The Soviet Union had become stagnant in an administrative and political sense as well. The Communist Party that had ruled the Soviet Union for over 70 years was not accountable to the people. Ordinary people were alienated by slow and stifling administration, rampant corruption, the inability of the system to correct mistakes it had made, the unwillingness to allow more openness in government, and the centralisation of authority in a vast land. Worse still, the party bureaucrats gained more privileges than ordinary citizens. People did not identify with the system and with the rulers, and the government increasingly lost popular backing. Gorbachev’s reforms promised to deal with these problems. Gorbachev promised to reform the economy, catch up with the West, and loosen the administrative system.

How did Gorbachev's reforms impact nationalist dissatisfaction within the Soviet Union?

1) Gorbachev's reforms quelled nationalist dissatisfaction.
2) Gorbachev's reforms had no impact on nationalist dissatisfaction.
3) Gorbachev's reforms accelerated and increased nationalist dissatisfaction.
4) Nationalist dissatisfaction was unrelated to Gorbachev's reforms.

3

Some believe Gorbachev's reforms sped up and increased nationalist dissatisfaction to a point where the government and rulers could not control it.

The rise of nationalism and the desire for sovereignty within various republics including Russia and the Baltic Republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), Ukraine, Georgia, and others proved to be the final and most immediate cause for the disintegration of the USSR. Here again there are differing views. One view is that nationalist urges and feelings were very much at work throughout the history of the Soviet Union and that whether or not the reforms had occurred there would have been an internal struggle within the Soviet Union. This is a ‘what-if’ of history, but surely it is not an unreasonable view given the size and diversity of the Soviet Union and its growing internal problems. Others think that Gorbachev’s reforms speeded up and increased nationalist dissatisfaction to the point that the government and rulers could not control it.