusively to black public areas and use black transportation; same for the whites. The British were so racist against the South Africans that they added a new act called the Bantu Education Act of 1953, which dumbed down the quality and amount of education that blacks would receive (likely a way to keep the blacks uninformed, so to not encourage any ideas that would set them against the whites).

Nelson Mandela was an active and key member of the ANC. He and his comrades lead non-violent protests and practiced civil disobedience. But this was to little avail. Though convicted in 1961 for treason, he became the leader of an underground ANC that utilized guerilla warfare to make the abolishment of apartheid happen. In 1962, he was finally arrested and sentenced to 27 years in prison on Robben Island. He remained here working in the quarry of the prison day after day. Though in prison, the number of pro-Nelson followers did not decrease. Actually, they increased. A lot. The imprisonment of Nelson actually enforced the people’s will to fight against apartheid. The whites realized the dilemma. They knew that if Mandela were to die in prison, they’d have to face an all out conflict against the Bantu. To avoid this theorized war, they released Mandela early in 1991.

Out of prison on February 11th, 1990, Nelson Mandela had control over all the people of Southern Africa. All he had to do was say the word, and he could have led a armed resistance to completely destroy the apartheid laws. But the point in fact is that he didn’t. He did not resort to violence, and one that could have wiped out all the whites from South Africa. Instead, he rejoined the ANC to negotiate with the white leaders to reach a peaceful conclusion. This is why the articles and authors of the links provided respect and honor Mandela so greatly: he had humble beginnings, sponsoring civil disobedience to gain independence for his people and country. Though he did give into using violence, he testifies that it was the only option, because they would never obtain their freedom if the whites remained in the stubborn stance. Arrested, and then freed in 1990, he was in the greatest position of power to completely change Africa. But he did not do it with a vengeance. He did it with an open heart to his opponents. On the 27th of April, 1994, the first democratic multiracial elections took place. Nelson Mandela, who gained the respect of all the people, had won for his people the independence from the apartheid laws.