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| Title |
Gorbachev’s reforms in the Soviet Union
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| Document type |
Synopsis
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| Source |
Pierre Gerbet. Translated by the CVCE.
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| Keywords |
glasnost, NATO, perestroika, political development of the USSR, Warsaw Pact Organisation
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| Copyright |
© Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l'Europe (CVCE).
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| Caption |
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| Location in the digital library |
HISTORICAL EVENTS >> 1987–1997 The European Union in a Europe in the throes of change >> The end of the Cold War and geopolitical change in Europe >> The Eastern bloc in the throes of change >> Gorbachev's reforms in the Soviet Union
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| Document extract |
Gorbachev’s reforms in the Soviet Union
On 11 March 1985, at the age of 54, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, an apparatchik of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), was appointed General Secretary of the CPSU by the Central Committee, 24 hours after the death of his predecessor, Konstantin Chernenko. He aimed to carry out a root-and-branch reform of the Soviet system, the bureaucratic inertia of which constituted an obstacle to economic reconstruction (‘perestroika’), and, at the same time, to liberalise the regime and introduce transparency (‘glasnost’), i.e. a certain freedom of expression and information. In order to implement this ambitious policy successfully, Gorbachev had to limit the USSR’s international commitments and reduce its military expenditure so as to curb the USSR’s moral and economic decline. This resulted in a resumption of dialogue between the Americans and the Soviets concerning nuclear arms, with the signing of the three treaties: the Washington Treaty (8 December 1987), which provided for the destruction of all Soviet and American intermediate-range missiles based in Europe; the Paris Treaty (19 November 1990) on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, agreed between the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact countries; and the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I (...) Read more in ENA |
| See also |
Cartoon by Behrendt on Mikhail Gorbachev (1985)
Cartoon by Haitzinger on perestroika (March 1988)
Cartoon by Murschetz on Gorbachev’s reforms in the Soviet Union
Cartoon by Cummings on glasnost (24 August 1988)
Cartoon by Behrendt on the burden of heritage in the Soviet Union (1986)
Glasnost board game (1989)
Cartoon by Lang on GDR and perestroika (3 December 1988)
'Europeans seek path out of divisive ideological camps' from The Guardian (11 November 1989)
‘Following Moscow's decisions: Europe_USSR relations' from Europe (5 October 1988)
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