In the past 70 years of construction and development, the Soviet Union has created unparalleled brilliant achievements, but finally ushered in the disintegration of the Soviet Union. So what is the reason for the disintegration of the former Soviet Union? What are the lessons of the disintegration of the former Soviet Union? Now let me tell you the reasons and lessons of the disintegration of the former Soviet Union!
Reasons for the disintegration of the former Soviet Union
As the first socialist country in human history, the Soviet Union has made brilliant achievements in its decades of revolution, construction and development, enriched the Marxist theory of socialist founding and Party building, and greatly encouraged the confidence of Communists all over the world to fight for the cause of communism. However, after all, the practice of the Soviet Union has no experience to follow. After the problems of the original political and economic system, the party and the state did not take timely measures to correct the misconduct. In addition, the leaders of the Soviet Party made serious mistakes in major problems and the peaceful evolution of the West "spared no effort", which eventually led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, An in-depth study and Reflection on this phenomenon is undoubtedly of great guiding significance for the socialist construction and reform of contemporary China. Specifically, the reasons leading to the disintegration of the Soviet Union mainly include the following aspects.
(I) disadvantages of the Soviet model
1. Economic factors. The formation of the highly centralized economic system of the Soviet Union and the 1930s showed great superiority in the development process and created recognized historical achievements, making the Soviet Union the second superpower. However, this economic system and development model have great defects and disadvantages, can not give full play to the initiative and enthusiasm of local governments, enterprises and individuals, and lack vitality and vitality; Failure to carry out technological transformation in time to improve economic benefits, so that economic development has always been in a state of extensive management; Unable to correctly adjust the economic structure and promote the all-round development of the economy, the proportion of consumer goods production was too low, so that the Soviet people's life could not realize the transformation from well-off to affluence; We cannot fully open to the outside world and draw on the strengths of all countries in the world for our own use. In this way, it is bound to turn itself from stagnation to backwardness and fall into economic difficulties. It was this system that made the Soviet Union's economy difficult to do well and unable to go up. This is the deep-seated reason of the Soviet body.
2. Political factors. There are serious drawbacks in the political system of the Soviet Union. First, there is no distinction between the party and the government, and the party replaces the government. The ruling party has not found a way to manage the party well and participate in the management of the state. The long-term ruling position of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, coupled with the imperfect legal system and the lack of a strong supervision mechanism, undermined inner-party democracy and seriously divorced the party from the masses; It is also inevitable that there are all kinds of bad elements in the party. As Communists, they use their functions and powers to do all kinds of things that violate the law and discipline, seriously damage the interests of the state and the people, damage the reputation and image of the party, and arouse the dissatisfaction and even hatred of the people. The second is the excessive concentration of power. The concentration of power in the hands of the party and leading cadres undermines democratic centralism, weakens socialist democracy, and suppresses the enthusiasm and creativity of the people. After Gorbachev came to power, he believed that the two systems of socialism and capitalism "converged", and carried out the reform of "humane and democratic socialism" [1] (p776) on the political system of the Soviet Union. In fact, he completely adopted the western set, engaged in political pluralism, implemented the multi-party system, and weakened and abolished the leadership and ruling power of the Soviet Communist Party.
(II) ideological errors
For a long time after the Soviet Union gained the ruling position, it went to extremes in cultural issues. Firstly, it sanctifies, dogmatizes and closes Marxist theory, and excludes foreign culture, especially western culture; Later, he carried out "democratization", "openness" and "pluralism" in the ideological field, worshipped western culture, and finally completely deviated from and abandoned Marxism in the guiding ideology.
Lenin can be regarded as a model in dealing with Marxism correctly. In his article "the mission of the Communist Youth League", he called on young people to study Marxism and communism hard, but avoid "rote memorization" and "use the understanding of basic implementation to develop and enhance the thinking ability of each learner, because if all the knowledge learned is not integrated, communism will become a castle in the air and an empty signboard, and communists will only be some braggers" [2] (P285). We should not only seriously study Marxism, but also integrate it with practice, expand knowledge and integrate it. This is the correct attitude towards Marxism advocated by Lenin. However, since the 1920s, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has embarked on a path of cultural autocracy, and inner-party dogmatism has become increasingly serious. In the fierce inner-Party struggle, Stalin took advantage of his special position in the interpretation of Leninism to generalize and deify Leninism in the process of safeguarding Lenin and Leninism, resulting in its serious dogmatization. At the same time, with Stalin's acquiescence, the Soviet Union launched an unprecedented God making movement to deify Stalin. The combination of dogmatism and personal worship made Stalin the embodiment of the party and the embodiment of truth. In 1956, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held. Khrushchev exposed the mistakes of personal worship in Stalin's period, which promoted ideological emancipation to a certain extent. However, Khrushchev failed to overcome the serious dogmatism in the party, and his thought was still in prison. Brezhnev's period did not jump out of the box of dogmatism.
