Word: perestroikas
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...hackneyed question greets you when you return from almost any trip: How was the weather? Another more focused and loaded query awaits you when you complete an exchange with the Soviet Union: So what about glasnost and perestroika--are they going to going to work...
...term glasnost means literally `voiceability'; it applies primarily to new attitudes toward freedom of the press and open expression of thought. Perestroika, on the other hand, refers to Gorbachev's plans for restructuring and democratizing the Soviet Union's economic and political system. Before our trip, the American press had filled us with ideas about these two concepts, describing grassroots democracy sprouting up in the form of private restaurants and independent businesses...
...students we met in Kiev confirmed these notions, telling us in official discussions that perestroika was working; in informal environments, though, they were far more critical. Finally, one-on-one encounters with Soviet citizens who had not been chosen to to participate in the exchange revealed much more pessimistic outlooks...
...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...