Word: perestroika
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
American companies have long viewed doing business with the Soviet Union as a dubious proposition, given the stormy politics of the superpower relationship. But under perestroika, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's campaign to revitalize his country's economy, the Soviets are trying to attract American know-how to help step up the tempo of development. Encouraged by their overtures, dozens of U.S. companies -- among them Honeywell, Occidental Petroleum and Archer Daniels Midland -- are forming joint ventures in the Soviet Union...
...that included razzle-dazzle TV commercials for Diet Coke, NutraSweet and the American Express Card. Gorbachev invited the U.S. visitors to the Kremlin's Palace of Congresses for a seven-course feast of caviar, pheasant, grouse and other delicacies. After exchanging toasts with the capitalists, the Soviet leader described perestroika as an "invitation" to a business partnership with the West. Said he: "New thinking should, at long last, enter the sphere of economic relations...
Much of the strongest resistance to "perestroika"--General Secretary Mikhail S. Gorbachev's policies of reform--has come from the interest groups within the Soviet government, said Nikolai Shmelyov...
...observations of the physical and material manifestations of perestroika left us in a quandary. Yes, there were independently run food cooperatives, but their prices were prohibitively high. And there was no butter in the Moscow stores we visited, although our hotel restaurant had it on the table three times a day. Although more Jews are being allowed to emigrate, Jews within the country are still being arrested and jailed for openly protesting Soviet emigration policy. Students held different opinions and openly clashed at our roundtable discussions, but their thoughts and ideas differed even more when we met with them alone...
...Soviet Union can in fact change. However, we know that the complexity of such a transformation can be overwhelming. If we have learned anything from the exchange, it is that it is virtually impossible to draw conclusions about a nation in flux. We often found it impossible to categorize perestroika and glasnost as "good" or "bad" "working" or "not working." We did learn that if perestroika and glasnost are to work, it will take time...