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Gorbachev’s “Perestroika” as the beginning of the end of the empire

February 25, 1986

Gorbachev’s “Perestroika” as the beginning of the end of the empire

In February 1986, the XXVII Congress of the CPSU adopts a new version of the Party Program. The new program no longer promotes building communism but is aimed to improve socialism.

CPSU general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev puts forward two fundamentally new political mottos: openness and broad democracy. It is decided to start the reforms not from the economic basis, but from the political superstructure. Gorbachev wants to move from totalitarianism to the principles of democracy in governing the country. However, he doesn’t address the determining factor. The Soviet Union is an empire. And abandoning the totalitarian form of government would inevitably lead to collapse, which eventually happened.

That leads us to the conclusion that totalitarianism can’t be reformed.