Review the policy of Glasnost adopted by Gorbachev.

Answer:

Glasnost, or openness, was introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev from 1985 alongside perestroika. It sought to reform the Soviet system by permitting public discussion and criticism, but the freedoms it released ultimately undermined the very state it was meant to renew.

Aims and measures

• It was intended to expose corruption, inefficiency and bureaucratic obstruction.
• Censorship was relaxed and the press allowed to investigate and criticise.
• Previously banned literature, including Solzhenitsyn and Pasternak, was published.
• Stalin's crimes were publicly acknowledged and victims rehabilitated.
• The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 demonstrated the cost of official secrecy and accelerated the policy.

Consequences

• Public debate flourished, and competitive elections were held in 1989.
• Nationalist movements in the Baltic republics and the Caucasus gained a voice.
• Criticism of the Communist Party's monopoly became open and widespread.
• Eastern Europe was permitted to go its own way in 1989.
• The party's authority collapsed, and the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.

Glasnost was therefore a genuine and courageous attempt to reform Soviet socialism from within, but its effects far outran its author's intention. As historians observe, by legitimising criticism in a system whose authority rested on the suppression of it, Gorbachev released forces that swept away both the party's monopoly and the Soviet state itself.