Congress, CPI and CPI(M) leaders had different reactions to the demise of the last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev.
The last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. (Creative Commons)
In life, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the last president of the Soviet Union — who died on 30 August in Moscow at the age of 91 — was a man who evoked extreme reactions.
His role in ending the Cold War without bloodshed won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
But he is still reviled by many communists across the world for being responsible for the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Not least in Communist-ruled Kerala, where his death elicited varied reactions reflecting the conflicting views on the man, his politics, and the global events his actions set off.
Unlike his contemporaries, Gorbachev was distinct in his approach to socialism. Glasnost and Perestroika, two important ideas put forth during his tenure, changed the path of the Soviet Union and global politics. Glasnost means openness, and Perestroika means restructuring.
It was emphasised specifically with regard to the Soviet economy and the politics of the communist party at that time. A liberal outlook that intended to give further freedom to the media and open up the market.
However, his vision, intended to strengthen the Soviet Union, is generally considered to have been implemented without adequate preparation.
It set off events that led to the bringing down of the Berlin Wall on 9 November, 1988, and weakened the Soviet Union and led to its break-up and emasculation.
It is hard to fit Gorbachev into a frame. So, too, with the opinions about him in Kerala after his death.
CPI(M) Politburo member MA Baby, in a Facebook post, wrote: “Mikhail Gorbachev died. He had the fortune and misfortune to be considered both a villain and an angel. The former General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party will be remembered as the cause for the downfall of the Soviet Union through careless and wrong politics.”
The post also said that the measures by the then president of the Soviet Union — such as Glasnost and Perestroika, introduced to reform and strengthen the nation politically and economically — led to the disintegration of the country and was followed by political and economic chaos.
VT Balram, the former MLA of Thrithala constituency and the vice-president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), too, paid homage to the veteran Soviet leader in a Facebook post.
“Mikhail Gorbachev, the political reformer who tried to bring wind and light of freedom and democracy to people by ending the brutal and organised human rights abuses under an Iron Curtain passed away,” his post read.
However, the CPI leader Binoy Viswam took note of the good intentions behind the measures Gorbachev took as president of the Soviet Union, in an interview with News18 Kerala.
He said that, prima facie, measures like Glasnost and Perestokia could not be called wrong, but added that Gorbachev’s political life could be seen as a tragedy as he couldn’t achieve the goals he set himself and his country, leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Viswam had met Gorbachev in Moscow in 1985. He was part of a 10-member delegation of the World Federation of Democratic Youth.
“There should be democracy within socialism, and to compete with capitalism, the Soviet Union should increase its production capacity by which a stronger socialist society could be created,” Viswam recounted Gorbachev’s words during the meeting with the young turks.
However, he also criticised Gorbachev for being a romantic who went on to make irrational decisions.
Gorbachev has also figured prominently in the recent political history of Kerala.
In 2009, the then chief minister VS Achuthanandan indirectly warned that the then party secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, “to not be a Gorbachev”.
The remark was a rebuttal to a speech by Vijayan in which he had indirectly accused Achuthanandan of losing touch with the party and its workers.
During the valedictory programme of the “Nava Kerala Yatra”, Vijayan cited an Urdu poem that spoke about a boy who tried to replicate the turbulent sea in a bucket. He said the disappointed boy was given the advice that the water gets strength only when it is in the heart of a sea.
Vijayan added that, similarly, a leader also gains support when he is with the party.
Achuthanandan was quick to respond to Vijayan’s metaphor.
“Gorbachev — the storm that emerged from the great sea called the Soviet Union, destroyed the sea itself. Now it has reached Kerala. The state’s forces should defend against the attempts to dry up our seas. Else, the water in the bucket will have a different story to tell,” he said.
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