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Mikhail Gorbachev: The Man and His Program
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13968 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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2 / 1988 |
5,074 Words |
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R. Judson Mitchell
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Prior to Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to Great Britain in December 1984, he was virtually unknown to Western publics. He was, indeed, not much better known to the citizenry of the USSR, where political figures below the top party leader have traditionally labored in relative obscurity.
Since that trip three years ago, when Gorbachev and his stylish wife Raisa charmed Margaret Thatcher and other British notables, he has emerged as perhaps the most powerful single individual on the planet, the protagonist of a drama unfolding inside the USSR, and the cynosure of world politics. Yet despite all the media attention lavished upon Gorbachev at home and abroad, his meteoric rise and his sweeping proposals for change have inevitably left some residue of mystery, not yet dispelled by intense scrutiny.
The questions most frequently asked about Gorbachev are these: What sort of man is Gorbachev? How did he manage to rise so rapidly through the Soviet system? How secure is his hold upon power in the USSR? Is he really a reformer? What are the prospects for success in the pursuit of his goals? What are his assets and liabilities? How can the West best cope with the phenomenon of a revived Soviet leadership? To deal with these current questions, we must first go back a few years.
Making a Soviet politician
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born March 2, 1931, in the village of Privolnoye, in what is now Stavropol krai (territory), part of the old Kuban in southern Russia. He is the son of a collective farm official. Too young for military service in World War II, he did have direct experience of the conflict when Stavropol came under German occupation.
In the immediate postwar years, young Gorbachev worked as an assistant combine operator during summer vacations and received the award of the Red Banner of labor. Such honors were passed out rather freely in Stavropol at the time, but the award certainly did not hurt when Gorbachev applied for admission to Moscow State University. His acceptance by that institution in turn enabled him to avoid the otherwise obligatory military service.
Gorbachev attended Moscow State University for five years (1950-55), took a degree in law, and was active in the Komsomol (Communist youth league). Eyewitness accounts of Gorbachev's years at the university differ radically. He is variously depicted as a critic of Stalin, as a sheer opportunist, and as a defender of Stalinist orthodoxy. Perhaps he was all of these things at different times and to different people. Certainly Gorbachev's adaptability to his environment has been one of the keys to his success.
His return to Stavropol in 1955 is also something of a puzzle. Probably his transfer to the provinces was not entirely voluntary. Back in Stavropol, Gorbachev continued his work in the Komsomol, rising to the position of that organization's regional secretary. He was evidently aided politically by his marriage to a fellow Moscow State student from Stavropol, Raisa Maksimovna Titorenko, who would subsequently win the Soviet equivalent of a doctorate in philosophy, which was, of course, mostly Marxism-Leninism. Raisa Gorbachev was better known in Stavropol than her husband; her connection apparently eased his way into the province's
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