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Gorbachev's speech on socialist democracy
Gorbachev in December 1987. To see full text of speech, click "show translation" below.
Mikhail Gorbachev, “On Socialist Democracy” (January 1987)
Elements of social corrosion that emerged in recent years have adversely affected society's morale and insidiously eroded the high moral values which have always been characteristic of our people and of which we are proud, namely, ideological conviction, labor enthusiasm and Soviet patriotism...
Disregard for laws, report-padding, bribe-taking and encouragement of toadyism and adulation had a deleterious effect on the moral atmosphere in society. Real care for people, for the conditions of their life and work and for their social well-being was often supplanted by political flirtation—the mass distribution of awards, titles and prizes…
The world of day-to-day realities and that of make-believe well-being were increasingly parting ways…
In this situation, comrades, the question of accelerating the socio-economic development of the country, the question of perestroika was raised…
We must make this decisive turn because there is no other choice. We must not retreat and there is no place to retreat to…
Today it is essential to say once again what we mean by perestroika. Perestroika is a resolute overcoming of the processes of stagnation, destruction of the retarding mechanism, and the creation of dependable and efficient machinery for expediting the social and economic progress of Soviet society…
Perestroika is reliance on the creative endeavor of the masses, an all-round extension of democracy and socialist self-government, the encouragement of initiative and self-organized activities, better discipline and order, greater openness, criticism and self-criticism in all fields of public life, and full and proper respect for the value and dignity of the individual…
It is only through the consistent development of the democratic forms inherent in socialism and more extensive self-government that our progress in production, science and technology, literature, culture and the arts, in all areas of social life is possible. It is only this way that ensures conscientious discipline. Perestroika itself is possible only through democracy and because of democracy. It is only this way that it is possible to open broad vistas for socialism's most powerful creative force—free labor and free thought in a free country…
What ways does the Political Bureau see to further deepen democracy in Soviet society?...
Of paramount importance is the development of democracy in production and the consistent implementation of the principles of working people’s self-anagement… This is the lever that will enable us to ensure the broad and active participation of the working people in all areas of social life and make it possible to avoid many errors and miscalculations…
From the political point of view it is a question of enhancing the democratic nature of the electoral system and of a more effective and real involvement of the electorate at all stages of the pre-election and election campaigns.
Concretely, most proposals [sent to Party authorities] suggest that voters at meetings in work collectives and at places of residence, as well as at election meetings, discuss… several candidacies, that elections be held in larger constituencies, and that several deputies be elected from each of them. People believe that this would enable each citizen to express his attitude to a greater number of candidates and would enable Party and local government bodies to get to know better the sentiments and will of the population.
…It is essential to rid the voting procedure of formalism and to see to it that the election campaign of even this year be held in an atmosphere of broader democracy with the interested participation of the people….
But with all the importance of control “from above” it is of fundamental importance in the conditions of the democratization of society to raise the level and effectiveness of control “from below'” so that each executive and each official constantly feels his responsibility to and dependence on the electorate, on the work collectives, public organizations, on the Party and the people as a whole. The main thing in this respect is to create and strengthen all instruments and forms of real control by the working people.
What instruments do I have in mind?
Accountability, first of all. The time has come to observe strictly the rules for systematic accountability of all elected and appointed officials before work collectives and the population. It is necessary that every such account be accompanied by lively and principled discussion, criticism and self-criticism and businesslike proposals, and end with an evaluation of the activities of the person giving an account of his work.
…In the conditions of extended democracy people themselves will put things in order in their work collective, town or village…
While normalizing the atmosphere in society it is essential to further encourage glasnost. This is a powerful lever for improving work in all sectors of our development and an effective form of control by the whole people…
Obviously the time has come to begin elaborating legal acts guaranteeing glasnost. These should ensure maximum glasnost in the activities of state and public organizations and give the working people a real opportunity to express their opinions on any question of social life.
Criticism and self-criticism are a tested instrument of socialist democracy. There seems to be no open objection to this. However in real life we encounter situations indicating that by no means everyone has become aware of the need to support critical-mindedness in society. Matters at times go so far that some officials regard even the slightest remark as an encroachment upon their prestige and defend it in any way they can. Then there are those officials, the more experienced ones, who admit the justness of criticism and even thank you for it, but are in no hurry to eliminate drawbacks, expecting to get away with things as usual.
Such an attitude to criticism has nothing in common with our principles and ethics. At the present stage, when we are asserting new approaches in sociopolitical life, in the cultural and intellectual sphere, the importance of criticism and self-criticism grows immeasurably. People’s attitude to criticism is an important criterion of their attitude to reorganization, to everything new that is taking place in our society…
Speaking of democratization of Soviet society—what is a matter of principle to us—it is important to underline once more the main, distinguishing, feature of socialist democracy—an organic combination of democracy and discipline, of independence and responsibility, of the rights and duties of officials and of every citizen.
Socialist democracy has nothing in common with permissiveness, irresponsibility, and anarchy. Real democracy serves every person. It protects his political and social rights and simultaneously serves every collective and the whole of society, upholding their interests.
Democratization in all spheres of Soviet society is important first of all because we link it with the further development of working people’s initiative and the use of the entire potential of the socialist system. We need democratization in order to move ahead, to ensure that legality grows stronger, that justice triumphs in our society and that a moral atmosphere in which man can freely live and fruitfully work is asserted in it…
Today the whole world is looking at the Soviet people. Will we be able to cope with the task? Shall we hold out? Will we be able to meet worthily the challenge thrown to socialism? We must give a worthy answer by our deeds, by our persevering work. And we cannot put it off…
We wish to turn our country into a model highly developed state, into a society with the most advanced economy, the broadest democracy, the most humane and lofty ethics, where the working man feels he is the real master, enjoys all the benefits of material and intellectual culture, where the future of his children is secure, where he has everything that is necessary for a full and interesting life. And even skeptics will be forced to say: yes, the Bolsheviks can accomplish anything. Yes, the truth is on their side. Yes, socialism is a serving man, working for his benefit, in his social and economic interests, for his cultural elevation.
From 27 to 28 January 1987, the Central Committee of the Soviet Community Party convened for a routine plenum. In his opening remarks, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022) delivered some of his most groundbreaking remarks on the significance of restructuring (perestroika) in the Soviet Union. He emphasized that reform was essential to making the Soviet economy function well, to eliminating red tape in the government, and to creating a society in which citizens could flourish. His commitment to a democratic vision of socialism did not exactly mark his ideology as new. Soviet leaders since Lenin, including Stalin, had claimed Soviet socialism to be fundamentally democratic. Yet Gorbachev’s vision of democracy differed from that of past leaders because of his willingness to relinquish strong central control.
The leader’s 1987 address laid out the clearest vision of the aims of reform since Gorbachev had come to power—an even clearer and more mature expression of his views than the one articulated in his long speeches at the Twenty-Seventh Congress of the Communist Party in February-March 1986. Moreover, by this relatively early point in the enactment of his reforms, Gorbachev made clear that the intended audience for his reform program was not just local, but global. He aimed to reform Soviet socialism into a respectable, even seductive, version of itself that might win adherents beyond the Soviet bloc. “Today the whole world is looking at the Soviet people,” he stated, adding: “We wish to turn our country into a model highly developed state.” He even imagined the conversion of staunch critics of the Soviet project to socialism, such that “even skeptics will be forced to say: yes, the Bolsheviks can accomplish anything. Yes, the truth is on their side. Yes, socialism is a system serving man, working for his benefit, in his social and economic interest, for his cultural elevation.”