Russian History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Russian History - Essay Example That society is ripe for change-one might say it has suffered enough. Any delay in pursuing Perestroika could lead in the very near future to a deterioration in the situation in Russia." (Gorbachev, in a public address in 1987, as quoted in Hylarides, 2008, p.379) These words of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev underlined the pressing need for reform in the Russia of 1980s. Gorbachev is one of the most influential leaders of Soviet Russia during the Cold War era. Both his personal qualities and political policies endeared him to the Western leadership during the final years of the Cold War. The key operative words during his reformative regime were perestroika, glasnost and demokratizatsiya. Perestroika was intended to bring sweeping changes to the economy, â€Å"including efforts to stamp out corruption at the management level, more stringent labor discipline, a greater role for the market and more consumer goods. The grandiose goal was the doubling of output by the year 2000, with th e emphasis moved from the quantity to the quality and diversity of goods. Humanizing the political system and delivering higher living standards were key objectives.† (Morewood, 1998, p.33) Ideal and noble as these guiding principles were, they also contributed to the weakening of Soviet state fabric and its eventual collapse. The rest of this essay is an elaboration on these vibrant yet controversial reform initiatives and evaluate whether these remedies proved counter-productive and ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. When Gorbachev came to power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1985, the economy of USSR was dysfunctional and unproductive. So it was expected of the new leader to resurrect the economy by way of meaningful reforms, thereby retaining the Cold War equilibrium. At the time, living standards in Russia was plummeting, war in Afghanistan was draining the country’s resources and his counterpart Ronald Re agan’s posturing was aggressive and hawkish. Reforms were a dire necessity at this stage – a view expressed even by Gorbachev’s predecessor Yuri Andropov. (Hylarides, 2008, p.378) Despite reform initiatives eventually backfiring, the system was badly in need of change, as the economic growth had settled at near-zero, corruption at high-office was rampant, the parallel black economy creating havoc to economic planning and productivity of workers declining sharply. Further, â€Å"the neglected services sector contributed to a shortage of consumer goods and falling living standards, the social infrastructure was decaying and technological backwardness widened the performance gap with the West†. (Morewood, 1998, p.33) Beyond Soviet Russia, the Soviet bloc as a whole suffered from these problems to varying degrees. The reforms were thus designed to overcome or ease some of these obstacles through â€Å"guided political decentralization and openness, with an e xpectation that central political executive policymaking prerogatives would be reinforced.† (Willerton, et.al, 2005, p.219) Perestroika, in particular, was based on four key objectives: â€Å"1. creating a new superpower structure that would stand above the communist party apparatus, 2. establishing order in the country by harnessing the masses and compelling them to cooperate with the leadership, 3. overcoming economic difficulties, and 4. modernizing Soviet industry, especially its military

The Epic of Gilgamesh Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

The Epic of Gilgamesh - Essay Example Gilgamesh basically describes the reason as to how and why Gilgamesh was thought of as a role model for the coming classic poems of the time. It has brought to the notice the beauty tangents and the power of the relationship that Gilgamesh and Enkidu had between them. Within the Epic of Gilgamesh, the bond which was demonstrated between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is distinctive in its own right. The reason for this is that the two an adversarial relationship with one another. Being a fable of love and that too in its truest form, Gilgamesh is an epic without a shadow of a doubt. It has involved lingering grief which has caused pivotal changes to take place within his character. Gilgamesh is a story of a person who is both respected as well as feared at the same time. He loves and shows hatred; he is one person who lives life to the maximum possible levels. Even though Gilgamesh’s voyage is larger than life, yet somehow or the other it ends up with death. The fate of mankind is expos ed through Gilgamesh and thus the undeniable factor of change gets its manifestation as well. Gilgamesh exhibited true power before the arrival of Enkidu (Kovacs 1989). There was no other human being who had equal match when it came to Gilgamesh himself. He showed his personal liking to glory and power and the best part was that he boasted with regards to the very same. He abused power in addition to showing off his attitude (and arrogance). The city of Uruk went into a state of injustice and people were ferocious all round. However Gilgamesh did not mend his ways and continue to display his wrath and power to all and sundry. It was after the death of Enkidu that Gilgamesh tried his levels best to explore the ways to reach immortality as he attempted to cross the ocean. He wanted to find the same in a pretty dire fashion. He did his best to carve out a life which had immortality written all over it. He continued with his expedition in an out and out fashion. His state of being like this was in essence entirely different from the arrogance that he showed at the starting of the epic itself. Thus he transformed into a scary person more than anything else. Also the slain of Humbaba changed Gilgamesh in entirety (Foster 2005). Since Humbaba was considered evil right from the onset, a number of people who were residents of Uruk started to fear Gilgamesh. Some people would reckon that Gilgamesh himself is a representation of evil but then again there could be debates in the wake of such a proposition. The fact that he used to have sex with the virgins, going about doing things on his and offending the gods at his own free will is a manifestation of what his personality was in essence. Gilgamesh was able to pen his name as a successful hero. However the price he had to pay for it is something totally different. Much could be written about the very same.  The amount of loss and suffering which was eventually put down on the part of the people, perhaps he could have m ade an effort to turn things around and do something different. As a matter of fact, Gilgamesh and his brother were able to achieve what the rest of the people could not even think of in those times. Gilgamesh and Enkidu were able to capture the world under their feet but the untimely death of Enkidu changed everything. Gilgamesh started to understand that he was just a human