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A Cautious and Resolute Path: Russia's Last Hope for Democracy
From: Columbia University
| By:
Mikhail Gorbachev |
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION |
Before perestroika, all the political debates were held in the kitchens of Russian apartments, according to Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet President. Gorbachev explains how one of the most educated societies was also one of the most repressed prior to the reforms of perestroika, which resulted in the transformation of a totalitarian state to a democracy and the first free election in Russia's 1,000-year history.
On March 11, 2002, the seventeenth anniversary of his election to General Secretary of the Communist Party, Gorbachev spoke to a packed house at Columbia University. He provided a twentieth-century Russian political and economic history lesson to place his role and perestroika into perspective, and continued to express his views on post-perestroika politics today.
The Bolshevik revolution of 1917 caused a split in the world, and stopped a normal international process of cooperation, explained Gorbachev. He admits that Soviet policy was wrong, and regrets that it set a precedent for twentieth-century politics and the Cold War.
Gorbachev is hopeful about current Russian President Vladimir Putin's cautious and resolute path. He believes that Putin's present political, economic, and foreign policy is Russia's last hope for establishing a free and democratic country, but that it needs time to succeed. |
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Mikhail Gorbachev talks about Russia's twentieth-century past, perestroika, and his hopes for its democratic future. |
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