XING Guangcheng

(№.3,2011)

Abstract: To examine the collapse of the Soviet Communist Party and the disintegration of the Soviet Union from the angle of political belief is of great significance, because political belief is a kernel part of political consciousness. While discussing Gorbachev and Yakovlev’s political belief, world outlook and their view of Marxism and Leninism, we should pay close attention to their words and deeds while they were in power and can not ignore their speeches and memoirs after they left the political stage, because they expressed their ideological change process unscrupulously in their speeches and memoirs and revealed their real intentions and ideas that they could not say when they were in power. To thoroughly and objectively analyse the essence and path of Gorbachev, et al. changing political belief will help to recognize the quiddity of the Soviet collapse.
Key words: Gorbachev; collapse of the CPSU; disintegration of the Soviet Union; ideological evolution