Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

Mikhail Gorbachev succeeded Leonid Brezhnev after he died as the party's new general secretary. People supported Gorbachev's energy and political skills. He was intelligent enough to break away from Stalin's policies and go on with his own new ideas to help the reform of Russia. The Soviet leaders from the past have always had a totalitarian system. To reform the Soviet Union, he needed ideas and information to come freely, with no pressure, so in 1985 he announced a glasnost. A glasnost is sort of like the United States' 1st amendment of freedom of speech. It was a way to inspire people to talk about ways to improve their society. The system of glasnost bought upon many opportunities such as the opening of churches, publications of books and freedom of the press.

Now that people had all the freedom to improve their society, they complained about how long they had to wait in lines to purchase things. Gorbachev blamed this on the economy. In 1985 he introduced perestroika, also known as economic restructuring. He allowed people to own small private businesses, which went against Communism. He wanted to make the Communism more efficient and productive. In 1987, he introduced a policy called democratization. Democratization was a political system that needed a new legislative body and allowed people to vote from a list of candidates who their new leader would be. Mikhail Gorbachev definitely helped out with the fall of Communism in Russia as well as other countries and the rise of democracy.