Glasnost

From Wikinfo

Glasnost (Гла́сность), meaning "openness", was one of Mikhail Gorbachev's policies introduced to the Soviet Union in 1985. Gorbachev's goal in undertaking glasnost was in part to pressure conservatives within the party who opposed his policies of economic restructuring or perestroika.

While in the West the notion of "glasnost" is associated with the freedom of speech, main goal of this policy was to make the management transparent and discutable, to oppose the former situation when major political and management decisions were made by a narrow circle of apparatchiks or within Politburo, and were beyond criticism.

Glasnost gave new freedom to the people, such as freedom of speech, which was a radical change because control of ideas had previously been a central part of the Soviet system. Therefore glasnost is considered an important step towards real democracy in Russia.

Under glasnost the people could learn significantly more about the horrors committed by the government when Stalin was in power. (Although Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin's personality cult, information about the true proportions of his atrocities was still suppressed.)

Thousands of political prisoners and many dissidents were released in the spirit of Glasnost. However, Gorbachev's original goal of using glasnost and perestroika to reform the Soviet Union proved futile and the government of the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

See also Perestroika.

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Glasnost" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasnost, used under the GNU Free Documentation License