In the 1980s, the Soviet Union was in an economic crisis. They did not have technological advancements and used inefficient factories to make products which lead, to poor quality products. One popular comment that Russians used to describe this system is “They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work”. Two polices that Mikhail Gorbachev tried to implement during this time was “perestroika” and “glasnost.” Perestroika is the reconstruction of a political and economic system established by the communist party. It called for citizens to have a slight say in government by having contested elections. Also called for the creation of semi-private businesses to end price controls established by the government and to create a semi-free market. The other policy was called Glasnost which means openness and it called for more rights and freedoms to be bestowed upon the Soviet people such as to include more people in the political process through freedom of expression. This also meant that there was a decreased censoring of the media which in turn allowed them to write about government corruption and how bad the state of the soviet People was. But unfortunately, people where not use to the lack of regulation and command. The flood of information about current and past crimes in the government caused an increase in social protests, which went against the goals of Glasnost. These principles where not compatible with collectivization and a command economy because both of these polices aim at limiting individual control and giving the government all of the control.
Brower, D. R., & Sanders, T. (2013). World in the Twentieth Century: From Empires to Nations, The. Pearson Higher Ed.
The Cold War Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/glasnostandper”¦ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
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