Word: perestroikas
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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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...
...disparate images of the "real" Soviet Union in an effort to define for ourselves the true nature of Soviet society. In our struggle to discern what was real and what was facade, what was planned and what was spontaneous, we naturally found ourselves confronting the second question: What about perestroika and glasnost? Could they really work...
...students perestroika and glasnost were the great hope of the future. We found students who were bright and inquisitive, eager to analyze and critique Soviet history. They yearned for a different, better future which included some type of democracy. Their vision, however, was still vague. One student said the goal of current reforms is a return to the heritage of Lenin. Another named economic freedom, and a third described it as "developing the human self...
...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...