-
Period: to
Chernenko
Andropov was succeeded by Chernenko, who proved to be a very
short-lived head of state. Chernenko was a figurehead who was seen as holding the Soviet Union steady in preparation for a transition to a different level of leadership. There were very few changes in the Chernenko period. Domestic and foreign policies remained the same as the gerontocracy spent its
last days in charge. In March 1985 that marked the real changes in the Soviet regime and signified the end of the Brezhnev era. -
Period: to
Andrópov
He became the head of USSR at 68, after Brezhnev. He charged many in the Brezhnev camp with corruption. He made public the economic stagnation and proposed a solution. He tried to put into place policies where those illegally absent from work would be arrested. And.tried to remove Brezhnev’s followers and Cher.´s supporters and replace them with a group of nomenklatura. To the world, Andr. period was marked by a continuation of the foreign problems that had begun under Brezhnev. -
Period: to
Perstroika
Was a political movement for reformation, widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost policy reform. The literal meaning of perestroika is "restructuring", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system.
Perestroika is sometimes argued to be a cause of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe, and the end of the Cold War.
http://www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/glasnostandperestroika.asp -
Period: to
Demokratizatsiya
This refers to Gorbachev´s attempts to make the Soviet political system more democratic. Under him, elections were reformed to give greater choice to the voters, and political organizations and clubs were allowed to operate outside the control of the Communist Party. Gorbachev also tried to make the government and the Soviet system more independent party control. -
Period: to
Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev was hoping to revitalize the Communist Party and maintain a socialist system of governance in the Soviet Union through economic reform and political openness designed to modernize the state and mollify (satisfy) the population. Unfortunately for Gorbachev, his reforms were a Pandora’s box for communism, and once these dual policies were implemented, the drive for democracy followed and ultimately led to the collapse of the regime. -
Period: to
Foreign Policies
Throughout the 1980s, Gorbachev sought to distance the USSR from these countries. He made it very clear that the USSR
would engage in a policy of non-intervention in the Warsaw Pact
countries, a complete negation of the Brezhnev Doctrine. Henceforth, satellite states would pursue their own paths to achieving socialism and Gorbachev encouraged reform abroad. The Soviets gained further credibility in their negation of the
Brezhnev Doctrine with the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. -
Period: to
Glasnot
Was the name for the social and political reforms to bestow more rights and freedoms upon the Soviet people. Its goals were to include more people in the political process through freedom of expression. This led to a decreased censoring of the media, which in effect allowed writers and journalists to expose news of government corruption and the depressed condition of the Soviet people.
http://www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/glasnostandperestroika.asp -
Chernobyl
On April 26, a test on one of the reactors’ cooling systems began, immediately the emergency shutdown failed and the reactor exploded. Firefighters responded, unware that it had released toxic levels of radiation into the air. The inhabitants were unaware of the danger it posed, continued about their daily activities.The Soviet government did't notify the public of the disaster. On 27 April was evacuated. The government made the accident public knowledge.The disaster was a result of human error.