In 1985, Gorbachev, known as a "reformer", came to power and soon put forward slogans such as "openness", "democratization" and "pluralism", trying to change the closed and rigid situation in the past. However, "democratization" has not become true democracy, but a liberalization that distorts and vilifies socialism; "Openness" is to wantonly attack and slander the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under the guise of "openness"; "Pluralism" actually allows all kinds of non Marxist and even anti Marxist thoughts to grow arbitrarily. In this way, the Soviet Communist Party suddenly jumped from the long-term "left" to the right, and seriously deviated from Marxism.
(III) "peaceful evolution" of western countries is an important external factor
The long-term implementation of the "peaceful evolution" strategy by western countries is the external reason for the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Since the 1950s, western countries began to implement the strategy of "peaceful evolution" against socialist countries in a vain attempt to bring down socialism by non war means such as politics, economy and culture. In 1975, Nixon put forward the strategy of "winning without war" for socialist countries; In 1989, Bush put forward the strategy of "surpassing containment". The western countries took advantage of the opportunity of serious problems and ongoing reform in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries to "peaceful evolution" of the Soviet Union with economic aid as the bait. In order to get the assistance of western countries, the Soviet Union did not hesitate to give in to a series of policies at home and abroad, catered to western countries and went to the abyss step by step.
(4) the mistakes in the national policy caused fierce national contradictions and accelerated the disintegration of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union deviated from the Marxist national view, ignored the actual process of the development of all ethnic groups in the Soviet Union, and made a series of mistakes in national theories and policies, which seriously hurt the non Russian people. In 1936, Stalin proposed that the Soviet Union had built socialism, and took this as the starting point, believing that "the basic organizer of national disputes, that is, the exploiting class, has been eliminated" [3] (p516), and the problems related to the equality of rights, economy and culture of all ethnic groups have been basically solved. From this, he blindly believed that "real brotherly cooperation" among all ethnic groups in the Soviet Union has been established, so he ignored the long-term nature and complexity of national problems. The policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to deal with national contradictions violates the Marxist principle of national equality and solves national contradictions by means of class struggle. More seriously, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union violated the Marxist principle of national equality and tolerated the long-term existence of Russian Grand nationalism. These erroneous ethnic theories and policies of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union not only caused the dissatisfaction of ethnic minorities with the Communist Party of China, but also caused greater hatred and estrangement of ethnic minorities against the Russian nation, the strong dissatisfaction of the people with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the intensification and conflict of ethnic contradictions, and finally led to the declaration of independence of some republics and the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Lessons from the disintegration of the former Soviet Union
1. National unity is the supreme principle
The Soviet Union was formed voluntarily by various Soviet republics under the leadership of the Communist Party in order to realize the great ideal of socialism and common prosperity. In the past few decades, the alliance has changed from a backward agricultural country to an advanced industrial country, from a resource country to an economic, scientific and technological and military power. The output of many products has jumped to the first in the world, and the comprehensive national strength has grown into a superpower that can compete with the United States. Although these problems can be solved through the reform and opening-up of the Soviet Union, including the serious limitations of the Soviet Union's Socialist Alliance, these problems can be solved step by step in the process of the Soviet Union's reform and opening-up. The people of the Soviet Union were well aware of the serious consequences of national division, so they expressed their wishes with a solemn vote when national separation, sovereignty claims and Republic independence activities intensified and threatened the fate of the alliance. On March 17, 1991, the Soviet Union held a referendum on the future of the union. More than 80% of the 186 million voters in the Soviet Union voted, and 76.4% of the voters were in favor of retaining the Soviet Union. There is no doubt that the disintegration of the Soviet Union went against the will of the majority of the Soviet people.
The impact of the disintegration of the Soviet Union on the economy, politics and society of independent countries can never be eliminated in a short time. A series of economic contradictions among countries, including supply, price, settlement, currency, etc., have sharply reduced mutual trade within the CIS, and the supply of raw materials, sales market and production process of relevant enterprises have been completely disordered, resulting in a long-term recession of social production, serious shortage of consumer market, vicious development of inflation and a significant decline in people's living standards. The disintegration of the Soviet Union also led to the intensification of political contradictions, territorial disputes and national separation activities in independent countries. Russia's Tatar and Chechen Republic demand independence, Georgia's Abkhazia national independence, Armenia's and Azerbaijan's Naka conflict, and Tajik's successive civil wars are outstanding manifestations.
