Word: sovietism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Gorbachev seemed a bit stunned that Bush's overall proposals were so detailed and specific, not to mention numerous. After sitting silent during most of the lengthy presentation, the Soviet leader looked the President in the eye and told him, "I have heard you say that you want perestroika to succeed, but frankly I didn't know this. Now I know. Now I have something tangible...
...Sunday, in the kind of head-spinning turn of events that is now the norm in the Soviet bloc, East Germany's Egon Krenz resigned as Communist Party leader -- while retaining his post as leader of the state -- and his entire Politburo and Central Committee stepped down as well. Asked about German unification at Sunday's press conference, Gorbachev said some questions must be left for "history" to decide and cautioned against doing "anything to accelerate these changes artificially." That call for prudence seemed ironic coming from the statesman who had done more than any other in this half...
...problems of the Communist world worsened. En route to Malta, Gorbachev stopped in Rome to visit John Paul II. His momentous meeting with the Pope marked the beginning of the end of more than 70 years of antagonism between the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church. The first Soviet Communist Party boss to set foot on Vatican soil, Gorbachev conferred with the Pope for an unexpectedly long 75 minutes in the library of the 16th century Apostolic Palace. Addressing John Paul II as "Your Holiness" -- no small gesture for the leader of a nation and party formally pledged to atheism...
Gorbachev also agreed to reopen diplomatic relations with the Vatican and discussed a possible papal visit to the Soviet Union sometime in the future. John Paul hedged on that, making his acceptance conditional upon some evidence of real improvement in the situation of Soviet Catholics. But the Pope did offer his endorsement of perestroika, all the while pressing home his "expectation" that Ukrainian Catholics would be allowed to exercise their faith fully and openly. The Ukrainian Church, which follows the Eastern liturgy but claims the Pope as its spiritual leader, was banned and driven underground by Stalin...
...snow outside the papal quarters in Canossa, Italy. Gorbachev's concordat with the church was no less significant in its way. But there was a crucial difference: as is so often the case with Gorbachev, he achieved his reconciliation without humiliation. As he had done before, the Soviet leader let the ongoing crisis of the Communist system serve as an opportunity to push his nation toward a broader vision of the future. "We need spiritual values," Gorbachev declared the day before the Vatican meeting. "We need a revolution of the mind...