Halfway in Many Ways, Yevgeny Term Paper

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Gorbachev most certainly did undertake policies that were not half measures, and for which he did all in his power as a government official to implement systemic, nationwide (and international) change. The degree of efficaciousness of these measures and their results, however, is somewhat dubious. An excellent example of a measure implemented by the General Secretary that no one can claim was done in a halfhearted attempt was the Soviet Union's prohibition of alcohol consumption, selling and purchasing. Alcoholism had long been a problem in the Soviet Union by the time Gorbachev became its leader, and prohibition was an earnest effort on his part to address and even correct this seriously debilitating issue. However, the most long-range result of this measure was the rise of Russian mafia and the underground market that this law produced. Although he made a noble effort, Gorbachev did not succeed in curing the Soviet Union of this particular ill.

Another measure that he made quite an attempt to introduce to the Soviet Union was glasnost, which was designed to remove all of the problems of the degree of secrecy and internal fear that had gripped Soviet Union citizens for decades. With free speech and freedom to express one's thoughts now a reality in the Soviet Union, people were also free to travel internationally and exercise a whole host of civil liberties that were not previously available. The problem, however, was that soon after glasnost was introduced, it was exercised by people such as Yevtushenko to criticize the state. Radical papers sprouted up, and their decrying of Gorbachev and his half-way measures did not help in assisting the sustenance of the Soviet Union. Again, the ultimate good produced by this measure is somewhat suspect, since it was used against its very creators.

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The dichotomy that characterized the majority of Gorbachev's efforts to please both partisans in the Soviet Union is the predominant theme in "Half-Measures." Each of the sides, that of the radical and that of the hardline Communists is refereed to in the subsequent quotation. "You cannot be half/a guard for the cardinal/and half/a king's musketeer" (Yevtushenko, 1991). As such, the vast majority of the author's criticism of the various economic and socio-political measures induced by the former General Secretary appears well substantiated. By understanding the reasons why Gorbachev took a decidedly lukewarm approach to restructuring the Soviet Union, his impending destruction of the Soviet Union is completely understandable, and further justification for Yevtushenko's criticism.

However, when one considers the results of Gorbachev's measures via the perfect vision of hindsight afforded through the twenty-plus years since "Half Measures" was written, it becomes apparent that in many ways, he ultimately succeeded in modernizing the countries encompassed by the Soviet Union. Despite the fact that those countries are no longer considered one of the world's superpowers -- due to the dissolution of the Union -- the former General Secretary's goal of modernizing that region and bringing it into the global marketplace have certainly come to fruition. Capitalism is well rooted throughout Russia and through most of the countries in the Eastern bloc. The economy and the political situation in Russia is much less tenuous than it was during the latter stages of the Soviet Union. When one considers that Gorbachev himself was the first president of Russia prior to the Soviet Union's ultimate collapse (Rosenberg, 2012), it appears he earned his reward for a job well done......

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