Glasnost and Perestroika

By definition, Glasnost translates to English as "freedom of speech." 


Perestroika, which comes from the Russian word that means "restructuring," is basically defined as the restructuring of the political, social and economical system. 


Mikhail Gorbachev was a forward thinker, and he knew the dangers of his nation repeating its tumultuous history. When he came to power in the mid-1980s, the Communist Party was the ruling faction in the USSR. Through his ideas of perestroika and glasnost, he was able to change 75 years of thought among his people and move the nation into a new beginning.


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