The new political thinking is the philosophy of Soviet foreign policy during perestroika. Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeevich

For more than thirty years has passed since the great country of the USSR was headed by Gorbachev. His main thesis "new political thinking" is already an anachronism incomprehensible to the younger generation. But this phrase was perceived by the population of the Union very positively. People craved for change, they were impressed by Mikhail S. Gorbachev, favorably different from the rest of the party elite. And what came of it, everyone sees with his own eyes in real life.

Prehistory

To understand why the concept of new political thinking was positively received by the people, it is necessary to study the political situation that has developed by this moment. Briefly it can be described as follows:

• The world is divided into parts.
• Its development is based on the opposition of two systems: capitalist and socialist.
• People on the planet profess different systems of values, which is unnatural.
• But our space tends to unite, called globalization.

Inside the country, people experienced some dissatisfaction with the elite, caused by an unfair redistribution of resources. The Soviet government had to spend a lot of money on the defense capability of the state, the support of conventional allies, to the detriment of the development of industries oriented toward the consumer market. The population looked with envy at the quality and quantity of goods in Western countries. The leadership of the USSR could not or did not want to organize such an abundance for its citizens.

New political thinking is a change

The essence of the idea was as follows. Until the middle of the twentieth century, mankind developed within the regions. Each had its own ideology, values, material resources. But civilization can not stand in one position, it is dynamic. Therefore the time of global changes has come. M. S. Gorbachev proposed the idea of the priority of universal values over the rest, that is, class, state, national and others. All mankind is a single organism, why divide it into parts? Taking into account the fact that the propaganda of Western values was successful by that time, the Soviet public took the logic of the Secretary General with great enthusiasm. People believed that the new political thinking is the opening of borders, freedom of travel, new technologies and goods that people will use without restrictions. Many people were impressed by the idea of freedom of speech, understood in the sense that it would be possible to speak in any way. The fact is that the USSR was cultivated stagnant, obsolete ideology, which was dangerous to criticize. People aspired to a different system of society, without thinking how much it would take forces and resources to restructure.

Basic principles

It should be noted that the concept of the new political thinking completely broke the foundations of the world order mentioned above. The system probably did become regressive, did not contribute to the development of mankind. Today scientists and political scientists are arguing about this. We just state, the basic principles of the new ideology boiled down to the following:

• The world should be recognized as one and interdependent, refusing to be divided into two camps;
• The balance of interests (and not of forces, as before) was recognized as a universal way of solving international problems;
• It is necessary to abandon the principle of proletarian internationalism, replacing it with the priority of universal values.

As you can see, the new political thinking is a complete revolution in the perception of the planet not only by the representatives of the socialist system, but also by the capitalist one. The camp of countries, headed by the USSR, was opened to former competitors. At the level of leadership, all bans were lifted, the principles of interaction with other countries and societies changed completely. If it is easier, the achievements of the new political thinking boiled down to the fact that now there are no warring parties on the planet. All countries must build a relationship based on a balance of interests.

Restructuring Briefly

The idea stated by Gorbachev looked very attractive and beautiful. In his book on this topic, he promised that the state would not abandon the principled foundations of Soviet power. All social principles will be preserved. But for a country to compete with its neighbors on the planet, it is necessary to seriously change the economy. Perestroika (briefly) was that it was necessary to change the political course. For this:

• Create a different legal framework;
• To introduce new, young, progressive specialists into the management team;
• To reorganize the system of production regulation.

That is, the planned economy should be replaced by a market economy. And this meant that in the trade and economic relations the USSR would no longer have priorities. Earlier, relations were built mainly with the countries of the socialist camp. Now all partners were declared equal. Relations with each were regulated only by mutual interests.

Change of ideology

Probably the reader knows: in the USSR there was a clear and strict system of historical and ideological priorities. The population was brought up on the ideals of revolution, social justice, the idea of confrontation with the capitalist system. A historical theory was built that freely interpreted factology, hiding unwanted episodes from the past state. The new political thinking of Gorbachev freed the country from these peculiar shackles. This led to a rethinking of the past. To the light began to be pulled out and in every possible way introduced into the mass consciousness previously hid historical facts. Political and cultural figures were rehabilitated, new programs, political scientists, correspondents appeared. The country has become accustomed to publicity. Gorbachev spoke much about it, emphasizing that we do not intend to hide anything more. However, in the political elite not all supported such a direction of the country's development.

