THE RISE OF MIKHAIL GORBACHEV AS THE PRESIDENT AND THE COLLAPSE OF SOVIET UNION.

. Mikhail Gorbachev was born in 1931 from a peasantry family of the Kulaks.His father was arrested and send to prison by Stalin because he had
resisted Collectivisation. His elder brother was killed during ww2.

. He studied law at Moscow University and become a persuasive speaker or an orator.

. He was an realist who realized that Soviet Union,s economic system was in a terrible state because it was very weak. Russia was spending a lot
of money on foreign military assignments instead of developing Russia.

.He was also an idealist who believed that communism should make life better for people of Soviet Union and eastern Europe in general.He was
so offended by the fact that goods manufactured in Russia were of poor quality and expensive as compared to those manufactured in western
Europe.

. He was also in pain because standards of living were very poor in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in General as compared to western Europe
and that many people had lost faith in Soviet union communist gvt.

Gorbachev was also very Optimistic as he believed that a reformed communist gvt would give its people pride. He had no intention of destroying
communism but just to reform it so as to provide quality service to its people.

. He started working at a local communist party office before he was elected a member of the central committee in 1978 in charge of Agriculture.

. In 1980 ,h became a member of the Politburo-the highest decision making board of the communist party.

. He developed the desire to reform Russia economically,politically and socially as a result of the influence from his friend Andropov ,one of the
communist leaders of Russia.

. In 1985 he became the president of USSR and he started introducing some reforms to reform communism so as to more effective than
capitalism.

GORBACHEV,S POLICIES IN SOVIET UNION.

. When he assumed power in 1985, he called for a meeting of all members of the Warsaw Pact and gave an important and powerful message to
delegates.
. In his message ,he made it very clear that Russia was not going to interfere in the internal affairs of other state. This was called non intervention
policy in which Russia was not going to force its will on others as part of its foreign policy. He believed in the relations of equality among
member states and he also made it very clear that states in Eastern Europe should be responsible for their own future.

. Hard core communist leaders could not believe Gorbachev the message.

. Gorbachev went further by telling the deligates that member states in the region should be ready to reform communism not with intention to
destroy it but to improve it so that it could match capitalism in providing services to the people such as Health,education and transport. He was
advocating for the renewal of communism to match capitalist standards. Hard Core communist leaders could not believe him

GORBACHEV,S REFORMS.

. Gorbachev played a critical role in attempting to reform and modernize Soviet Union ,s economy ,tackling corruption and alcoholism.

. He introduced two main policies ie The Glasnost and Perestroika

GLASNOST- These were political and social reforms introduced by Gorbachev to reform communism in Soviet Union.

. The reform called for open debates on gvt policies and honest in facing problems . He also introduced freedom of media allowing journalist to
expose corrupt leaders and criticize gvt officials.

. This was meant to encourage opennesss in discussing probles affecting Soviet Union. It also allowed people to be involved in Soviet Politics
through the freedom of expression.

. He also castigated Stali,brutal political system which was very oppressive in nature.

PERESTROIKA.