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Mikhail Gorbachev & Reforms

In March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) Central Committee, and Chairman of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Council of Defense. At the time of this election, he was already a member of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet. In the somewhat more than four years that he has been the nation's leader, he has introduced far reaching social, political, and economic initiatives. Perestroika is the Russian language term applied to the restructuring of the nation's societal systems. Glasnost is the Russian language term used to describe the openness with which restructuring, the need for restructuring, and almost anything else may be freely discussed by ordinary Soviet citizens. Indeed, under Gorbachev's leadership, such open discussion is encouraged.

One of the first (perhaps the first) western detailed analyses of the Gorbachev proposals was presented by Martin Walker, Moscow correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, in The Waking Giant in 1986. Walker's work was published barely a year and a half after Gorbachev gained the top positions of political leadership in the Soviet Union. His analysis dealt with Gorbachev's rise to power, the nature of his proposed reforms, the relationship of these reforms to Soviet history

1 2and experience, and their relationship to reform experiences in other socialist countries. He also considered the state of the reforms through the first 18 months of Gorbachev's reign, their probable future, and interests of the west in their success.

While economic, political, and social change in the Soviet Union was beginning to emerge under Gorbachev's leadership, such change had either been attempted or was already underway in some of the other socialist states. Perhaps the socialist country with the longest uninterrupted experience with change of this sort is Poland. Labor unrest precipitated political turm...

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Mikhail Gorbachev & Reforms. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 12:05, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1684293.html