Perestroika and Glasnost: The most important catalysts for the end of the Cold War?

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Soviet Union had entered a period of severe slump.

Economic growth had slowed to a crawl; industrial output was increasingly wasteful and agriculture required massive imports to meet the basic needs of the population.

The centralised planning system, which had once helped the USSR industrialise rapidly, had become an inflexible administration incapable of adapting to modern demands.

Shortages of consumer goods and decaying infrastructure contributed to a decline in living standards across the republics. 

At the same time, the political structure had hardened. Successive ageing leaders from Brezhnev to Chernenko had failed to implement significant reform.

Corruption had taken root at multiple levels of the government, and the Communist Party's monopoly on power stifled innovation and dissent.

Military spending, which accounted for approximately 15 to 17 percent of GDP, remained very high and drained resources from civilian needs as the USSR sought to maintain parity with the United States in the nuclear arms race.

Internally, trust in the system began to erode, and externally, the USSR faced increasing diplomatic isolation and economic pressure. 

He had risen through the Communist Party during the Brezhnev years and emerged as a reform-minded leader known for practical thinking and eagerness to learn.

Born in 1931 in the Stavropol region, Gorbachev had experienced the failures of the Soviet agricultural system firsthand.

After he studied law at Moscow State University, he steadily climbed the party ranks and eventually became a full Politburo member in 1980.

His relatively young age, at 54, distinguished him from his elderly predecessors. 

When he became General Secretary in March 1985, Gorbachev inherited a system in crisis.

Unlike previous leaders, he acknowledged the need for major changes. He surrounded himself with younger advisors, such as Alexander Yakovlev and Eduard Shevardnadze, who shared his belief that the Soviet Union could be revitalised through updating, openness, and economic renewal.

His vision was to preserve socialism by improving it, but his willingness to question long-held rules and share power more broadly set him apart from every Soviet leader since Lenin. 

Launched publicly in 1986, Perestroika, which means “restructuring,” was Gorbachev’s effort to overhaul the slow-moving Soviet economy.

The concept had been discussed from as early as 1985, but it was in the following year that it became a formal plan.

It introduced elements of limited market reform into the socialist framework.

Enterprises were granted more independence to set prices and respond to demand, and laws passed in 1987 and 1988 allowed for joint ventures with foreign firms and the creation of cooperatives.

These measures were intended to improve productivity and reduce the waste of central planning. 

However, these changes were uneven and often poorly implemented. Enterprise directors, long accustomed to state directives, lacked the training to operate in a partially opened up system.

Supply chains broke down as central ministries lost control, and the presence of fixed and market prices led to confusion and inflation.

Rather than strengthening the economy, Perestroika contributed to shortages that grew, production that fell and dissatisfaction that spread across the workforce.

Workers received fewer goods even as their wages lost value, which undermined confidence in the reforms. 

Closely tied to Perestroika was Glasnost, which Gorbachev publicly called in 1986 as a campaign to promote greater openness in government and society.

Although the term had existed in earlier Soviet discourse, it took on a new meaning under Gorbachev.

He believed that economic reform could not succeed without political transparency.

Glasnost encouraged the opportunity to discuss social issues more freely, to criticise government decisions and to seek information more openly.

Previously censored topics, such as the Stalinist purges, the Katyn massacre, and the failures of the Afghan War, were suddenly open for public debate. 

Newspapers, television, and literature rapidly changed. Publications like Ogonyok and Moskovskie Novosti became platforms for critical commentary.

Historians and journalists began reviewing Soviet history and cultural figures used this new freedom to challenge long-standing taboos.

While this openness attracted popular support, it also showed the full extent of the regime's failures.

Citizens who had lived under decades of propaganda were shocked by the scale of past atrocities and contemporary poor management.

Rather than rebuilding trust in the system, Glasnost accelerated public disillusionment. 

Within the Communist Party, reactions to Perestroika and Glasnost were mixed.

Reformers in Gorbachev’s circle supported the new direction, but conservative elements opposed the weakening of party control.

Many officials feared the consequences of loosening central authority, especially as ethnic unrest flared in the Baltic states, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

As control slipped away from Moscow, regional leaders began asserting independence, often in open defiance of the Kremlin. 

In March 1990, the Communist Party’s exclusive control of power was abolished with the repeal of Article 6, and multi-party elections were permitted.

Gorbachev had hoped to reform socialism, but instead the political structure began to dissolve.

The Soviet republics pushed for sovereignty, and the Russian Federation, under Boris Yeltsin, took the lead in dismantling union-wide institutions.

Meanwhile, the attempted August 1991 coup by hardliners revealed the internal breakdown of Soviet authority.

Gorbachev returned to office weakened and isolated, unable to halt the growing tide of independence movements. 

In the West, Gorbachev’s reforms were received with hope and respect. Western leaders, particularly US President Ronald Reagan and later George H. W. Bush, viewed him as a real partner, as he reduced Cold War tensions.

Meetings between Gorbachev and Reagan led to key arms control agreements, including the 1987 INF Treaty, which removed all US and Soviet ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.

Gorbachev's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and reduce support for Eastern European governments showed a shift in Soviet foreign policy. 

The populations of Eastern Bloc countries also took notice. Throughout 1989, a wave of revolutions swept through Eastern Europe.

The Polish Solidarity movement gained legal status, Hungary opened its borders, and East Germans tore down the Berlin Wall in November 1989.

Gorbachev’s choice not to use military force to suppress these uprisings was a clear break from the Brezhnev Doctrine.

Across the former Warsaw Pact, Communist regimes fell within a single year, as Soviet support evaporated and local populations seized the opportunity for change.

In Romania, however, the revolution was violent and culminated in the execution of Nicolae Ceaușescu. 

Perestroika and Glasnost were one of several factors in the Soviet collapse. They sped up and revealed the deep cracks within the system.

Economic problems that had built up over decades and nationalist movements predated Gorbachev’s rule.

However, by loosening political controls, in which he attempted partial reform without a clear plan, Gorbachev weakened the central authority that had held the USSR together.

His reforms raised expectations that the state could not meet and exposed conflicts that could not be resolved. 

By December 1991, the Soviet Union ended. The Commonwealth of Independent States had already been established on 8 December by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Gorbachev resigned on 25 December and the CIS formally replaced the former union.

Although he had hoped to preserve a reformed socialist federation, his policies released forces he could no longer control.

In this way, Perestroika and Glasnost became the primary catalysts for the USSR’s rapid breakup and the final chapter of the Cold War.