Esme Brown
How accurate is it to say that Gorbachev’s ideas of perestroika and glasnost were the main
reasons for the pressure to reform in the GDR in the years 1985-1989? (20 marks)
In 1985, Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Soviet Union replacing Chernenko,
with his leadership came the policies of perestroika (economic restructuring, allowing
changes such as private enterprise) and glasnost (policy of openness, allowing freedom of
speech), these policies were arguably the catalyst for change and reform within the Eastern
bloc, including the GDR. However, there were other reasons behind pressure to reform,
including the economy of the 1980’s, debt crippled the GDR with little consumer goods
causing widespread dissatisfaction. This was coupled by pressure from the Church,
protestant opposition groups began to form pushing for cultural reform. Moreover, it is
highly debatable to how accurate it is to say perestroika and glasnost were the main reasons
for the pressure to reform within the GDR in the years 1985-89.
The ending of the Brezhnev doctrine in 1985 had profound effect on the GDR significantly
because the GDR could no longer count on the USSR’s military intervention in domestic
unrest, which in the past had been keeping up the fear among the GDR’s people, after the
June 1953 uprising. As an artificial country, to follow the USSR and undertake fundamental
political restructure would be departing from communist ideology and would undermine
Abgrenzung. By the late 1980s, the GDR Generation began demanding change, with a focus
on culture rather than politics. For instance, there were some 80-90 ecological groups based
in large cities such as Leipzig where environmental problems were severe. Gorbachev’s
policy of glasnost largely impacted the people of the GDR giving them a confidence. And
despite the SED censoring Gorbachev’s speeches and articles, the black market supplied
them this was because the Central Institute for Youth Research based in Leipzig found in
1988 that 83% of young people questioned supported Gorbachev. Gorbachev was a new
type of communist leader offering hope through his policies of perestroika and glasnost.
This caused the youth to latch onto him and gave impetus to reformist movements in the
GDR. For instance, based in a basement of a Berlin apartment, the Environmental Library
was set up in 1986. It printed a journal, Umweltblatter which had a circulation of 2000 a
month. Moreover, clearly Gorbachev and his policies gave the GDR Generation a reason to
hope and subsequently push for reform. Therefore, this points to the conclusion that
although other factors were the root of reform, environment and economy, Gorbachev was
the ultimate momentum for reform, so it is most accurate to argue that perestroika and
glasnost were the main reasons for reform.
On the other hand, it is more accurate to argue that the economy were the main forces for
reform. A range of issues weakened the economy including extreme spending on defence,
national debt, high spending on health and welfare and high spending on employing Stasi.
Notably, the Berlin wall was an extreme drain on the economy with 8% expenditure on
defence, the amount spend on the wall would be sufficient to pay for the whole of the
GDR’s gas and electric, and have a 35 hour working week. And the Stasi added to this drain,
depleting DM4 billion each year, with 91,000 full time employees. The overspending in
these areas subsequently hampered the GDR’s consumer goods. Having a population with
savings and nothing to spend them on, ultimately caused dissatisfaction; the population had
