Human Rights: Part 1 - Gorbachev's Views and Record

In 1985, when Gorbachev came to power, the country he took charge of already well established as one of the worst human rights violators in the world since the cruel regimes led by Stalin and those who followed him. Despite pledges to allow freedom of speech, religion and belief within their borders at the 1975 Helsinki Agreement, no such rights were ever granted to citizens of the USSR until Gorbachev came to power. Even in the early days of Gorbachev's leadership, political dissent and emigration from the soviet union still resulted in persecution by the government, and Gorbachev came in for heavy criticism for this from western leaders such as Ronald Reagan when he first took office (Los Angeles Times, 1985).

Gorbachev already had his sights set on putting an end to these violations when he came to power given his new line of thinking about how the Soviet Union should be run. It is likely the exposure to pressure from the west spurred Gorbachev on even more to reverse the human rights atrocities being carried out in his country and beyond.

Despite the Helsinki agreement and the growing pressure from Reagan, nobody inside or outside of the USSR could predict the amount of change that would occur concerning tackling human rights violations, save for Gorbachev himself. The members of the Politburo who elected him as their leader did not anticipate the effects of Gorbachev's exposure to human rights ideas and movements that had influenced him and his closest allies in the communist party. This new wave of more progressive members of the party had taken on board the critiques of the USSR’s human rights violations during the 1970s and recognised that to return to more harmonious relations with Europe and the US, they had to drastically reform human rights laws which were viewed as a key pillar of western society (Thomas, 2005).

It was also in the self-interest of Gorbachev and his government to permit citizens of the USSR greater freedoms as this would unlock the economic growth that had been lost by decades of discrimination and totalitarian leaders. An inextricable link emerged between granting more human rights and economic progress in the Soviet Union. It would be incorrect to say that Gorbachev’s pursuit to end human rights violations was merely for economic benefit alone. By 1987 the Glasnost policy was already threatening the power and stability of the communist party itself, instead of using repression and force to regain control, Gorbachev marginalised the members of his party who were reluctant to give in to the progressive changes that were occurring in human rights laws (Thomas, 2005). The censors' office, previously a powerful and overbearing institution was gradually relaxed as Gorbachev attempted to reduce peoples fear of the government. Press companies that were previously black marked were granted more freedom and tolerance, albeit limited.

1988 proved to be a major landmark year in the pursuit of human rights protection within the USSR. Gorbachev authorised the release of hundreds of prisoners that had been arrested and held in isolation for expressing their political and religious views in public. This mirrored the slowing down and eventual stalling of imprisoning dissidents. Controversial publications that were previously forbidden from view were now made public information, such as reports on corruption and police brutality. Western nations even praised Gorbachev for his policies, and while efforts had been made to allow greater emigration from the USSR western democracies still felt Gorbachev was too slow on this area of human rights (Cannon, 1988). This same year, Gorbachev allowed a broadcast of Ronald Reagan to be played on national television, in which Reagan made a speech to Soviet dissidents. This broadcast publicly acknowledged and admitted to the world that there were human rights issues in the USSR.

As a result of his risky, brave and controversial changes on Communist Party Human rights policy and for introducing sweeping changes within soviet society, Gorbachev’s work was rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. The award showed to the world that Gorbachev had ambitious intentions and genuine aspirations to transform the treatment of people within his country and outside of it. Gorbachev believed that if the world of politics had any hope of being peaceful in the future, the emphasis lay on prioritising human rights and the welfare of citizens (Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, 2012).

References:

1- Los Angeles Times. (1985). Gorbachev and Human Rights. [online] Available at: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-08-me-15361-story.html

2 - Thomas, D. (2005). Human Rights Ideas, the Demise of Communism, and the End of the Cold War. [online] Muse.jhu.edu. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/181904

3 - Cannon, L. (1988). [online] Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/05/05/reagan-credits-gorbachev-on-human-rights/d24e4578-69ea-4c4a-9dbe-35ba2519ec05/

4 - Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. (2012). Mikhail Gorbachev. [online] Available at: https://rfkhumanrights.org/work/teaching-human-rights/lessons/mikhail-gorbachev [Accessed 19 Feb. 2020].