A Plea for Democratic Reform

Introduction

In 1970, the Soviet Union was at more of a standstill than it had been since the turn of the century . The infamous reign of Stalin tyranny had been removed 17 years earlier but the totalitarian policies and close-minded political beliefs that he instilled in the Soviet population were still holding true. Andrei Sakharov was a well respected thermonuclear physicist and dissident of this time; one who truly believed that the future of the Soviet Union was dependent on making a shift from a communist leadership towards one of a democracy. The letter that he and fellow dissidents Roy Medvedev and Valentin Turchin sent in 1970 was addressed to the three ruling figures at the time: Leonid Brezhev, Alexis Kosygin and Nicholas Podgorny and it was essentially what it was entitled; a plea for democratic reform. The letter outlines the problems that the Soviet Union had endured under communistic rule; problems such as diminished natural wealth, low quality living standards, closed off foreign relations and restricted exchange of information. The dissidents state that if the Soviet Union does not adhere to a gradual democratic transition to fix these issues now, the country will fall behind the rest of the world and that it may be too late to make the transition even in a few years. This idea of a Soviet Union/Russian transition from a communist state to a democracy has still not been realized today and Andrei Sakharov was correct in his belief that for his country to grow and succeed on a global scale, this transition was necessary. This is not to say that current Russia is the same as the Soviet Union was in 1970 because it isn’t; this is just a statement that opposes many who believe Russia is a democratic nation today. Steps have been taken and Russia is pushing ever-closer towards democratization but this paper is aimed to reveal the reasons why the Soviet Union/Russia is not in fact a full democracy and why this has hindered them in their pursuit of...