Split

In 1987, Yeltsin spoke at the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee against Gorbachev. Then he served as secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee. Virtually no one understood the essence of his speech. The party comrades condemned his behavior, which is not the norm, for the then nomenclature and was deprived of office. However, as time showed, Yeltsin turned out to be a very far-sighted politician. Realizing that the country is facing serious upheavals, he went into the opposition, as nowadays it is customary to say. Ideas of new political thinking at that time split into radical (Yeltsin) and conservative (Ligachev). These two camps fought hard among themselves for their influence on the masses. In this state, the country entered a period of democratization. The political system, based on the hegemony of one party, was broken and rebuilt. There were new social movements. But this was not yet a complete multi-party system. From the leadership of the CPSU officially refused. The power was transferred to local self-government bodies. In the Armed Forces of the USSR they proposed nominating candidates from trade unions, public organizations, the Komsomol. That is, gradually led society to a more flexible multi-party system.

Changes in foreign policy

Perestroika in the country has quite seriously shaken the attitude towards it throughout the world. On the one hand, "civilized humanity" welcomed these processes. The policy of the new political thinking was perceived by partners as the end of the USSR's pressure on allies. After all, we had previously agreed with Moscow any more or less important decision. The countries of the West spoke of the triumph of democracy, considering the USSR as a totalitarian and backward state. On the other hand, the liberalization of our country's economy allowed global corporations to use resources previously inaccessible to them. The country's leadership did not interfere with this. Gorbachev sincerely believed that this would be better for the population. Experienced corporations will come to the country and build enterprises, he said at meetings and congresses. The foreign policy was radically restructured. The new political thinking of Mikhail Sergeyevich affected first of all the countries of the socialist camp. They felt that the hand of the Kremlin was weakened, and they reached for the West.

The popularity of Mikhail S. Gorbachev

We should say a few words about the reason for the success of this leader. He demonstrated to the people previously unprecedented democracy. He walked the streets, looked in the shops, talked with ordinary people. Earlier, the general secretary did not behave this way. They were some celibate, in the opinion of ordinary citizens. Mikhail Sergeyevich did not consider shameful or embarrassing to travel around the country to explain to people the essence of the new political thinking. This bribed the naive in general people. They did not understand that they lead to a great catastrophe. But is it worth condemning those who have long lived in "greenhouses". In the USSR, the state took care of people to have shelter and food. Let not be as beautiful as in the West, but in abundance and at all.

"One hundred varieties of sausage"

It is impossible to talk about perestroika and not to recall this popular thesis. He proved to be so tenacious that he is remembered today when discussing this topic. The fact is that in the USSR it was very difficult with food. To buy meat, you had to stand for hours. And Gorbachev promised that new political thinking would help to improve the situation. In each store there will be "one hundred varieties of sausages". By the way, he was right. Today in supermarkets have everything you want. Only have people become happier? Yes, and whether the people agreed to perestroika, if I understood what I'll have to go through.

The results of new thinking

The most terrible (in other opinion, progressive) result of the changes was the collapse of the Union. Fifteen republics gained independence. Political scientists are still breaking spears about how and why it has become possible. Some people call Gorbachev a traitor, others say that he was 100 percent right. This is called political pluralism. No one can forbid thinking and broadcasting. People really got the freedom of speech, having lost at the same time a powerful, great power.

International results

On the world map, new states and hot spots have appeared, unfortunately. Until now, the collective west is confident that it won a victory over the USSR in the cold war, the confrontation of ideologies. New thinking led to the fact that the whole world (including North Korea) became capitalistic. In addition, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Eastern Europe. It was done swiftly, thoughtlessly. Millions of citizens suddenly lost their income and job opportunities. For Europe, one of the main results was the reunification of Germany, to which the leadership of the Union agreed without any conditions. The new policy assumed that there is no one to quarrel with, the whole world is one. The section of the political space of the planet has led to the fact that the collective West has swallowed the countries of Eastern Europe, beginning their disintegration. Yugoslavia was the first to suffer, being subjected to NATO aggression.

Conclusion

A lot has been written about the results of the restructuring. However, it is not yet possible to evaluate it integrally. Thanks to the destruction of one of the poles of the then political system, the planet is on the verge of destruction. The capitalist system, having won a global confrontation, proved to be untenable. The crisis of 2008 is clearly demonstrated. At the same time, one can not but recognize a certain positive effect of the changes that have taken place. The world is truly global, one. And now every person is free to choose how and where to live. But before mankind there is an important question, which way to go further. The jubilee session of the UN General Assembly showed the political elites and the population that we have common problems. And they will have to be solved together, although there are forces that do not want to give up the long-lost leadership. They, using the results of perestroika, have done a lot of trouble (according to VV Putin's quote). This, too, is the sum total of Mikhail Gorbachev's new political thinking. And it's not final yet.