Des racines et des liens : les racines de la perestroïka et les liens de Gorbatchev

The article shows that perestroika has its origins in the many plans and diverse attempts to reform the Soviet system in the years between 1945 and 1984. In fact it now seems clear that certain members of the Soviet nomenklatura - a group which was gradually transmuting into a new bourgeoisie during this period - wanted from a very early stage to make the system less rigid : their projected reforms would, however, have left them in possession of the wealth and advantages which they had acquired. They would also have continued to be in control of society. Beria worked out an ambitious reform plan which Khrushchev partially adopted after having him shot and before being himself removed from power by a group which would succeed in resisting essential reforms for two further decades. The article also explains that it was in fact the KGB which acted as the laboratory for the regime's projected reforms. This was no doubt because the KGB was best placed to know about the real state of Soviet society at the end of the 1950s and the evolving nature of public opinion. It is also likely that they believed that prevention was better than cure. It seems certain that Andropov was the eminence grise of perestroika. It was he (amongst others) who was working over a long period of time to place Gorbachev in the top job : doubtless he trusted a man who was connected early in his career with the information-gathering service Andropov had himself run from 1967 to 1982. He had possibly worked out that the striking qualities of the man Brezhnev had dubbed 'The Tsar of the sheep' - i.e. indecisiveness, inability to make up his mind, procrastination, a taste for luxury - were those most likely to lead to the break-up of the old system and to open up the path to the future.Comte Philippe. Des racines et des liens : les racines de la perestroïka et les liens de Gorbatchev. In: Revue Russe n°38, 2012. La perestroïka de Gorbatchev : piteuse déconfiture ou réussite historique ? pp. 25-68