Duma Session with Gorbachev

As we discussed in class, the most remarkable bit about this document is the fact that it exists. But a few years earlier, it is unthinkable that the president of the USSR would be defending communism and the Russian Communist Party to the Russian people. It also reveals a split in the country, that not all supported democracy when the USSR fell. Gorbachev's wording in his responses suggest that he believes in, or at least wants others to think he believes in, Lenin's version of communism, the Marxist homeland for the worker and peasant that has ideals for men and women to put their faith in, a place that is not a utopia but tries its best through collaboration. The animosity towards the Communist Party reminds me in a way of the debate happening today over Islam. Grouping extremists and fundamentalists in with the moderates or peaceful believers and punishing them all only serves to antagonize further. Gorbachev is trying to remind his interrogators that there is still a kind of socialism that is widely accepted and does not involve mass murder but simply the support of common people. Though the USSR performed terrible deeds in the name of communism, he is making the distinction that communism is not the USSR and the USSR is not communism. They are separate things, one an ideal of society and one an attempt to carry it out.
Documentary excerpt on Gorbachev's policies