Gorbachev Strategy for Socio-Economic Reform

摘要

When Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Soviet Union in March 1985, he inherited a country in economic chaos. In the mid-1970's economic stagnation started a downward trend in the Soviet economy that continued into the 1980's. Economic problems included a GNP of only a little more than 2% year, low productivity, a growing gap with the West in advanced technology, and poor morale, waste, inefficiency, and corruption on the part of managers and workers. Decreasing living standards were accompanied by shortages in food, housing, and consumer goods and services. Problems extended to all spheres of Soviet life. There was a stagnation in leadership, and a gradual erosion of the ideological and moral values of the Soviet people as evidenced by growing alcoholism, drug addition, and crime. Gorbachev's strategy of perestroika, or restructing, is his concept of accelerated socioeconomic development to revitalize the Soviet economy and the general social deterioration of Soviet society. The success of failure of Gorbachev's unprecedented radical reforms in transforming the Soviet society and the Soviet economy will have far-reaching consequences for the Soviet Union and the international community well into the 21th century.