Gorbachev - Part 1, The Great Dissident Our World

It is time for our world. We chart the rise to power of the Soviet

Union's last leader, Mikhail A man forged by Communism who then

destroyed it. An enemy of the West welcomed as a friend. 20 years

since he helped to transform the world, Mikhail Gorbachev tells his

In this first of two programmes, the untold tale of his rise to

TRANSLATION: Perestroika did win. We got democracy, we got freedom of

speech and political pluralism. And The bustling heart of St Petersburg.

Few today probably remember the significance of this spot for

It was here that Soviet citizens first grasped that the whole world

was about to be turned upside down, right here in this square in May

1985. Mikhail Gorbachev broke with tradition and did what Soviet

leaders had never done before - he bridged the gap with ordinary

people. It was unheard of. He was relaxed, accessible, even prepared

The television pictures electrified the country. Here was the Kremlin

leader - all right, a bit more energetic than those who had come

before, but still apparently a loyal Communist who had come up

through the ranks. How come the system had suddenly thrown up this

Gorbachev started out a typical product of the Soviet system. His

childhood was spent here in a sleepy village in southern Russia.

His parents were peasants. In the harsh post-war years, he embraced

Stalinism without question. TRANSLATION: I was a loyal citizen.

For my final exams at that age, I chose Stalinism as my subject. My

subject was Stalinism and glory in battle. Stalinism was the subject

of my youth. It wasn't that someone inculcated Gorbachev into the

Communist Party. Not that my father or grandfather insisted. Not at all.

And it was the system that broadened his horizons by sending

him to Moscow, to the top Soviet Then Stalin died. A political thaw

took hold and Gorbachev began to My doubts began towards the end of

my time at Moscow University. Being a student in Moscow opened my eyes

to many things. So much was bound up with Stalin. When I went back

home to southern Russia and went into politics, I began to see how

people really had to live. And I started questioning, questioning

the whole system. This much-vaunted system was putting so much into the

arms race while human beings fell behind, living in poverty. Millions

Gorbachev wasn't alone. Critical thinking was in the air, especially

after the Soviet leader Nikita TRANSLATION: He provided the main

impetus. There was a new sense of freedom, a feeling it was time for

new ideas. And he was the one to strike the first blow against

The reform mood didn't last but in private Gorbachev's doubts

continued, shared above all with his wife, Raisa, for nearly 50

years his political confidante, One friend in particular stood out,

Alexander Dubcek, a Czech student who later became the architect of

the Prague Spring, Czechoslovakia's attempt to reform socialism. He was

my dearest friend. He was closer to me than anyone else, Soviet,

Russian or otherwise, and it stayed like that until he was sent home

and the link was broken. He was so clever and it was my luck to be

friends with him. Our positions The reforms in the Prague Spring

ended in disaster, crushed by Soviet tanks in 1968 on Moscow's

Gorbachev, by now a rising star in the Communist Party, endorsed the

Kremlin line that the invasion was justified. But, on a visit to

Czechoslovakia a year later, he was in private turmoil. TRANSLATION: We

arrived and it was shocking. People didn't want to talk to us. We had

assumed they had wanted our support, including military action - that's

what we had been told, but it was misinformation. We visited a

factory and people turned their backs on us. It really hit me hard.

We had insulted and humiliated a nation that was close to our hearts.

Prague's crushed uprising left a lasting impression. Above all,

Gorbachev concluded that any future reform must move slowly to avoid

the danger of a backlash. Moscow's response to the Prague Spring had a

huge knock-on effect for the Soviet Union. All the party meetings,

where there were harsh punishments for anyone who dared to deviate

from the party line or raise doubts about the policy. In other words, a

backlash and a clampdown. So, when it came to perestroika, I bore the

Moscow today is a far cry from the stifling control of the Soviet era.

For Gorbachev, it was dangerous to voice criticism aloud. Instead, he

spent the next decade climbing the party ladder. But he did confide in

another young leading Communist, his future Foreign Minister.

TRANSLATION: I said to him, "Everything is rotten and we need

to change it all from top to bottom. We need to start a new life." He

said, "Everything is rotten." He was very emotional. I said, "I

agree". But the main thing is, the next morning we woke up and

discovered Soviet troops had entered Afghanistan and we had not

Yet Gorbachev was playing two games. Private criticism, but publicly an

ambitious and loyal party functionary. This one-time farm boy

and provincial politician from southern Russia did not leapfrog

into the Kremlin. He was head- hunted by powerful patrons in the

The encounter that sealed his fate was at this railway station where

Leonid Brezhnev was arriving on Gorbachev, the regional party boss,

was asked to welcome him. It turned out to be an informal vetting

It was Brezhnev who summoned him to Moscow at the tender age of 47, but

he wasn't the only one who hoped Gorbachev's youth and energy would

Andropov, the feared KGB chief, had taken early interest in him. When

he became leader after Brezhnev died, he earmarked him as his

successor. TRANSLATION: Is said to me, "I know you are in charge of

agriculture, but don't forget a Politburo member should be able to

deal with all subjects, including foreign as well as domestic policy.

Because who knows what responsibilities might land on your

shoulders today or tomorrow?" He said, "Do you understand?" I said

yes. He said, "Good, off you go, The next Kremlin leader was 73-

year-old Konstantin Chernenko, so sick he looked like a living corpse

as he tottered through his duties. Gorbachev saw it as a blessing,

trying to strengthen his position. TRANSLATION: If Chernenko had not

been there, as Voltaire said, we would have had to invent him. I

wasn't ready to take over, and I wasn't in the right frame of mind.

