If you were in the Soviet Union in 1960, and you spoke to Mikhail Gorbachev and he said to you, I’m going to dismantle communism by working from within, you would probably be extremely skeptical. You might have even offered a norm that only evil people without principles become involved with the Soviet government. And yet that strategy (which Gorby himself did not articulate) basically completely worked, at least in hindsight.
I am not an expert, but it seems to me that what Gorbachev intended was something similar to Czechoslovakia’s failed attempt at “socialism with human face” in 1986.
That is: a socialism, but with more freedom of speech, more economical accountability of state-owned enterprises, letting people grow more vegetables in their gardens, more freedom of what clothes to wear and what books to read and what songs to sing (as long as they are not outright subversive). But still socialism.
What Gorbachev underestimated was how huge was the preference falsification. He probably suffered from the “typical mind fallacy”; he believed that socialism was fundamentally okay and Soviet Union was fundamentally okay, and so he assumed that most people believe the same thing. When he gave them freedom of speech, it turned out that lots of people, in some places the majority, hated the system with a passion. And now it was common knowledge, and there was no way to reverse that.
Some republics wanted to separate from the Soviet Union, so Gorbachev sent an army to suppress them, but then he couldn’t also send the army to suppress the anti-communist revolutions outside of Soviet Union, so he let the former satellites go.
(And then Yeltsin figured out that he could replace Gorbachev as a leader of the Russian empire by using a simple trick: officially dismantling the Soviet Union, then rebuilding it again as Russian Federation under a different leadership. As a part of that process some former soviet republics got away; it was a price Yeltsin was willing to pay.)
We should credit Gorbachev for his naive attempt to increase freedom of speech within the communist system. Not for trying to dismantle it. That was a fully unintended consequence.
It’s extremely unlikely that Gorbachev ever intended to dismantle communism, especially early in his career.
If a person is going to seek employment at an AI lab because that is the most effective route for him to acquire wealth and prestige, it would be more dignified for him to admit that motivation to himself than to tell himself he’s doing it to help dismantle the lab from the inside.
That you can destroy a country by implementing disastrous policies, seems very realistic. The part that would have made me indeed skeptical, is that Gorbachev could make it to the top without strengthening the regime in bad ways during that process.
The part that would have made me indeed skeptical, is that Gorbachev could make it to the top without strengthening the regime in bad ways during that process
Whatever he must have done, it was apparently worth it
if a wide-eyed Gorbachev had announced his plans to you when young, it would be correct to note that he had no chance of success, that the party corrupts, and to try to talk him out of it. the person who announces these plans does not succeed at them. this naif instead ends up corrupted by the party, or is kept busy on an infinite treadmill—the party is designed to accommodate exactly this tragic figure.
i think your read of the history here is similarly optimistic, and that an omniscient narrator would point out a wide variety of people—both powerful and ordinary—within the soviet union, all of whom stood to benefit from the changes Gorbachev implemented. no overt conspiracy, but a loose coalition who shared a goal, and through a series of more or less deniable actions furthered this goal, until Gorbachev was able to pluck it as a ripe peach.
If you were in the Soviet Union in 1960, and you spoke to Mikhail Gorbachev and he said to you, I’m going to dismantle communism by working from within, you would probably be extremely skeptical. You might have even offered a norm that only evil people without principles become involved with the Soviet government. And yet that strategy (which Gorby himself did not articulate) basically completely worked, at least in hindsight.
I am not an expert, but it seems to me that what Gorbachev intended was something similar to Czechoslovakia’s failed attempt at “socialism with human face” in 1986.
That is: a socialism, but with more freedom of speech, more economical accountability of state-owned enterprises, letting people grow more vegetables in their gardens, more freedom of what clothes to wear and what books to read and what songs to sing (as long as they are not outright subversive). But still socialism.
What Gorbachev underestimated was how huge was the preference falsification. He probably suffered from the “typical mind fallacy”; he believed that socialism was fundamentally okay and Soviet Union was fundamentally okay, and so he assumed that most people believe the same thing. When he gave them freedom of speech, it turned out that lots of people, in some places the majority, hated the system with a passion. And now it was common knowledge, and there was no way to reverse that.
Some republics wanted to separate from the Soviet Union, so Gorbachev sent an army to suppress them, but then he couldn’t also send the army to suppress the anti-communist revolutions outside of Soviet Union, so he let the former satellites go.
(And then Yeltsin figured out that he could replace Gorbachev as a leader of the Russian empire by using a simple trick: officially dismantling the Soviet Union, then rebuilding it again as Russian Federation under a different leadership. As a part of that process some former soviet republics got away; it was a price Yeltsin was willing to pay.)
We should credit Gorbachev for his naive attempt to increase freedom of speech within the communist system. Not for trying to dismantle it. That was a fully unintended consequence.
He didn’t articulate it because he wasn’t using it. Gorbachev wanted to reform the USSR to save it.
It’s extremely unlikely that Gorbachev ever intended to dismantle communism, especially early in his career.
If a person is going to seek employment at an AI lab because that is the most effective route for him to acquire wealth and prestige, it would be more dignified for him to admit that motivation to himself than to tell himself he’s doing it to help dismantle the lab from the inside.
That you can destroy a country by implementing disastrous policies, seems very realistic. The part that would have made me indeed skeptical, is that Gorbachev could make it to the top without strengthening the regime in bad ways during that process.
Whatever he must have done, it was apparently worth it
if a wide-eyed Gorbachev had announced his plans to you when young, it would be correct to note that he had no chance of success, that the party corrupts, and to try to talk him out of it. the person who announces these plans does not succeed at them. this naif instead ends up corrupted by the party, or is kept busy on an infinite treadmill—the party is designed to accommodate exactly this tragic figure.
i think your read of the history here is similarly optimistic, and that an omniscient narrator would point out a wide variety of people—both powerful and ordinary—within the soviet union, all of whom stood to benefit from the changes Gorbachev implemented. no overt conspiracy, but a loose coalition who shared a goal, and through a series of more or less deniable actions furthered this goal, until Gorbachev was able to pluck it as a ripe peach.
and so we would not expect any record of this.