WASHMUN X The Soviet Politburo: 1988

Chaired by:

Jack Montgomery and Gabriel Sessions

Comrades,

I am Jack Montgomery, and I will be one of your commissars for the Soviet Politburo

specialized agency at the tenth annual WASHMUN conference. I’m a junior attending

Washington-Lee and this is my third year of Model UN and my first year as a chair. I have

attended many conferences and will use my experience from those to better your experience as

delegates in our conference. I entrust you, fellow comrades, to save the Soviet Union, through

in-depth debate and expert research. If you have any questions, please email Gabriel below, and I

hope you all enjoy this simulation of the Soviet Politburo.

Jack Montgomery

Dear delegates,

My name is Gabriel Sessions and I am pleased to be one of your co-chairs for the Soviet

Politburo specialized agency at WASHMUN. I am currently a sophomore attending

Washington-Lee and this is my fourth year of doing Model UN and my second year chairing; I

chaired crisis last year. In the past, I have attended many specialized agencies and crisis

committees and hope to provide an enjoyable experience with thought-provoking debates. I’m

looking forward to intriguing conversations as the fall of the Soviet Union shook up the political

landscape of Russia and Eastern Europe. If you have any questions about the committee, feel

free to contact me at the email posted below.

Gabriel Sessions

gabrielsess@icloud.com

Committee Overview

The Soviet Politburo is a specialized agency. However, the committee will act more like

a cabinet which controls a singular nation and can act more immediately than other specialized

bodies. Due to the nature of the committee, there may be crisis elements included which must be

considered when drafting a resolution to the topic at hand. There is a chance there will be a crisis

update from the dais which can be factored into resolution papers. In addition to a possible crisis

update, there will be cabinet positions assigned to each delegate with their own powers and

beliefs which creates a wide range of opinions when attempting to prevent political and

economic collapse. The full position list is posted at the end of this background guide. However,

be aware this is not a crisis committee; delegates must pass all actions as a group through

resolution papers, not through directives.

Unlike many other specialized agencies, all resolution papers must reach a supermajority

of ⅔ in favor in order to pass. The main reason for a supermajority rather than a simple majority

is the Politburo required unanimous consent from all members or a supermajority before passing

decisions, historically. Finally, position papers are required for this committee. More details

about the paper requirements are included at the end of this guide.

Background

For centuries, Russia was ruled by tsars hundreds of years until the Russian Revolution

which resulted in the overthrow of the final tsar Nicholas II. After a brief provisional

government, the Bolsheviks, a group that would form the Communist Party, took control of

government through the October Revolution and created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

(USSR). The political ideology of communism was used to reform the country; all property was

publically owned by the

government. To govern the

country, a politburo, an executive

committee, was created which was

comprised of high ranking

government officials. The first

leader of the Soviet Union was

Lenin from 1922 to 1924 followed

by Stalin who ruled until 1953 for nearly a 30 year period. After the very harsh rule of Stalin

who died in 1953, the Soviet Union entered a period of “de-Stalinization” in which the people

were promised more freedoms and the government would attempt to erase the legacy of Stalin.

Even though these attempts were only somewhat successful, this was a step towards less

repressive government that would be continued into the 1980s.

The rule of Gorbachev, the last General Secretary (leader) of the Soviet Union, was

mainly known for his economic and political reforms which dramatically changed the country.

The two most famous reforms were glasnost and perestroika, which meant transparency and the

restructuring of economic management. These policies created an opportunity for citizens to

express political opinions more freely (although actually protesting the government was still not

allowed). Despite the intentions of the policies, this increased political instability of the Soviet

Union that will be described in the second topic. Additionally, the economic reforms, which

attempted to “perfect” the Soviet system of economics, were ultimately unsuccessful. Gorbachev

called the policies passed before 1988 a failure and were unsuccessful at improving the economy

in a meaningful way. As a result of political and economic problems, the Soviet Union is now in

a less than desirable state. The committee will begin in the year 1988 and will continue from

there. Now in 1988, the Soviet Union is facing economic and political crises that must be

resolved or the Soviet Union could collapse.

Topic 1: Economic Reform

After three long decades of the decrease in real growth of the economy, the Soviet Union

has fallen into a deep recession. Little serious economic reform had been enacted before the

1980s, and increased military spending throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s have worsened the

already large economic problem the Soviet Union is facing. The growth of the number of

workers in the Soviet Union slows every year, and the money generated does not grow. Beyond

that, extensive spending on the military and on research development of missile and rocket

technology has worsened these

problems by occupying a large

amount of the yearly budget.

