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N0KFQ > TODAY 14.03.17 14:42l 59 Lines 2796 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 26350_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 14
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<GB7CIP<N0KFQ
Sent: 170314/1238Z 26350@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1990
Gorbachev elected president of the Soviet Union
The Congress of People's Deputies elects General Secretary
Mikhail Gorbachev as the new president of the Soviet Union. While
the election was a victory for Gorbachev, it also revealed
serious weaknesses in his power base that would eventually lead
to the collapse of his presidency in December 1991.
Gorbachev's election in 1990 was far different from other
"elections" previously held in the Soviet Union. Since coming to
power in 1985, Gorbachev had worked hard to open up the political
process in the Soviet Union, pushing through legislation that
eliminated the Communist Party's monopoly on power and
establishing the Congress of People's Deputies. The public at
large elected the Congress by secret ballot. By 1990, however,
Gorbachev was facing criticism from both reformers and communist
hard-liners. The reformers, such as Boris Yeltsin, criticized
Gorbachev for the slow pace of his reform agenda. Communist
hard-liners, on the other hand, were appalled by what they saw as
Gorbachev's retreat from Marxist principles. In an attempt to
push forward his reform program, Gorbachev led a movement that
amended the Soviet constitution, including writing a section
establishing a new and more powerful presidency, a position that
had previously been largely symbolic.
On March 14, 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies elected
Gorbachev to a five-year term as president. While this was
certainly a victory for Gorbachev, the election also vividly
demonstrated the problems he faced in trying to formulate a
domestic consensus supporting his political reform program.
Gorbachev had worked assiduously to make sure that the Congress
gave him the necessary two-thirds majority, including making
repeated threats to resign if the majority was not achieved. Had
he not received the necessary votes, he would have had to
campaign in a general election against other candidates.
Gorbachev believed that a general election would result in chaos
in an already unsteady Russia; others in the Soviet Union
attributed his actions to fear that he might lose such an
election. The final vote in the Congress was extremely close, and
Gorbachev achieved his two-thirds majority by a slim 46 votes.
Gorbachev won the presidency, but by 1991 his domestic critics
were pillorying him for the nation's terrible economic
performance and faltering control over the Soviet empire. In
December 1991 he resigned as president, and the Soviet Union
dissolved. Despite the criticism he received, Gorbachev is
credited for instituting a dizzying number of reforms that
loosened the tight grip of communism on the Soviet people.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
Winlink: n0kfq@winlink.org
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