end of the cold war, softening of ideology, and market reform in Russia, europe and america

The end of the Cold War, signified by the breakdown of the Berlin War (1989), and the disintegration of the USSR (1991), signified the end of Communism in much of the world, and the end of the Cold War between Communism and Free World Capitalism. The consequent declining importance of ideology led scholars like Francis Fukuyama let out the optimistic pronunciation that the "end of history" was coming (1991). It turned out that history continued to spin unexpected phenomena all over the world and was far from its end and from leading to a world of uniform thought and practices. But a subtle fading ideological difference between Socialists/Labor and Conservative free marketers in Europe and America did occur because the Cold War was first and foremost a war of ideology and its end made a staunch ideological position less important.

Russia's tortured goodbye to Communism and road to market economy:

Russia's road to market economy was the combined result of random events (deaths of three geriatric Communist rulers within three years: Leonid Brezhnev, 1906-1982 (r.1964-1982), Yuri Andropov, Soviet Communist leader (1914-84, r.Jan.1982–Feb.84), and Konstantin Chernenko (1911-Mar.85)), and the appointment of Mikail Gorbachev (1931- ), who learned from earlier Czech attempts to reform and decided to open up the Soviet Union to boost its tottering economy. He had two slogans:

glasnost: openness. The brutality of the Stalin era, such as the great purges were acknowledged, and the corruption and stagnation of the Brezhnev era were sharply criticized. Soviet leaders became more receptive both to the media and to foreign leaders as a new period of detente opened between East and West. Gorbachev hoped that a candor about the state of the country would accelerate his perestroika program.

Perestroika: [restructuring] was the term attached to the attempts (1985–91) by Mikhail Gorbachev to transform the stagnant, inefficient command economy of the Soviet Union into a decentralized market-oriented economy. Industrial managers and local government and party officials were granted greater autonomy, and open elections were introduced in an attempt to democratize the Communist party organization. By 1991, perestroika was on the wane, and after the failed August Coup of 1991 was eclipsed by the dramatic changes in the constitution of the union.

A short history of the rise and fall of Soviet reform:

The Russian reform, initially designed by Gorbachev to save the Communist Party, went beyond his expectations. The Communist Party's control of the state was replaced by democratic elections, and the Soviet Union itself disintegrated and gave way to the Commonwealth of Independent States. Although led by luminaries such as the Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs, the Russian economic reform has been on a bumpy road.

By 1990, Gorbachev’s perestroika program had failed to deliver significant improvement in the economy, and the elimination of political and social control had released latent ethnic and national tensions in the Baltic states, in the constituent republics of Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova, and elsewhere. 3
A newly created (1989) Congress of People’s Deputies voted in Mar., 1990, to end the Communist party’s control over the government and elected Gorbachev executive president. During 1990 and 1991, however, the reform drive stalled, and Gorbachev appeared to be mollifying remaining hardliners, who were disgruntled over the deterioration of the Soviet empire and increasing marginalization of the Communist party. In August 1991, just on the eve of the signing ceremony for a new union treaty for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, members of the Politburo and the heads of the Soviet military and security services detained Gorbachev at his villa in the Crimea. Yeltsin and other members of the Politburo who did not join the coup led a resistance movement.
After the coup, real power in Russia devolved to Yeltsin, who used the coup’s failure to eliminate the political power of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The August Coup resulted in a minimal loss of life (3 deaths in Moscow and 3 in the Baltic States), the end of the CPSU’s dominance, and hastened the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev dissolved the Communist party, granted the Baltic states independence, and proposed a much looser, chiefly economic federation among the remaining republics. With the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on Dec. 8, 1991, the federal government of the Soviet Union became superfluous, and on Dec. 25, Gorbachev resigned as president.

As president of an independent Russia, Yeltsin moved to end state control of the economy and privatize most enterprises. However, economic difficulties and political opposition, particularly from the Supreme Soviet, slowed his program and forced compromises. In Sept., 1993, Yeltsin suspended parliament and called for new elections. When parliament’s supporters resorted to arms, they were crushed by the army. Although Yeltsin won approval of his proposed constitution, which guaranteed private property, a free press, and human rights, in the Dec., 1993, voting, many of his opponents won seats in the new legislature.

In the late 1990s, however, a series of economic crises, frequent cabinet reshufflings, and his own deteriorating health cast doubt on his ability to rule; charges of corruption in his family and among members of his inner circle also became prominent. In May, 1999, Yeltsin survived an impeachment attempt spearheaded by the Communist opposition. A second invasion of Chechnya (1999), prompted by a Chechen invasion of Dagestan and related terrorist bombings in Russia, proved popular with many Russians, and progovernment parties did well in the 1999 parliamentary elections. On Dec. 31, 1999, the long-ailing Yeltsin suddenly announced his resignation; Prime Minister Vladimir Putin succeeded him as acting president.

The blurring of ideological lines in the West and road to deregulation:

Despite the ups and downs of Russian economic reform, one consequence of the end of the Cold War was a blurring of ideological lines in the West and an almost unanimous agreement among many Western politicians across ideological lines to commit to a more market oriented economy, due to high inflation and unemployment in a welfare state. Reform thus was often led by Socialists or Labor Party in Europe and the Democrats in the U.S.

• French Socialist government, 1997, selling state property such as Air France and France Telecom.
• Tony Blair (1997) and Gerhard Schroder (1998): the blurring of ideological lines: Blair, leader of the Labor Party, and Shroeder, leader of the Social Democratic Party, both leftist parties, now emphasize privatization.
  • areas of European modification of government regulation: reducing budget deficit, cutting taxes, and promoting wage moderation, enabling the firing of state employees, and in the case of France: shortening of the workweek to 35 hours.
• Bill Clinton and the deregulation of the U.S. economy to reduce deficit.

The German unification expanded the hold of free market in central Europe, and the European Union: 1991 Maastricht Treaty; the implementation of the euro and market economy. (current members of the EU: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Cyprus.)