Currently, industries are in a flux of

switching from military production

to industrial production and the

agricultural sector is completely

funded and propped up by the

Soviet Union.

Due to the explosion and subsequent radiation pollution at the Chernobyl nuclear

research center in 1986, the Soviet Union has spent over 18 billion Rubles, the Russian currency,

in efforts to clean it up, prevent further contamination,

and to cover up the true scale of the meltdown. However

this large expenditure bankrupted the Soviet Union in

1987, and these effects are still felt in 1988. Delegates

must figure out how to retool the economy without a large use of Soviet discretionary funds.

Several ideas have been proposed in earlier Politburo convenings, such as allowing industries to

earn a profit on goods made once the government requirement is filled, permitting privatized

companies, and even introducing foreign companies into the Soviet Union.

Currently, the most radical reform that has been put in place by the Politburo and

Gorbachev has been the law on State Enterprise. The law required that state businesses were free

to determine how much they could make based on what customers and other businesses wanted

to buy. Enterprises (Businesses) had to fulfill state orders,

but they could sell the remaining output (How much they

made) as they wanted. However, at the same time, the state

still held control over what they made and how much they

made for these businesses, thus limiting their ability to enact

smart economic decisions. Unfortunately, the new State Enterprise Law has not much difference

has been made in the market.

Now it is up to the Politburo to decide how to respond to this economic crisis. Maybe a

return to having the government fully plan the economy, which worked under Stalin and

Khrushchev, but began to fail after the lack of diversification of industries? (e.g., working to

build up more industries in order to not only rely only on oil and gas to provide capital to support

the economy) Another solution would be further reforms to promote free enterprise and more

capitalist business practices like Gorbachev’s Perestroika, which has given various Soviet

industries the ability to plan out what they will produce after they meet government

requirements. Finally, the entire Soviet system may have to be dissolved or each Soviet republic

be given more autonomy to allow their governments to fix the economic situations that are

specific to their region. Or members of the Politburo may propose even more radical solutions

than those outlined in the background guide. It is up to them to solve this crisis which holds the

Soviet Union’s fate in the balance.

Questions to Consider

1. Should the Soviet Union make more liberal reforms with its economy, such as the

introduction of foreign companies, allowing private companies, cutting non-essential

programs that cost large amounts of money, and others?

2. How can the Soviet Union recover from bankruptcy beyond using economic reforms,

such as by putting the USSR in a wartime economy by invading a neighboring nation,

giving more autonomy to Soviet member republics so these republics can manage the

economy, centralizing the entire Soviet Union into one state to better managed, or even

dissolving the entire Soviet system and granting independence to Soviet Republics so

each nation can enter a fully capitalist economy or whatever version they desire?

3. How have other countries recovered from economic collapses, such as the United States

in the 1930s, Germany in the late 1940s, and Britain in the 1950s?

Topic 2: Radical and Secessionist Movements

With the implementation of Glasnost, the

political atmosphere of the Soviet Union has

changed. Criticism of the government is

permitted, the power of the secret police has

been diminished, political views that aren’t of

the Communist party can be published freely,

and parties other than the Communist party can take part in elections. However, despite General

Secretary Gorbachev’s more liberal reforms, political instability seems to seep into every Soviet

Republic and Eastern Bloc nation, even the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

Currently, non-communist aligned parties are bubbling over with anti-government

sentiment and are gaining in power. Already, there

have been strikes by the Solidarity group within

Poland throughout the 1980s. Already, in member

republics of the Soviet Union, the “Singing

Revolution” has begun in the Baltic states, a soft

resistance movement using the arts to protest the

Soviet construction of ecologically unfriendly factories. In Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, much

of their agitated population are concerned over the environmental and human health

repercussions of the Soviet Union building environmentally unfriendly industry within these

Baltic states.

However, dissent with the current regime is far from being a European-only issue. In the

Kazakh SFSR, there was the Jeltoqsan uprising in 1986, started over the replacement of the

leader of Kazakhstan boiled into a large expression of Kazaks’ disdain for the overall Soviet

regime.

Questions to Consider

1. Should more political freedoms be established so that protests and reform movements can

be done without military or police intervention?

2. Should reforms like Glasnost that give fringe parties a voice be repealed to bring back

order to the Soviet Union and its communist neighbors or other more liberal programs?

3. Should something more radical be proposed? Examples would be a regional commune

system or a totalitarian regime.