Socialism provides an institutional basis for national unity, national harmony, political stability and economic prosperity. Reform and opening up have broken the shackles of the traditional economic system and injected new vitality into economic development. Not only has the whole economy been unprecedentedly prosperous, but also the economy of the mainland and ethnic minority areas has been greatly developed. The socialist market economy has unprecedentedly strengthened the economic ties between regions and ethnic groups. They divide labor and cooperate with each other to form a unified economic system. A unified economic system, common prosperity and common interests require all ethnic groups to live in a unified multi-ethnic state. There is no denying that there are still various economic contradictions between the central and local governments and among all ethnic groups, but these contradictions can only be solved by taking appropriate measures on the basis of production development and common prosperity. Any act of splitting and undermining national unity is contrary to the objective law of economic and political development and is not tolerated by the common interests of the people of all ethnic groups. The most important lesson left by the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the most important conclusion we have drawn from the study of the disintegration of the Soviet Union is that national unity is the supreme principle.
(2) to safeguard national unity, we must adhere to the party's leadership and the socialist road
The most important lesson of the drastic changes and disintegration of the Soviet Union is that in socialist countries, in order to maintain social stability, national unity and territorial integrity, we must adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party and the socialist road. This is determined by the nature of the socialist state itself and by the nature of the Communist Party.
In socialist countries, the Communist Party, as the political representative and vanguard of the social advanced class - the proletariat, determines the direction of social development. This is the socialist road. As an advanced mass political party, it has united millions of Party members with various institutions and grass-roots organizations, and has become the main force of political socialization in society; As a complete, unified and integrated political party, it has attracted most managers and experts from all walks of life; As an outstanding political party of all ethnic groups, it brings together all regions and nationalities and plays an important role in promoting the great unity of the people of all ethnic groups and safeguarding the unity and territorial integrity of a multi-ethnic country; As a political party that mobilizes and contacts the masses, it strives to win the support of the masses for the proletarian regime and resolve all kinds of discontent and contradictions through the political leadership of various mass organizations and the concerted action of its ordinary Party members. The lesson of the Soviet Union is that Gorbachev's reform developed from "reforming" the party to weakening and abolishing the party, which made the state and society lose their cohesive strength, led to social chaos, and finally deviated from the socialist road. As a result, in a multi-ethnic alliance country such as the Soviet Union, the collapse of the Communist Party, which united the advanced elements of all ethnic groups, caused the proliferation of liberalism and nationalism and plunged the country into a state of division.
It can be seen that in socialist countries, adhering to the party's leadership and adhering to the socialist road is a major key to national unity, social stability and national survival. To adhere to the party's leadership, we must strengthen the party's self-construction and improve the party's leadership. For a long time, the Soviet Union did not distinguish between the party and the government and replaced the government with the party, which affected other settings in the political system to actively play their respective roles. At the same time, a series of problems in the self-construction of the Soviet Communist Party made the party in the process of continuous transformation.
The self disintegration of the Soviet Communist Party finally led to the end of the socialist system in the Soviet Union and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. This event proves how important it is to strengthen the party's leadership over the state and society and how important the party's self-construction is. Consistent from beginning to end, consistent from beginning to end, the party can consistently represent and reflect the interests of the masses. Only when the party can consistently maintain its advanced nature, scientific nature, and timely reveal and grasp and follow the laws of historical development can we truly realize the leadership of the party so as to win the trust of the masses and consciously accept and obey the leadership of the party. The lesson of the Soviet Union tells us that it is not feasible to be closed to the outside world and isolate from the outside world like the Soviet Communist Party before. It is not feasible to blindly cater to the West and pursue Western values like Gorbachev's period. Socialist construction must follow its own path. The important thing is to adapt to the new situation and realize the policy of reform and opening up. The purpose of this reform and opening up is to finally realize the essence of socialism, that is, starting from the interests of the people and the country, carry forward socialist democracy and vigorously develop social productive forces to meet the growing material and spiritual needs of the people.
(3) carry out political reform and improve the socialist democracy and legal system
An important lesson from the upheaval and disintegration of the Soviet Union is that we must recognize that socialist countries also have arduous reform tasks in terms of national political system. The superiority of the basic socialist political system is very important, but it can not replace the shortcomings and defects of the political system. The socialist political system itself is in the process of continuous development and change, and it must constantly adapt to the development and change of society.
