Between 1964 and 1985 many economic reforms were attempted in the Soviet Union. These attempts were efforts to improve a system that was failing to produce adequate economic results. Moreover, they failed to address the fundamental roots of the problem. The Soviet Union was a superpower in terms of its military capabilities but the criteria for a world superpower was moving away from defense capabilities towards economic power. When Mikhail Gorbachev took power in 1985 he instituted his plans of perestroika and glasnost. Gorbachev knew in order for the Soviet Union to survive it needed to abandon the strict socialist policies and attempt to integrate with the rest of the world. He envisioned a system, which was more open and thus allowed more personal freedom. The new personal freedom would spark new incentives and new ideas. Furthermore, perestroika and glasnost would attempt to restructure socialism to a new socialism capable of existing in the world economy. However, the two programs failed for perhaps two reasons. For one, Gorbachev’s glasnost policy led to an emergence of voices rejecting his

“How were men who could not ensure that their orders were carried out by the Military and the KGB, men trained to obey orders, supposed to run a country which involved directing the lives of millions of civilians? The machine had come to a full stop. Its design was hopelessly flawed”(McCauley xvii).

When Khrushchev denounced Stalin before the XXth Party Congress in 1956 he ended the decades of fear marked by Stalin’s dictatorship. Furthermore, his de-stalinization campaign “meant that his opponents became more daring” (McCauley 221). Khrushchev’s actions led to more freedom of speech and the tolerance of opposition. Gorbachev’s glasnost policy took the freedom to a whole new level. Glasnost led to the rapid rise of the free press. Through the press the people of the Soviet Union were informed of all the internal problems which plagued the Soviet Union for so many years. Furthermore, Glasnost set Gorbachev up for a great deal of criticism. Boris Eltsin, a congress deputy who “had lost his post as first secretary of Moscow and his candidate membership of the Politburo,” would use Glasnost as a weapon against Gorbachev and perestroika. Boris Nikolaevich, in Eltsin’s defense, spoke on live Television exposing the limits of Gorbachev’s perestroika. Soon “Nationalists took over Supreme Soviets and immediately claimed sovereignty for their republic” (McCauley 345). Much to the dismay of Gorbachev, Eltsin ended up the Chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet. “Eltsin used his new position to promote the sovereignty of Russia and other republics vis-à-vis the centre, attack the Communist Party and the shortcomings of perestroika and Gorbachev personally” (McCauley 346). The Soviet people would soon realize that it was not necessary to endure the great sacrifices they thought they had to make for the party. By seeing the shortcomings of the system the people of Russia saw the true colors of the communist regime. They had lost faith in the system and government. By exposing the cracks in the system the people saw what they were missing. Th

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