The world just lost a trusted leader, a person whom I wish I could have met to thank them for their contributions to mankind. Of course, I am speaking of none other than Mikhail Gorbachev.
Gorbachev became head of the Communist Party in Russia in 1985 and the President of Russia in 1988. He ushered in two revolutionary policies in Russia: Glasnost and Perestroika. The former called for openness in Russia in terms of discussing political and social ideas, It allowed for criticisms of the government to be openly expressed.
Perestroika sought to change Russia's, or really the Soviet Union's, economic and political structure so that there was less centralized control. Meanwhile, Gorbachev wanted the USSR to be more economically competitive with the West.
Now those two ideas may not seem revolutionary to us, but they were to almost all with Gorbachev's childhood and educational background. And they illustrate one of Gorbachev's positive traits: the willingness to learn from outside sources. Here in America, so many people are so ideological that they would rather deny the facts on the ground than admit that their ideology is not omniscient. Gorbachev learned to recognize the limits of Marxist Socialism.
The willingness to learn from others and change is rare among many politicians, especially among those who are ideologues or those with other tribal loyalties. Gorbachev's willingness to learn and change is similar to that same quality that we saw in both JFK and RFK. Though both knew way too little of the struggle and realities that blacks faced back when JFK became President, they learned from the Civil Rights Movement and the sacrifices that its members made. It was sometimes a resistant and reluctant learning, but they changed either while in or running for office. And Kennedy's commencement address at American University several months after the Cuban Missile Crisis also gave evidence of his willingness and ability to change.
RFK also sought to change after he was presented with enough facts. Yes, initially he was reluctant to change, but change he did. And he met in person with both economically marginalized people to see their harsh way of life and with Caesar Chavez when the latter was represent farm workers.
And so the willingness and ability to change with the times without sacrificing moral values is something that we could see in Gorbachev.
We also see a lot of wisdom in Gorbachev's understanding of the times and the kind of approach he wanted to take to address what was happening. Below are some quotes from Gorbachev regarding what he was observing in Russia after his tenure as leader of the Soviet Union. All quotes are taken from Gorbachev's book, The New Russia, from Polity Press which was reprinted in 2016.
During the time when Gorbachev was thinking about the value of social democracy, he said the following to the Nineteenth Congress of the International:
The downfall of totalitarianism in the former Soviet Union was the collapse of a particular system called 'socialism' and seen by many as such, whether from a hostile viewpoint or with approval and a sense of solidarity. In reality, it was not socialism. The values that usually inform the concept of socialism, however, are as relevant today as ever. They have inspired many generations of champions of liberty, equality and fraternity and have brought vast mass movements into being...
I cannot see a fully satisfactory and successful future for Russia that does not involve the values of social democracy. At the same time, I am against dogmatically setting one variety of democracy against another. Pragmatic policy should be based on a synthesis of experience, ideas and values that have been tried and tested in practice in the past.
Note how Gorbachev is willing to learn from new approaches without leaving his convictions. He was looking to merge socialism and social democracy together. This is a similar approach Martin Luther King Jr. took to both Capitalism and Communism in his book, Stride Toward Freedom (click here for one source and read pages 92-95 ).
Or notice Gorbachev's ability to make distinctions, something that is almost extinct now in today's authoritarian world that employs a black-white worldviews. He wrote the following when discussing the Social Democratic Party in Russia:
Like all other social democrats, we were in favor of a market economy but not a market society. We proceeded from the view that, in addition to the market, there are always areas in society outside its reach: science, education, culture. We declared: 'There should be as much of the market as possible, and as much of the state as necessary.'
The words in single quotes, btw, is from one of his books.
Gorbachev was no fan of Stalin, at least he ended up that way. What Stalin had instituted was not socialism but totalitarianism according to Gorbachev. But his view of Lenin was different and his view is one with which I disagree because I consider Lenin to be closer to Stalin than to Marx. Nevertheless, Gorbachev was willing to learn from Lenin's admitted mistakes. He used Lenin's recognition of his own mistakes to help break away from his first reaction to Stalin which was favorable. And something I could relate to was that his breaking away from his first view of Stalin was difficult and painful. I had a similar experience when I broke away from being a political conservative.
Gorbachev's recognition of mistakes and ability to change his mind from some strong beliefs shows his flexibility in thinking in terms. He also learned from Lenin the dangers of trying to force change on people too quickly--a problem we have been experiencing here:
My transition from the boy who wrote essays at school on the topic 'Stalin Is Our Military Glory, Stalin Is the Soaring of Our Youth' to rejecting Stalinism and waging war on the totalitarian system was hard and far from painless. A major part in it was played by my turning to the last works of Lenin, his admission that 'we made a mistake in deciding to move directly to communist production and distribution'. There is no denying that the Bolsheviks made a complete has of thins with War Communism.
I think Lenin was appalled by the results: the collapse of the economy, famine in the cities, the Kronstadt mutiny, peasant uprisings, and he concluded: 'You cannot jump ahead of the people.' Lenin's comments on the need for 'a fundamental change of our entire point of view about socialism', as well as his words about a transition from the earlier revolutionary approach to 'a completely different, reformist way forward' had a profound impact on me.
If Gorbachev's recounting of what Lenin thought was correct, then through experience Lenin, all too late, became a Menshevik. The Mensheviks were stagists who believed that it was best to bring socialism to Russia in stages. They opposed the revolutionary approach of Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
We should also note that bringing significant change in stages rather than force a kind of shock therapy change, which is how Gorbachev had described the economic changes Russia had to go through when Yeltsin came to power, also shows a flexibility in thinking--something that is lacking in American politics today. And this bringing significant changes to the Soviet Union in stages is how he wanted Perestroika to be affect Russia's economy. Gorbachev was looking for evolutionary changes.
The last quote I will use is about Gorbachev's view not just of globalization, but any economic system that ushers in great wealth and income disparity:
If globalization leads us further to a world of super-profits and hyperconsumption, and world politics fails to find a path towards a more just and secure world order, mankind will face a period of global chaos and social upheaval. These cautions are not alarmist, not panic-mongering, but the apprehensions of someone who has seen and experienced much in the course of his life.
Gorbachev belongs to a dying breed of politicians and with their death might come the death of the "civilized" world. He was a person and politician who could both hold to basic convictions while learning new approaches. He is a person and politician who would observe and listen to the people rather than push ahead with a personal agenda. And he is the kind of politician that we need in our government today.
Perhaps if more and more people read his works and about him, they would see the kind of character that we need to demand in our leaders and ourselves as citizens.
We don't have to agree with all or even most of his political views to learn from Gorbachev. But we would all do better to learn Gorbachev's approach to politics and to developing one's political views along with his moral convictions that revolve around the welfare of people.
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