On Socialist Democracy by Mikhail Gorbachev (1987)
Elements of social corrosion that emerged in recent years have adversely affected society’s morale and insidiously eroded the high moral values which have always been characteristic of our people and of which we are proud, namely, ideological conviction, labor enthusiasm and Soviet patriotism….
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Get Help Now!Disregard for laws, report-padding, bribe-taking and encouragement of toadyism and adulation had a deleterious effect on the moral atmosphere in society. Real care for people, for the conditions of their life and work and for their social well-being was often supplanted by political flirtation—the mass distribution of awards, titles and prizes….
The world day to day realities and that of make-believe well-being were increasingly parting ways….
In this situation, comrades, the question of acceleration the social-economic development of the country, the question of perestroika [restructuring] was raised….
We must make this decisive turn because there is no other choice. We must not retreat and there is no place to retreat to….
Today it is essential to say once again what we mean by perestroika. Perestroika is a resolute overcoming of the processes of stagnation, destruction of the retarding mechanism, and the creation of dependable and efficient machinery for expediting the social and economic progress of Soviet society….
Perestroika is reliance on the creative endeavor of the masses, an all-round extension of democracy and socialist self-government, the encouragement of initiative and self-organized activities, better discipline and order, greater openness, criticism and self-criticism in all fields of public life, and full and proper respect for the value and dignity of the individual….
It is only thought the consistent development of the democratic forms inherent in socialism and more extensive self-government that our progress in production, science and technology, literature, culture and the arts, in all areas of social life is possible. It is only this way that ensures conscientious discipline. Perestroika itself is possible only though democracy and because of democracy. It is only this way that it is possible to open broad vistas for socialism’s most powerful creative force—free labor and free thought in a free country….
Reading Questions
- What problems in the Soviet Union does Mikhail Gorbachev discuss in the excerpt?
- How do the problems shed light on the drawbacks of communism?
- Why does Gorbachev believe democracy can address the drawbacks of communism?
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