Gorbachev here emphasize that the essence of glasnost was a real dialogue between authorities and society. The dialogue, he argues here, required a rejection of all forms of censorship and pressure on the mass media, the existence of rights for freedom of assembly, meetings and demonstrations, freedom of conscience, and the creation of public organisations. All this was done in the perestroika years according to Gorbachev.
By
Mikhail Gorbachev
August 25, 2010
Professor Archie Brown argues that Gorbachev was not selected as General Secretary because he was a reformer. He did at the time he became party leader believe both that the system was reformable and that it must be reformed. But he did not, however, reveal the full extent of his existing reformism on the eve of perestroika.
Essay by
Archie Brown
August 25, 2010
+ Lennart Samuelson (ed.) Bönder och bolsjeviker: Den ryska landsbygdens historia 1902—1939 [Peasants and Bolsheviks: The History of the Russian Countryside 1902—1939] The Economic Research Institute, Stockholm School of Economics (EFI) 2007. 271 pages.
By
Johan Eellend
February 19, 2010