The Andropov plan and its collapse
Selection point
By the early 1980s, it was obvious that it was impossible to live like this any longer. Brezhnev's "golden stagnation", which gave so much to the common Soviet man and allowed the nomenklatura to rest on its laurels, is over. The construction of communism, in essence, has already been abandoned. It seemed that the USSR was beginning to lag behind the capitalist countries of the West. In this situation, the Soviet world was doomed to collapse and absorption by the West.
The new leader of the USSR, the former chief of the KGB, Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, began to implement his plan of "modernization-restructuring" of the Union. It consisted of two parts.
The first, in foreign policy, is the merging of the capitalist and socialist systems. The Soviet leadership is becoming a full part of the world community.
The second, in domestic politics, is reliance on an active minority dissatisfied with their position. A passionate, qualified and competitive minority was meant, capable of providing a new breakthrough for the country and a full-fledged position for the country in the developed world.
This is how Andropov's project arose - modernization, "restructuring" of the USSR in the direction of the Western civilizational project. The creation of such a symbiosis, which will preserve the USSR-Russia, will give it the opportunity to survive in the new world, where the rules of the game are set by the masters of the West. The Soviet elite in this case became a full-fledged part of the Western (global) elite.
It was convergence - convergence, unification of the Soviet (socialist) and Western (capitalist) models of development. There was a fashionable idea in the Union at that time that more and more elements of socialism were appearing in the Western world, and capitalism in the USSR. Allegedly, the two systems go towards each other. This theory was very much liked by the Soviet elite and the intelligentsia.
Westernization
In reality, the Soviet system has degraded since the time of Khrushchev and Brezhnev. The young Soviet civilization was gradually losing ground to the old capitalist world. True, the Western elite, under the influence of the existence of the USSR, was forced to give concessions to its peoples, went to create a wide stratum of the middle class. In the West, they created a "showcase of capitalism", the illusion of freedom and democracy, the peaceful existence of classes.
In foreign policy, Andropov, before going for a merger with capitalist countries, was first going to scare the Western elite well. To create a strong negotiating base. The Union had to seem like a mighty giant - military and economic. Hence the new round of the Cold War.
The Soviet Union responded harshly to the deployment of American Pershing-2 medium-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in Europe. The new secretary general promised to place a tactical nuclear weapon in the GDR and Czechoslovakia and push nuclear submarine missile carriers to the shores of America. The Soviet army fought quite successfully in Afghanistan and took steps towards China. Andropov reacted harshly to the downed Korean Boeing in 1983.
Thus, it seemed that a new crisis of the USSR in relations with the West was beginning. American President Ronald Reagan declared the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and intensified the arms race. Western propaganda launched another information campaign against the Land of the Soviets.
In essence, Andropov followed the path of Tsar Peter I and the Romanov project. He believed that Russian (Soviet) civilization cannot be autocratic, independent, live by its own rules. Therefore, before it is too late, it is necessary to enter the Western project, to become part of Europe. Negotiate with the West. Accept the priority of European civilization and fit into the Western world on a reasonable basis.
Degradation
At the first stage, Andropov planned to carry out internal modernization, a radical restructuring of the economy. It was an acceleration strategy. In foreign policy, this was a tough position, the creation of a strong negotiating base, so that there was something to conclude a big deal with the Western masters.
At the second stage of perestroika, new faces came to power - "liberals". They were found, led and moved up. Leaders such as Gorbachev, Shevardnadze, Ligachev and others, who eventually killed the Soviet civilization.
How it all ended is well known. The masters of the West do not need any Russia - neither tsarist, nor Soviet, nor liberal-democratic. The West only needs a colony, the wealth of Russia, sources of cheap raw materials, labor and a market for its products. And the leaders of the USSR, who came after Andropov, simply merged the great power and the people. Sold for power and a beautiful life for themselves and their offspring.
Andropov's plan to integrate the USSR into the Western world on favorable terms was initially doomed to failure. Suffice it to recall the Romanov Empire, where the nobles were part of Europe, the “enlightened world”. They spoke German and French, but they knew the Russian language and the people poorly. And the vast peasant Russia lived separately, in its own deep world. The Romanovs' project ended in a terrible crash in 1917, a catastrophe and turmoil that almost killed the Russian state and civilization.
An attempt to bring the USSR and the West closer led the Soviet world to immediate disaster.
I started for health, but I finished for the rest
Hence Andropov's undertakings: strengthening labor discipline, rounding up truants; fight against corruption, unearned income, speculation, abuses in trade; an attempt to restore order in Central Asia, which has degraded faster than the whole country; fight against the growing criminal world; purge of the party and state apparatus, including the state security agencies.
At the same time, Andropov began to remove from important party, state, military posts people who could oppose the forthcoming radical restructuring of the country. A team was created that could implement Andropov's program even after his departure. Thus, Gorbachev, Shevardnadze, Aliyev, Ligachev, Ryzhkov, Romanov, and others were consistently advancing. A team of “perestroika foremen,” Westerners like Arbatov, Zaslavskaya, and Yakovlev, was being prepared.
In 1983, Andropov instructed Gorbachev and Ryzhkov to start preparing economic reform. In fact, a plan for a radical restructuring of industry and the entire national economy began to be prepared under Andropov. It was planned to carry out a massive modernization of production, transfer of enterprises and organizations to self-supporting, automation of production. Much attention was paid to the intensification of production, the acceleration of scientific and technological progress, the strengthening of the responsibility of personnel, organization and discipline, etc. In other words, a radical restructuring of the entire economy of the country was being prepared.
Fate gave Andropov a short time at the helm of the USSR. He was remembered by the people for cheap vodka (andropovka), raids on the streets in order to improve labor discipline. However, Andropov's influence on history our country is much wider. He wanted to change the socio-economic structure of the USSR, to carry out close integration with the West.
The problem was that any Russia interferes with the masters of the West. Therefore, the rulers of the West quite easily outplayed the "chicks of Andropov's nest", which was expressed in the 1991 disaster and subsequent events.
Interestingly, liberal Russia, built under Putin and Medvedev, has again tried to become part of Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok. This led to another natural collapse, the stages of which we observed in 2014–2022.
But the West does not need any Russia - neither socialist, nor liberal, pro-Western. Accordingly, the political and economic elite of Russia in this matrix will never be a full-fledged part of the global elite.
Either your own path, difficult, but your own, autocratic, Russian. When enemies hate, fear, but respect.
Or lackeys, like Pan Poroshenko and Zelensky, who are killing the country and people in the name of "freedom and democracy."
There is no other way.
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