Gorbachev's Failed Goal

When Gorbachev took over the Soviet Union in 1988, he wanted to save communism.  He noticed that the Communist party was struggling as it became less and less cohesive with the needs of the USSR.  Trying to restore the dignity of his party, he enacted various reforms.  "Perestroika" was the enacting of economic reforms to save the economy after Brezhnev failed to create economic success.  He also started "glasnost", which gave the people more freedoms, such as freedom of speech.  However, as he tried to use these domestic reforms in Russia to save the USSR, they backfired.  The results were the opposite of what he desired.  While he attempted to restore communism, he destroyed it.  More freedoms meant more opposition because the people were less afraid to strike out against the government.  In Poland,  Lech Walesa, a leader in Poland, began a movement for allied labor strikers called Solidarity.  As Solidarity flourished in Poland, Gorbachev's power became undermined.  Walesa won elections.  Soon, other opposition groups rose up in the other countries in the USSR and Gorbachev lost control.  The Berlin Wall collapsed in November 1989.  Although Gorbachev tried to save his own party, his reforms did the opposite- but saving the power of the people in the process.  Without Gorbachev, the freedom of the people of the USSR never would have been achieved.