Gorbachev: On My Country and the World

Gorbachev in his own words. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It gives insight to an important period in history.

Gorbachev is probably the only leader of a country that developed a philosophy of government from scratch and then applied it leading to spectacular positive changes in the world. After many years of study and debate including many different types of people, politicians, scientists, writers, from Russia and from the West, the conclusion was that traditional political thinking was based on the nation state and its relationships with other states. Globalisation with its quantum leap in increasing interdependence and interconnectedness requires another starting point. Gorbachev concluded that the starting point has to be the world as whole and national states within that whole. Like most other thinkers the group also concluded that freedom of choice of the individual and non-violence were essential too. They also recognised that the combination of increasing interdependence and of freedom leads to an increase in the number of nation states in the world. At first sight that appears to be contradictory. It is however a logical consequence of people forming a part of a cultural group wanting to protect their cultural identity. The challenge is how to reconcile these many nation states within the world as a whole. The application of these principles led to the end of the Cold War including a vast reduction of nuclear arms. Another equally important consequence was the dismantlement of the Eastern block, restoring freedom to Poland, East Germany, Hungary and many other countries. Also the Soviet Union fell apart. The goal and hope of Gorbachev was that the Soviet Union could have been transformed in a federation. This turned out to be impossible because of the strength of the suppressed nationalist feelings and the harsh history of centralised communist direction. Other contributing factors were the abolishment of subsidies of Russia to other states and the chaos, probably unavoidable, in moving from a centrally planned economy to a free market economy. Reconciling the unique interests of nation states with those of the world, as a whole requires, what Gorbachev refers to as a "revolution in consciousness". The humanistic values that can be found in all great spiritual traditions like Christianity, Islam and Buddhism have to be practiced and not as ideals most of the time. The application of New Thinking led to the most positive developments in the last century, unfortunately after solving planet-threatening problems and increasing freedom progress has stagnated. We still do not have a world where peace and prosperity reign. "New Thinking" is as important to day as when it was launched. The book is easy to read but requires some effort to grasp the originality and usefulness of the many concepts that make up "New Thinking". It is definitely worth the effort

I think simply that history has proven that Gorbachev's vision of a democratic USSR with a mixed ecomony was the correct vision. All the former Soviet Republics today are a mess. The legal framework under which the market ecomonies of the world operate did not exist in the former USSR, hence the lawlessness that has existed there since 1992. The destroyers of the USSR were the idiotic coup plotters who could not grasp the Soviet Union was not Bolivia and that a coup there had no chance of success. I think though Gorbachev is still in denial over the 1917 revolution. The greatest tragedy in Russian history was the overthrow of the Romanovs and the creation of the Communist state. With all it's problems Russia was the 13th largest Industrial power in the world. A responsible goverment could have made Russia into a constitutional monarchy and led the country to greatness. With no Stalin there never would have been a Nazi-Soviet pact and probably no WWII.

It was not that long ago when a person would have been thought foolish if they believed a former, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, would be writing books for anyone who was interested. It also is not very long ago that a person writing about any one of the dozens of issues in this book, would have spent many, if not their remaining years in a Siberian Camp. Since Mr. Gorbachev became General Secretary in 1985 until he resigned as President in 1991, history has been made that will fill countless books for many years to come.If there is one aspect of this book that I were to state as particularly fascinating it would be the transcripts from Politburo Meetings. Here are the same men expressing their thoughts in reality, when the same members of this inner sanctum of The Kremlin have been the foundation for spy and Cold War Novels for decades. If you are looking for "the evil empire", plotting the destruction of the West, you will be disappointed. The arguments and the positioning that continually deteriorate into political and personal feuds as the former USSR became the target of varied interests, reads like much of what we listen to and watch here with our elected officials.Mr. Gorbachev is not an apologist for the Former Soviet Union. As someone who grew up with the USSR portrayed as the ultimate evil, the book requires a major change in perspective for the reader. A willingness to listen to a man that is extremely well informed, a Statesman, and a thinker far and away the superior to those who now rule the remains of the USSR, and its kleptocratic economy. I found his words to be remarkably candid when criticizing his own mistakes, and those of the USSR, and his criticisms of US Policy were more often valid than not. The world was divided into two camps with each side portraying the other as the ultimate threat for most of the 20th Century. The truth of course is never that simple. The stories shared by Mr. Gorbachev have another facet; they are absolutely terrifying at times.It is not possible to comment on even a portion of his ideas. His writing is very dense, and takes getting comfortable with to complete the book. This may in part be due to translation issues, and there are footnotes where ambiguity may have been critical.His narration of the USSR coming apart is not only fascinating, it was infinitely more complex than many care to recall, and the complexities are by no measure solved. The USSR was never a monolithic beast. It was composed of 15 distinct republics that were made all the more complex by forced immigrations, ethnic complications, and the arbitrary creation of borders. Borders that became not only critical but also disputed to the point of war, when the Union was dissolved.During his book he covers the history of his country and the larger union, the problems then, and the challenges now. He also takes the reader through the removal of The Wall In Berlin, the first border disputes in Azerbaijan an

As a reader from the third world (or emerging market?) I wonder why Gorbachev is so popular outside Russia. Since his economics reforms didn't work and his political ones didn't make better either. I only regard the former Soviet Union or the Soviet Space a giant jigsaw puzzle of nations and peoples who look each other up. It's worth noting its China-like inward spirit looking to West as like as a menace. Indeed I agree with Mr. Gorbachev on the Russias's future as a great partner in the world political scenario. For those who are trying to find desperately out a third way for the real socialism it's a worth reading Renato Zanola

This book not only sheds light on many aspects of the October Revolution, but brings back the real meaning of socialism without the preconceived ideas that the West has created. Gorbachev's attempt to reform the USSR is described with astoning revelations on alleged conspiracy against Gorbachev himself. A must read in order to understand the collapse of the Soviet empire, through its number one insider.