The disadvantage of the Soviet system of the Soviet Union lies not only in the fact that the Soviet is in a position of powerlessness and can not shoulder the burden of leading the country by substituting the party for the government, but also in the failure to deal with the relationship between the central and local governments on the whole, especially between the central government and the participating republics dominated by ethnic minorities. The centralization of all power in the central government leads to excessive centralization of power. As a result, local enthusiasm can not be brought into full play. More importantly, it causes new ethnic problems in ethnic minority areas, forms ethnic estrangement and ethnic distrust, interweaves ethnic problems that are not easy to solve with local problems, and complicates the problems.
In socialist countries, we should strengthen and constantly improve the democratic and legal systems, and establish an effective system for the people to participate in, discuss and supervise government affairs; Adjust the relationship between the central and local governments to make it standardized and legalized; We should give full play to the respective advantages of central centralization and local decentralization, adhere to the principle of democratic centralism, and attract ethnic minorities to participate in and discuss state affairs, which is the fundamental guarantee for the embodiment of socialist democracy, the realization of national harmony and the maintenance of national unity. At the same time, we should not be soft hearted and resolutely fight back against the forces of ethnic minorities who use ethnic and political issues to create ethnic contradictions, ethnic disputes and split the country. In this regard, the lessons of Gorbachev's period are very prominent. Being bound by the so-called democracy, blindly tolerating and accommodating nationalism, and failing to crack down on national separatist forces can only lead to serious national conflicts and the disintegration of the state.
(4) distinguish between ethnic contradictions and class struggle, and adhere to solving ethnic relations by political and legal means
In socialist countries, with the elimination of exploiting classes and exploiting systems, class confrontation also disappears. Therefore, national contradictions, including nationalism, generally belong to contradictions among the people and should be solved by means of politics, civil law and law. Even if there are ethnic separatist activities that undermine national unity, such confrontational contradictions should generally be solved through political struggle and legal means. Of course, we should adopt resolute and tough measures to stop ethnic separatists who wantonly undermine national unity and territorial integrity, but we should also try our best to avoid affecting the broad masses of the people.
In the past, in the process of socialist construction and development, the Soviet Union attributed the universal national contradictions and problems to class contradictions and class struggle, or regarded them as the agents of the western bourgeoisie. Moreover, the activities of safeguarding its national historical and cultural traditions and the acts of demanding the expansion of national autonomy were all labeled as bourgeois nationalists, ranging from criticism to justice or repression; Even during the patriotic war, under the pretext of the betrayal of a very small number of people, more than a dozen weak and small ethnic groups were forcibly relocated as criminals, causing great harm to ethnic minorities. The Soviet government confused two kinds of contradictions of different nature, attributed the national contradictions and problems to class struggle, and used force and dictatorship to deal with the problems of national relations. The consequences could only seriously hurt the majority of the non Russian people, deepen their hatred towards the great Russians, stimulate their dissatisfaction with the central government of the alliance, deepen the tendency of national centrifugation and weaken the cohesion of the alliance countries.
Nationality, national contradictions and problems and class contradictions and class struggle belong to two different categories. They can not be simply confused or equated at any stage of historical development. Only in societies where exploiting classes and class oppression exist, where oppressing nations and oppressed nations exist, or between imperialism and colonial and semi colonial countries, can national contradictions and problems be closely related to class contradictions and class struggle. National conflicts can reflect the essence of class struggle, while national contradictions and problems in socialist countries do not reflect the essence of class contradictions and class struggle. If we insist on describing national contradictions and problems as a reflection of class struggle and use force to suppress national conflicts, it can only cause deeper resentment and hatred among ethnic groups and lead the people of all ethnic groups to disaster.
(5) carrying out economic reform, liberating and developing productive forces, narrowing the economic gap and achieving common prosperity are the economic foundation for safeguarding national unity and national unity
The deep root of the disintegration of the Soviet Union is the historical limitations of the Soviet economic model, which hinder the development of productive forces and have not been solved for a long time. Before the 1960s, the social economy of the Soviet Union grew rapidly, and man-made earth satellites took the lead in flying in space. How brilliant and dazzling the first socialist country of mankind was. It not only had cohesion within the alliance, but also attracted the nations of the world striving for liberation, and also caused a trust crisis in the western world. However, since the 1970s, with the rise of the world's new technological revolution, western developed countries have obtained new opportunities and entered a new period of development. However, the traditional system of the Soviet Union did not meet the requirements of the new technological revolution, the economic growth was slow, and gradually entered a period of stagnation and recession. The huge economic contrast caused new changes in cohesion and centrifugation, and the Soviet Union was facing the crisis of belief and disintegration.
