Russian Policy, Essay Example

Stalin also kindled Russian anti-Semitism as a result of his false claim that Jewish doctors tried to poison him. Stalin died in 1953. His death was followed by a power struggle among power among rival party leaders. Soon after Gorbachev took power, he established what was called ‘glasnost’ which means openness (Issacson, p 989). This softened the government’s control. After the Iran-Nicaraguan conflict, the USSR diminished to a point at which reform was needed before Russia’s entire socioeconomic structure collapsed beyond repair. As a result, the Russian Federation was born.

Economic reform and political regime shifts are inextricably linked. As seen in the Russian Federation, reform can begin with basic policy changes such as Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika policy, which allowed individual enterprises to establish themselves and decentralization to take root (Issacson, p543). However, the communist ideals of the government were incompatible with the new globalized market economy, and more democratic reforms were necessary to quell the socioeconomic discord. After the fall of the Soviet Union, citizens were given new freedoms.

In December of 1991, the Soviet Union devolved into fifteen separate countries as democracy triumphed over totalitarianism; the Cold War was finally put to rest. After the Bolshevik Revolution, a philosophy of socialism took hold of Russia, but the nationalist differences still caused irreparable tears in the country’s composition. Gradually the communism turned into totalitarianism, and once again, the country was overwhelmed with social unrest.

The Russians had effectively cast off the ethnic groups as being ineffectual in the country. These ethnic groups had a tremendous influence and never fully accepted the Soviet policies that lingered long after Stalin’s reign. The economic policies failed the people – Marxist economics did not work. The arms race took a tremendous toll on the economy, which caused the need for policy reform.

Ronald Reagan has been credited with ending the Cold War, but Mikhail Gorbachev deserves a lot of the credit as well. Reagan’s willingness to increase the military budget by 33%was a bit of a strong arming maneuver that proved difficult for the Soviet Union to match.

References

Issacson, Walter. Kissinger: A Biography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997