Sources to start your research:

National Bureau of Economic Research:

https://www.nber.org/

Warwick University: https://warwick.ac.uk/

The Cold War Museum: www.coldwar.org

VOX, CEPR Policy Portal: https://voxeu.org/

Position Paper Guidelines

Preparing a position paper is essential to being fully prepared for any conference. At WASHMUN, delegates must submit a position paper if they wish to be considered for awards. We suggest that position papers follow this format:

● A cover page with your name, school name, position title, and optional country/state flag

● About 1-2 pages written in response to each topic, including background information, past action, and suggested solutions

● Suggested solutions should be the most in depth section of the paper ● Bibliography

Do not forget to cite your sources in a bibliography. Under WASHMUN conference policy, any paper without citations will be considered plagiarized.

Positions

Pyotr Demichev

Vladimir Dolgikh

Boris Yeltsin

Nikolay Slyunkov

Sergey Sokolov

Nikolai Talyzin

Alexander Yakovlev

Dmitry Yazov

Yuri Maslyukov

Georgy Razumovsky

Alexander Vlasov

Anatoly Lukyanov

Boris Pugo

Heydar Aliyev

Vitaly Vorotnikov

Andrei Gromyko

Yegor Ligachev

Eduard Shevardnadze

Nikolai Ryzhkov

Vladimir Kryuchkov

Bibliography

BILL KELLER, Special to the New York Times. “NEW STRUGGLE IN THE KREMLIN: HOW TO CHANGE THE ECONOMY.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 June 1987, www.nytimes.com/1987/06/04/world/new-struggle-in-the-kremlin-how-to-change-the-economy.html?pagewanted=1. “The Soviet Economy, 1917-1991: Its Life and Afterlife.” Seven Things I Learned about the Transition from Communism | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal, VOX, 7 Nov. 2017, www.voxeu.org/article/soviet-economy-1917-1991-its-life-and-afterlife. Easterly, William, and Stanley Fischer. “The Soviet Economic Decline: Historical and Republican Data.” NBER, May 1994, doi:10.3386/w4735. https://www.nber.org/papers/w4735.pdf Pipes, Richard E., and Robert Conquest. “Soviet Union.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 20 Dec. 2018, www.britannica.com/place/Soviet-Union/The-U-S-S-R-from-1953-to-1991#ref42080. Sasha Gitomirski, “Glasnost and Perestroika.” Cold War Museum, The Cold War Museum, www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/glasnostandperestroika.asp.

Editors, History.com. “Fall of the Soviet Union.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 25 Feb. 2011, www.history.com/topics/cold-war/fall-of-soviet-union. “THE END OF THE SOVIET UNION; Text of Declaration: 'Mutual Recognition' and 'an Equal Basis'.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Dec. 1991, www.nytimes.com/1991/12/22/world/end-soviet-union-text-declaration-mutual-recognition-equal-basis.html. Thomson, Clare (1992). The Singing Revolution: A Political Journey through the Baltic States. London: Joseph. “The Day Pepsi Became a Great Military Power.” Red Kalinka, Red Kalinka, 20 February, 2014 www.redkalinka.com/Russian-Blog/78/_The-day-Pepsi-became-a-great-military-power/. “Zapytaj.onet.pl.” Up, Solidarity NSZZ, https://zapytaj.onet.pl/encyklopedia/12313,,,,solidarnosc_nszz,haslo.html. “Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Feb. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politburo_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union#/media/File:PCUS_Emblema.svg. “Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Feb. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politburo_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union#/media/File:PCUS_Emblema.svg. “Large Detailed Administrative Divisions Map Of The Soviet Union 1989 Preview At Map Of The Republics Of The Ussr.” Free World Maps Collection – Asperia.org, https://asperia.org/map-of-the-republics-of-the-ussr/large-detailed-administrative-divisions-map-of-the-soviet-union-1989-preview-at-map-of-the-republics-of-the-ussr/. “Graph of Soviet National Income Growth”, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Feb. 2019 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Graph_of_Soviet_National_Income_Growth.png. Luhn, Alec. “My Hunting Trip with Yeltsin Killed off the Soviet Union.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 7 Dec. 2016, www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/07/my-hunting-trip-with-yeltsin-killed-off-the-soviet-union.

“Советский Чай.” karhu53, Live Journal, 29 Jul. 2016 https://karhu53.livejournal.com/16118583.html. Baggins, Brian. “The Soviet Art of Photography.” Images of the Soviet Union, Marxists, www.marxists.org/history/ussr/art/photography/workers/index.html. Baggins, Brian. “The Soviet Art of Photography.” Images of the Soviet Union, Marxists, www.marxists.org/history/ussr/art/photography/workers/index.html.