To further his attempts, as leader of the Soviet Union from 1985, to reform, liberalize and modernize his country, Mikhail Gorbachev introduced two key policies, glasnost and perestroika. Glasnost was the more immediately, and probably the most, vital of the two. Actually intended to mean something more like the English word ‘publicity’, glasnost came to mean an opening of discussion, a freeing of all the constraints on expression, whether in journalism, literature or the arts, that Stalin and his heirs had imposed on the Soviet Union. Above all it involved freedom of the press, freedom to criticize and freedom of forms of activity, like religious worship, which had for so long been denied.
Glasnost was not immediately and smoothly implemented, and the further away a community was from Moscow the less likely the authorities were to heed the reforms. Nevertheless, it very rapidly took effect and indeed various laws were repealed to ensure its survival. The initiation of glasnost was quite intentional, because Gorbachev thought that he could use the glare of publicity, with journals free to criticize the inefficient state-run enterprises, to help enforce perestroika, the restructuring of society. In the event glasnost may have been the enemy of perestroika because open publicity did more to highlight the initial failures of perestroika than to enthuse people in its cause. With the collapse of the Soviet Union after the abortive coup d’état of 1991 even glasnost has lost its significance, as a total freedom of expression and speech forced itself on the unwilling bureaucracy.
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