perestrojka
Gorbachev's economic overhaul
Perestrojka was the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s.
The Russian word means "rebuilding" or "restructuring." Along with glasnost (openness), perestrojka aimed to modernize the stagnating Soviet economy through limited market reforms and decentralization.
The term now evokes that era of dramatic change that preceded the USSR's collapse: The reforms of perestrojka couldn't save the Soviet system.
Soviet transparency reform
- USSRFormer communist superpower
- Soviet UnionFormer communist superstate
- KremlinMoscow's fortified government seat
- Cold WarProlonged East-West standoff
1980s · Reagan · summit · General Secretary · nuclear disarmament · arms control · detente · superpower
Adoption of current methods
- opennessQuality of being accessible
- decentralizationDistributing power from center
- democratizationTransition toward popular rule
- liberalizationReducing state economic controls
privatization · marketization · renewal · overhaul · reorganization · transparency · pluralism · self-management
Breaking up completely
- collapseSudden structural failure
- transitionChange from one state
- independenceFreedom from external control
- nationalismDevotion to one's country
sovereignty · breakup · aftermath · post-Soviet · Commonwealth · failed coup · hardliners · resistance
glasnost
Soviet transparency reform
- USSRFormer communist superpower
- Soviet UnionFormer communist superstate
- KremlinMoscow's fortified government seat
Cold War · 1980s · Reagan · summit · General Secretary · nuclear disarmament · arms control · detente · superpower · new thinking
modernization
Adoption of current methods
- opennessQuality of being accessible
- decentralizationDistributing power from center
- democratizationTransition toward popular rule
liberalization · privatization · marketization · renewal · overhaul · reorganization · transparency · pluralism · self-management · cooperatives
dissolution
Breaking up completely
- collapseSudden structural failure
- transitionChange from one state
- independenceFreedom from external control
nationalism · sovereignty · breakup · aftermath · post-Soviet · Commonwealth · failed coup · hardliners · resistance · shortages
perestrojkarevolution
Violent governmental overthrow
armed uprising · insurrection · Bolshevik Revolution · October Revolution · coup d'état
perestrojkaStalinism
Totalitarian Communist doctrine
stagnation · orthodoxy · conservative backlash · command and control
perestrojkatotalitarianism
State controls everything absolutely
central planning · command economy · repression · autarky · iron curtain