If today we perceive globalization by the role played by the internet, by the complexization and expansion of commercial and financial transactions or by the speed with As the information reaches us, it is important to emphasize that this is, in a way, a consequence of several historical factors - among them, the end of the War Cold. Therefore, minimally understanding the changes that took place in the USSR at the end of the 1980s, with the advent of Perestroika and Glasnost, is essential not only to understand what triggered the end of the socialist bloc, but also to understand how the configuration of a new order would take place later. worldwide.
In 1989, the so-called Cold War came to an end, a period in which the world was divided into two blocs: on the one hand, the capitalist bloc represented by the USA; and, on the other, the socialist bloc represented by the USSR, led by Russia. After the Second World War (1939-1945), in 1946 a period marked by a strong dispute for the ideological dominance between these blocks, as well as for the so-called space race and technological. The end of this story is already known, as the capitalist model was victorious after the economic and political reforms promoted by Soviet Union when it was already dying, unable to maintain the socialist project and its model of the welfare state. But the beginning of the end would be in the process of internal changes in the USSR, which began in the mid-1980s, with Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which would later promote the implementation of Perestroika and the Glasnost.
As Octavio Ianni points out in his book A Sociedade Global (1995), Perestroika, a word that can be translated as reconstruction, “has put into practice changes deep into the structure of the Soviet economic system, with the replacement of centrally planned economic mechanisms by Marketplace". (IANNI, p. 12). It was an economic restructuring and reorientation of public spending, reducing, for example, investments in the area of defense. Considering the establishment of a "space race" between the US and the USSR materialized in the dispute for the domain of defense technologies (production of nuclear bombs) and for the exploration of the space (such as the creation of satellites and rockets), the USSR, headed by Russia, compromised its internal economy and, in this way, the functioning of its welfare state model Social. Mikhail Gorbachev, being quoted by Octavio Ianni, would state that: “Perestroika is an urgent need that has arisen from the depth of development processes in our socialist society. It is ready to be changed and has been yearning for change for a long time. Any delay in implementing perestroika could lead, in the near future, to an internal situation exacerbated that, in clear terms, it would constitute fertile ground for a serious social, economic and policy [...]". (ibid., p. 12). Obviously, it must be emphasized that Perestroika as a reform was not necessarily aimed at surrendering to the capitalist bloc, but rather at an attempt at Soviet recovery.
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
But the reforms, as is well known, were not only based on an economic point of view, but also a political one, promoting (also in the midst of these changes) the so-called Glasnost, a word that in Russian is linked to the idea of transparency. The allusion to the idea of transparency would be in the sense of the softening of power and the presence of a strong state, restricting freedoms. Therefore, parallel to the changes promoted by Perestroika, would be the attempt to open up more freedom of expression in society (which until then has not could complain about the government), at the same time that there was an effort for greater transparency of government actions, which would reflect in the policy positively. Thus, as Ianni (1995) points out, Glasnost would have inaugurated democratization, and thus the breaking of the monopoly of political life by the Communist Party and the abandonment of the State-party-union scheme, promoting greater transparency in relations policies. In this way, the bases of the Soviet Union were dismantled and, at the end of the 1980s, there was a fall of the Berlin wall, symbol of the division of the world, which would mean the victory of ideology capitalist. Since then, there has been the configuration of a new world order, initiated by the reorganization of international relations.
Thus, such reforms promoted by the Soviet government represented the dismantling of the so-called real socialism, characterized in lines general by a one-party system, with a centralized government with strong control not only in politics, but also in the economy and culture. Currently, China would be a country with a political-administrative model very close to what the USSR was, but differs fundamentally by the the way in which it adhered to capitalism as a way of producing life, becoming one of the most complex societies in the eyes of analysts across the world. world.
References:
IANNI, Octavio. The Global Society. Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Civilization, 1995
Paulo Silvino Ribeiro
Brazil School Collaborator
Bachelor in Social Sciences from UNICAMP - State University of Campinas
Master in Sociology from UNESP - São Paulo State University "Júlio de Mesquita Filho"
Doctoral Student in Sociology at UNICAMP - State University of Campinas
