Winter 1988- Soviet Friction
Winter 1988- Soviet Friction
Flag of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast
The 1980s were approaching their twilight, but change has not yet finished with the decade. The Soviet Union under Gorbachev would begin rolling out perestroika, a massive program of economic reform and restructuring of the Soviet economy. Despite the initial concerns of the economy gearing toward neoliberalism by some of the hardliners, such concerns were corrected by Gorbachev. Instead, the economic program was a modernization of Lenin's own "New Economic Plan" from decades prior. Like its predecessor, perestroika focused on granting private individuals to own small and medium sized enterprises while the state continued to control large industries, banks and foreign trade. [1] Additionally, other elements were introduced, including socialist self-management, where the managers of these more private enterprises were supervised by workers' councils that each had a vote'; this along with other elements that gave the common worker influence in their work place. The hope was in repeating the success of the NEP as well as establishing "Soviet market socialism". While these reforms did look rather hopeful, the Soviet Union was suffering elsewhere, namely in some of its constinuent states.
Flag of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast
The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, after years of ethnic tension and strife, would try and secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic to go and join their Armeanian kin over in the Armenian SSR. With tensions running high, the Nagorno-Karabakh War began between the two SSRs. [2] And matters would worsen over with Azerbaijan going with the "Sumgait pogrom", a series of vicious attacks that targeted the Armenian population of the seaside town of Sumgait in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in late February 1988. The violence in Sumgait was unexpected and was widely covered in the Western press. This and the war would be met with general astonishment in Armenia and the rest of the Soviet Union since ethnic feuds in the country had been largely suppressed by the government, which had promoted policies such as proletarian internationalism, fraternity of peoples, and socialist patriotism to avert such conflicts. [3] Many saw this as the beginning of greater troubles within the USSR. Namely, of the political turmoil of the constinuent republics, desiring for more autonomy combined with the ethnic tensions and resentment against the ruling party. Some have hoped that Gorbachev could go and lean into political reforms to try and sort this out while the hardliners were becoming increasingly frustrated and concerned about their potential loss of power.
Other large political changes loomed across the world outside the great Soviet. Vice-President Lee Teng-hui would take over as President of the Republic of China and Chairman of the Kuomintang following the death of Chiang Ching-kuo. The constitution of the Sixth Republic of Korea comes into effect and bringing the hope of stability over in South Korea while North Korea was undergoing struggles. And the Nazi connections of Austria's president Kurt Waldheim would be become practically confirmed with a Nazi document implicating him in World War II deportations. [4] This would lead to increasing friction as Waldheim would become a persona non grata to a growing number of nations in the world. All while war continued in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, the war having gone for over a year and going into two, wth Afghanistan and India further pushing into Pakistan and the notation of their demands. Many wonder what would break first here... All around the world, political news was buzzing and many were wondering were the next one would come...
It turns out... from none other than the United States primaries...
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[1]- Information and phrasing from here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economic_Policy
[2]- Information and phrasing from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh_Autonomous_Oblast
[3]- Information and phrasing from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumgait_pogrom
[4]- Informstion and phrasing from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988
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