However, the desire to stay at the helm by any means, the heads of the regional committees (krai committees), roughly equal in status to the current governors, does not save. About 70% of the status leaders of Brezhnevs conscription are sent out to resign, literally, only by the whim of Mikhail Sergeyevich. There, half of the Politburo members also leave. The point is that all these people are appointed from above, often, one by one, as they say, the whim of the left foot of the head of state, and not (arranged quite difficult technically, it must be acknowledged) the will of the people. And, just as fabulously simply, the next Secretary-General, or the President, is free to replace them with someone else.
Almost simultaneously with the anti-alcohol campaign, the fight against unearned incomes starts. In the countries of the victorious democracy, we recall that something similar is also available. The main point: with large purchases for example, a new car, a home an enterprise, you will necessarily require an income declaration (directly related to the citizen being filed every year, the Tax Declaration). If the income is reasonably consistent with the costs everything is in order. But, if you are officially unemployed and are going to buy a luxurious Chevrolet, here the tax police may have some questions. More, by and large, in the lives of citizens, and the methods of their (not criminal) earnings, the state does not get involved.
In the Gorbachev Soviet Union, the enemy of the people is declared to be: a fisherman who decided to sell his modest catch, an artist who painted a pair of paintings (for 1015 rubles) for a hairdresser, in fact, a hairdresser, seamstress or nurse who provides the appropriate services at home, They are hunted down, and law enforcement agencies are detained. Theoretically, a convenient system of taxation, this additional income people could declare .state could look at it and then, but in this case a serious criminal article is being applied and investigative isolators (SIZOs) are overflowing with innocent people.
At the same time, relatively modest dacha dwellings are being persecuted. Cottages above one floor, apparently, as too well-off and unearned, without any court order, are being destroyed. Physical removal, without delay, are also subject to greenhouses, where for sale, or for themselves, vegetables are grown (which is so lacking in state stores).
Priority of all Gorbachev is declared by machine building. It sounds, of course, beautiful and, well, you know, its solid. But, in fact, in the first place, the country needs light industry goods, clothing, consumer goods, high-quality and inexpensive food. You can learn about this without any difficulty, the KGB-shnoy wiretapping, from the lips chosen arbitrarily, Uncle Vasya, Aunt Glasha, but, this approach to a serious government matter, as they say today, Below the level of the Kremlin.
The system rushes. Initially, Gorbachev is hardly a traitor to the Motherland. But, Mikhail Sergeyevich himself will be closed in a very limited circle of elected people, who, in fact, are two: He himself, and a faithful friend, wife, Raisa Maksimovna, is the most intelligent person, after all, a lecturer at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. Suggest something really reasonable, weighed at least a few reasonable people, this sweet couple is quite difficult.
The next inconsistent step of the System is the introduction, on November 19, 1986, of the Law on Individual Work Activity. Cooperatives are allowed, even without using hired labor. Later, we recall, a full-fledged law on entrepreneurship will be adopted (1991, May 26), celebrated with the present president of the Russian Federation (2007) as the Day of Russian Entrepreneurship. It is interesting that private, then fairly free enterprise, paradoxically co-exists with Fighting Unearned Income. The ambiguity of the situation created corrodes the foundations of the law enforcement system.
In the same way as during the Khrushchev monetary reform (deeply jammed under the carpet of the KGB, not meaningful by the society), state resources, demanded goods flow from state enterprises to cooperatives where they are already sold at a free price (domestically or abroad). In the public sector, mass non-payment of salaries starts.
A very strange situation occurs with gold, silver, platinum, etc. In essence, the state (ie, ideally, the people) loses control over the extraction and storage of precious metals. The moral core is cracking behind it the rest falls, how many new and new controlling bodies do not involve.
Be that as it may, the new General Secretary is quite young, he says without paper, everything is so remarkably smooth, and the people love him. Yes, it was, it was, friends, I remember perfectly; we looked at this smooth, ruddy appearance, and, not at all embarrassed by feelings, were touched. Yes, here it is, a new life, socialism with a human face, solid, understanding everything better than us, ordinary people, the leader who-he-all-will-do-it-is-right.
In May 1986, at the enterprises of the Union, people from the newly created Gorbachev, State Acceptance. Of course, factories already have their own quality control departments. New people (not subordinate to the administration of the enterprise) only irritate employees, and do not contribute to the shaft of production, nor to a significant improvement in quality. The next attempt to solve the problem by purely administrative methods, fails. To take a reasonable step, following the example of Western democracies, to improve the judicial system, so that any end user can warm up some unscrupulous enterprise, this System is simply not capable.
Disappointing are the results of experiments on the unification of large agricultural ministries. Created by the same single leader of the nation, the giant Gosagroprom is called everywhere Gosagropromah. Everywhere, at all times, according to their habit, Sovereigns whose opinion is not disputed create huge, awkward, unified amoebae and only waste their national treasure. In total, according to some estimates, from 1995 to 1990, only a direct loss from the Gorbachevsky transformation is 100 billion non-devalued US dollars.
Everything, everything seemed to be so unshakable, starts to precipitate fast. The only guideline in all is the solid US dollar. Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers answers the representative of the Czech Republic, about the replacement of the transferable ruble by the indicated monetary unit Do not want to pay with dollars? Yes, please, leave CMEA. Everything is very, very simple, and quiet. The socialist system of Eastern Europe is dismantled.
Towards the close, Mikhail Gorbachev admits one more (foreign policy) mistake. Two Germany the GDR and the FRG are united. Maybe its all inevitable. But, against this background, it is quite possible to show, at last, the calculation of reparations for World War II. Germany is quite willing to pay this price. The guarantor is that the Soviet armies of the Western Group of Forces in the GDR definitely exist. But, according to the long-established System, Mikhail Gorbachev is much more important than the friendly smiles of very significant foreigners, rather than the deaf hopes of his own people. To correct the Secretary General again, there is no one. And now, definitely, literally lying on the road 100 billion US dollars, remain in the bins of the financial successor to the Reich.
March 15, 1990, at the third extraordinary congress of Peoples Deputies of the USSR (an attempt to revive the original Soviets), Mikhail Gorbachev is elected President of the Soviet Union. At the same time, he is also the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.