Marxism holds that economy is the root of all social phenomena, and productivity is the most fundamental and decisive factor in economy. In order to consolidate the socialist system and enhance the cohesion of socialist countries, we must vigorously develop the productive forces. Marx and Engels pointed out in the Communist Manifesto that the proletariat should use its political rule to "increase the total amount of productive forces as soon as possible" [4] (p161). Lenin brilliantly pointed out, "when the task of the proletariat seizing power is solved, with the task of depriving the dispossessed and suppressing their resistance largely and basically solved, it is necessary to put the fundamental task of creating a social structure higher than capitalism in the primary position. This fundamental task is to improve labor productivity." "In the final analysis, labor productivity is the most important and important thing to make the new social system win," he added To develop productive forces in socialist countries, we must adhere to reform and opening up. This is not only because socialist production relations and productive forces have both adaptive and contradictory aspects, but also because socialism is a long historical period, which has experienced different stages and conditions of politics, economy, scientific and technological progress and external environment, and the economic system and policies cannot remain unchanged. Therefore, Engels said: "the so-called 'socialist society' is not an invariable thing, but should be regarded as a society that is constantly changing and reformed like any other social system." [5](P346)。 The profound lesson of the disintegration of the Soviet Union is that it has adhered to the rigid traditional system and theoretical dogma for a long time. The traditional economic system has seriously hindered the progress of science and technology and the development of productive forces. The long-term shortage of commodities, the decline of efficiency and economic recession have greatly reduced the cohesion of socialism.
Social existence determines people's consciousness. In the era of peace and development, the center of economic development and the center of politics, culture and science formed on this basis must be the Holy Land and focus of people's yearning. This is true of a country and the world; This is true in history and now. Under the condition that socialism eliminates exploitation and oppression and realizes national equality, the flow of people and people in border areas and the centripetality and centrifugation in ethnic areas ultimately depend on the decisive force of economy, whether social production develops, whether comprehensive national strength is strengthened and whether people's living standards are improved. In the socialist market economy, we should first consider efficiency and fairness. Common interests are the basis of unity. Carrying out economic reform, liberating and developing productive forces, narrowing the economic gap and realizing common prosperity are the economic basis for safeguarding national unity and national unity.
6. Adhere to the diplomatic policy of peace, oppose hegemonism and safeguard national sovereignty
In terms of foreign policy, since focusing on economic construction is the primary task of socialist countries, and the goal of foreign policy is to serve domestic construction and provide a good international environment for domestic construction, we should always adhere to the principle of peaceful diplomacy. At the same time, we should also prevent subversion and destruction by international hostile forces, especially using ethnic issues as a sneak entrance to interfere with economic construction and split the country.
The so-called peaceful diplomacy refers to: first, we should correctly judge the situation and correctly understand the differentiation and combination of various forces. History has proved that the overly optimistic estimation of the international socialist movement and the overly tense judgment of the world situation have kept all aspects of domestic work in a tense state of war, which has had a great negative impact on domestic construction. Secondly, we should make every effort to resolve contradictions and conflicts and make every effort to avoid war or confrontation. After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union not only did not make full use of the wartime alliance mechanism to strive for easing the situation, but relied on the rise of its own strength and excessively pursued its own interests, resulting in the cold war lasting for decades. Even if they have to spend considerable energy and material resources to maintain those "achievements", they will also impact and transfer the strategic center of economic construction. The failure in the confrontation eventually led to the transfer of those gains. Facts have proved that only by striving to boost the economy and improve the comprehensive national strength can the socialist country truly remain invincible. Third, we should strictly distinguish ideological contradictions from state relations and resolutely avoid mixing ideological elements in diplomatic practice. For a long time, the Soviet Union also claimed to distinguish peaceful coexistence from class struggle, but in practice, due to incorrect understanding of peaceful coexistence and always trying to use peaceful coexistence for their own expansion and profit, the result was that they never straightened out the relationship between the two. "Peaceful coexistence" was often destroyed by their "export revolution". Fourth, we should insist on not seeking hegemony. Hegemonism is not only the enemy of socialist thought, but also the burden of economic construction. Hegemonic policy will inevitably lead to conflict and arms race; Hegemonism may win temporary glory and glory, but the example of the Soviet Union also proves that hegemonism will eventually consume resources in the struggle for hegemony, and all gains will be lost due to the failure of the struggle for hegemony. Fifth, adhering to peaceful diplomacy is based on the reality of the power structure of the country and the world, focusing on domestic construction. It is not an evasive or unprincipled compromise, nor is it a threat to national security without defense or counterattack. On issues involving national sovereignty and territorial integrity, we should not only adhere to the basic idea of peaceful diplomacy, but also resolutely safeguard our legitimate interests and principles.