Mikhail Gorbachev Resigns Towards Dissolution of the CPSU
“If there is one lesson we can derive from all this it is that the organised socialist movement in this country can only be achieved on a genuinely democratic basis.” – Mkhulu
On 24 August 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and called on the Central Committee to dissolve. The resignation and dissolution of the Central Committee led to the disbandment of the CPSU on 30 August 1991, after all Communist Party activity was indefinitely suspended by the Supreme Soviet, effectively ending communist rule in the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev’s resignation followed a number of dramatic events that began in February 1990, when both the liberal reformers and Marxist–Leninist hardliners intensified their attacks on his leadership. A liberal reformers’ march took place in Moscow criticising Communist Party rule, while at a Central Committee meeting, the hardliner Vladimir Brovikov accused Gorbachev of reducing the country to “anarchy” and “ruin” and of pursuing Western approval at the expense of the Soviet Union and the Marxist–Leninist cause.
This attack was primarily with regard to Gorbachev’s “glasnost” and “perestroika” policies: his policy of “glasnost” (openness) allowed for enhanced freedom of speech and the press, while his “perestroika” (restructuring) sought to decentralise economic decision-making to imp