It gave me time to get practical experience of being leader and to

In London, Mrs Thatcher may have bossed him about but she also met

her match in Gorbachev. TRANSLATION: I had a good

impression of her. I said to her, "Mrs Thatcher, I know you are a

person of strong conviction, but bear in mind you have another such

person sitting in front of you. The most important thing I want to tell

you is that I did not have instructions from the Politburo to

invite you to join the Communist Party." She burst out laughing. It

broke the tension, and we had an open and frank discussion. I saw in

her someone with a broad and very good education, but definitely an

In March 1985, Gorbachev's predecessor died and he moved

They accepted he should give the funeral oration, a symbol that he

would become the next leader of the Soviet Union. We were there for a

good long while and Gorbachev seemed fresh and energetic, even

though he had been through this long process of the funeral and all

the arrangements and all these people. So we could see right away

that he had stamina. He was like no other Soviet leader I have met with.

So I remember saying when we left, saying to the delegation, this is a

very different human being. He is quicker, he is smart. He is going

to be a much more agile adversary. So we are going to have to be on

It was a pivotal moment and a daunting task ahead. Just before

taking over power, well away from KGB eavesdroppers, Gorbachev and

his wife, Raisa, agonised over the huge risks they were taking.

TRANSLATION: Mikael said it would be highly likely he would be made

the next Soviet leader, leader of the Communist Party. Then he said,

"We all know perfectly well that if you want anything done in Russia

you have to do it from the top downwards." Then he said that March

night,"We cannot go on living like this any longer. TRANSLATION: I

said to her, her,"With the way things stand, they might be about

to ask me to be the leader of the Communist Party." I always remember

her reaction. Are you sure you want to, she asked. If they ask me, I

will say yes, I said. Gorbachev did not want to destroy the Soviet

Union, he just wanted to correct it. After all, he relied on his

Politburo chief to get everyone to obey him. For his first big speech

on perestroika he came here to St Petersburg, to the sacred spot

where in 1917 Lenin launched the Bolshevik revolution. Now Gorbachev

told Russia's officials that it was time for another change.

Perestroika was about changing the system. There was also glasnost,

ending censorship. TRANSLATION: We were in desperate need of

perestroika and glasnost. We could feel the need for it but we thought

that the person who came up with these new concepts would be able to

lead the process through to the end. It did not turn out like that.

Moscow today is a consumers' paradise and a shrine to rampant

capitalism. To this day there is a debate whether this is what

Gorbachev intended. There was no hint at first that he wanted to get

rid of the police state he rolled over. Today Gorbachev defends his

or early caution as his only way to take opponents with him and says

his reform plan never faltered. TRANSLATION: Perestroika and

glasnost gave people the chance to breathe freely and speak freely. It

was euphoric. Along with that euphoria, we had to tread carefully

so everything had to be done gradually to make sure people took

part and appreciated that it was necessary. Many think Gorbachev did

not foresee what he was unleashing and for far too long relied on the

party, forced to improvise as things took on their own momentum.

His ideas were a moving train. I think he started out genuinely

thinking changes in management would suffice. Still he thought he

could use the Communist Party to push a new agenda. Moving fast on

foreign policy was simpler. Both he and President Reagan wanted to end

dangerous superpower hostility. Gorbachev also needed to reduce the

Soviet Union's crippling burden of military spending. The two leaders

hit it off at their first summit in Geneva, though, as Gorbachev

recalled recently at a dinner with former colleagues, there were

tensions. TRANSLATION: I said to Reagan, "You're not the teacher and

I am not your pupil. You are not the prosecutor and I am not be

accused. We are equal. If you agree, we can go quite far together."

ice was often broken by a shared sense of humour. President Reagan

used to say that he said to Gorbachev, "We in the United States

enjoy freedom and free speech and someone can come right in here in

his Oval Office and tell me how I should run the United States."

Gorbachev said it is no different in Russia. People can walk into my

house and say I do not like the way of Ronald Reagan is running the

United States. For the people of Eastern Europe, Gorbachev was a

political superstar. In Poland, he and Raisa were literally serenaded.

Far from crushing reforms, here was a Kremlin leader who actively

wanted to encourage them. He appealed to Eastern Europe's

leaders in private. TRANSLATION: I could see he approved of what was

going on in Poland. It was a kind of laboratory for his reforms.

turns out he signalled they could go their own way as soon as he took

office. TRANSLATION: Reform should happen in Poland in a Polish way,

in Russia in a Russian way, in Hungary in a Hungarian way. All

different for a different situation. Today on visits to Berlin Gorbachev

is greeted as a hero. Without his nod, Germany could not have been

reunited. Unlike the East German Communist leader whose embrace of

Brezhnev still adorns the Berlin Wall. He ignored Gorbachev's

warning to embrace reform at East Germany's 40th anniversary party,

just before the Berlin Wall came down. TRANSLATION: we met on the

eve of the celebration and he said everything was fine. I could see he

was not up to it. History always punishes those who are late. He was

in a lively mood and kept singing songs but I felt sorry for him. He

had lost. Within weeks, the Berlin Wall fell and while Gorbachev could

accept that and the collapse of Communist power in Eastern Europe,

inside the Soviet Union it was a different story. He still wanted to

keep a firm grip from the centre. TRANSLATION: He wanted a Russian

democracy bit by bit. He did not understand that, having taken one

step - glasnost, democracy, human rights - you cannot stop there. You

have to take the next steps, right up to the complete destruction of

the old system. He wanted to keep the old system and remained the

sole person in charge but that just was not possible. Gorbachev, the

dissident from within, had used his supreme power to drive reforms from

the top down. His revolution was nearing crisis point and he felt

trapped by those pressuring him for more freedom and those who wanted

him to turn the clock back. TRANSLATION: They realised it would

be hard to win back power if there was still democracy. The battle for

power began, led by the party elite, including some people from my own

inner circle. First they plotted quietly and in secret but later