Russians Look Back Despondently At Gorbachev’s Perestroika

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(Angus Reid Consultants - CPOD Global Scan) Mario Canseco --

<snip> While Gorbachev’s contributions are mostly celebrated internationally, many Russians do not share this view. Last December, 63 per cent of respondents to a Yury Levada Analytical Center poll looked back on Gorbachev’s tenure in a negative light. In a January survey, 24 per cent of respondents said the former leader wanted to convert the Soviet Union into capitalism all along, while 23 per cent thought he truly wanted to reform socialism and improve the country.

An attempted coup in August 1991 severely hampered Gorbachev’s authority, as support shifted to Russian nationalist Boris Yeltsin. In December 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed following Gorbachev’s resignation. Under Yeltsin, the Russian Federation devalued the rouble in August 1998 and declared a moratorium on debt payments. A severe financial crisis stemmed from the government’s inability to control the country’s budget deficit.

Many Russians blame Gorbachev for destroying the Soviet political system. 53 per cent of respondents to a poll conducted earlier this month by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center articulated harsh feelings for the last Soviet leader—censure, distrust, disappointment, antipathy, and hatred—while only 19 per cent expressed admiration, hope, sympathy, respect or confidence. In the January Yury Levada survey, 48 per cent of respondents said it would have been better for the Soviet Union to remain as it was before Gorbachev came along.

Perhaps the sternest verdict from the public arrived in a poll conducted by Russian Public Opinion & Market Research. 48 per cent of respondents blamed Gorbachev for the downfall of the Soviet Union, and almost a third deemed him responsible for the collapse of the socialist economy and the loss of the country’s status as a superpower. Less than 15 per cent of respondents gave Gorbachev credit for trying to build a more democratic society, attempting to improve socialism and bringing an end to the weapons race and the Cold War. <snip>

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