Gorbachev – once there was hope

On a stormy December night in 1989, the leaders of the world’s two superpowers were in Malta. On the Russian cruiseship Maxim Gorky, they ended the Cold War.

They ushered a new era of “glasnost”, openness, trust and confidence. And lit a burning fire of optimism, elation and expectation. There was excitement and pride for Malta too, as it watched Prime Minister Fenech Adami welcoming the two leaders. Malta was no longer perceived as Ghaddafi’s satellite province. Malta had shed the yoke of its repressive Labour government and with it its pariah status. Malta’s bright future was within reach. Its youth could dream again. Malta was now truly at the centre of the world. Against all odds the country managed to drag itself out of the bleak misery and hopelessness of Labour and foresee a European future.

From the height of the tensions over the Korean peninsula, the Hungarian uprising, the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam, the brutal crushing of the Prague Spring and armed conflicts around the globe, the world had long lived with fear of a nuclear war. For decades Europe was split by an Iron curtain with millions of Eastern Europeans locked inside the confines of the Eastern bloc. Any attempt to cross the Berlin wall was met with a hail of gunfire and almost certain death.

After the brutality of Stalin, and the years of stagnation under Kruschev, Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernienko, the youngest Politburo member Mikhail Gorbachev became President. In summer 1987, citizens of the USSR, could for the first time in decades read Pasternak and Solzehnitzyn. Nuclear physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov was freed from exile. Millions of Russians could now complain about injustices, denied freedoms and hardships. They could listen to the BBC and Voice of America.

Malta, a nation long intimidated and suppressed by an autocratic Labour government, also started to taste new freedoms - the liberalisation of the airwaves, the freedom to express their views openly without fear of violence. Malta could watch CNN.

Both in Malta and the USSR people were pinching themselves wondering whether their new found liberation was just a dream, whether they would wake up to find Labour and the KGB still in control.

Of course Malta still faced many unanswered questions. Who killed Karin Grech? Why was nobody arraigned for her brutal murder? Who killed Raymond Caruana? Who ordered the police to plant the murder weapon in the farm of an innocent man who they later indicted for murder knowing he was innocent? Who ordered the police to shoot at PN supporters? Who was responsible for directing the special mobile unit to teargas peaceful demonstrators? Who killed Nardu Debono? Who ordered the police to dump his body under a bridge?

But those questions were put on the backburner when Malta welcomed Gorbachev and Bush. Gorbachev had distinguished himself from former Soviet leaders - he was normal. He had an aversion to violence and a strong belief in the enlightenment. He believed in decency. He was convinced that “we can’t go on living like this”. Instead he offered youth, energy and humanity.

Gorbachev bravely called out the failures of his country. He condemned a system “penetrated by servility, bootlicking, persecution of those who think differently, window dressing and personal connections and clans”. In its place he offered glasnost (openness). Here was true democratic humane socialism.

When the USSR crumbled, Gorbachev was jobless. On Christmas day 1991 he resigned as President of the USSR. But Gorbachev had nothing to fear. He had no hidden wealth. He donated his prize money from the 1990 Nobel Prize to set up Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s liberal newspaper.

Just one generation later Gorbachev’s optimism has vanished. Novaya Gazeta is no more. In March 2022 it suspended its publication due to unrelenting government censorship. Since 2000, six of its journalists were killed - the most famous Anna Politkovskaya shot dead as a present for Putin on his birthday in October 2006. Putin callously remarked that her murder caused him more damage than her work.

Just one generation later, Malta’s optimism has vanished too. Malta has lost its own Politkovskaya. When Daphne Caruana Galizia was blown up in a car bomb, Joseph Muscat claimed she had become irrelevant and that he was “ready to get the popcorn out and enjoy the show”. Muscat’s wife, Michelle commented “I was more sorry than her own family” because “her family can go on to make her a saint” while “I will have to live with her lies”.

That’s where we are now. Putin has rolled back all of Gorbachev’s reforms. Russians now have no choice but to support Putin’s brutal war, his aggression, his disregard for decency and human life. They live under the constant threat of imprisonment for calling his war a war. All independent media have been forced out or shut down. As Gorbachev passed away, Putin even denied him a state funeral.

And Malta? Malta is back in the clutches of Labour. Quoting Gorbachev, Malta is now “penetrated by servility, bootlicking, persecution of those who think differently, window dressing and personal connections and clans”. Gone is ‘glasnost’. Labour desperately hides information from its people, rejecting all freedom of information requests, concealing secret MOUs. It rewards its own party appartchiks with overpaid jobs they are incompetent to perform. It dishes out millions of euro in direct orders to party funders, friends and family. It deceives its European partners by concealing Konrad Mizzi’s SOCAR deal. The names of Labour ministers involved in corruption are withheld. Ministers who stole national heritage artefacts are protected. Damning reports about Ministers involved in money laundering are ignored. Ministers’ canvassers engaged in manifest corruption and bribery are let off the hook. The Prime Minister’s close friends, even those accused of kidnapping and criminal conspiracy, continue to receive public money to fund their businesses. Meanwhile national projects are frozen and the University defunded.

Gorbachev is dead. So is his democratic humane socialism. And his optimism. In both Russia and Malta.