The documentary "My Perestroika" directed by Robin Hessman tells the story of five ordinary Russian people who are destined to live in very unusual time. They spent their childhood in the Soviet era that can be considered happy; their youth coincided with the USSR collapse and today being adults they are forced to exist in the circumstances of the ongoing changes in the Russian political landscape. The film covers the period from 1985 to 2008, ending with the presidential election 2008. All five families are united by the fact that some of their members were schoolmates. The viewer can discuss achievements and failures of perestroika and glasnost only relying on subjective opinions of film heroes, so it is not possible to consider them as fair conclusions.
The main success of perestroika, which is mentioned by all participants of the film, and becomes clear to those who live today is a free access to information received by people after Perestroika and even more after the USSR dissolution. All the characters recall more than once that all Soviet citizens lived and believed before in what they were told by leaders of the country, television, and radio. They (at least most of them) did not have any access to information from the outside sources. They could not compare their life with anything and realize that it was impossible to live this way any further. They just did not know that they could live in any other way, so there were no social disturbances. In a number of cases, the lack of information can have both positive and negative consequences. For example, the heroine of this movie Olga says that since everything shown on TV was very boring and eventless, she read all the books that were in her house. Boris is upset that children read a little in today`s Russia, even though they have unlimited access to books and other media. He says that they will never experience that thrill, which he experienced himself when reading forbidden books. But, in general, of course, the priceless advantage given by Perestroika is the opportunity to discover new information, books, music, movies, job options, and communications with different people. Previously, any person could be arrested for listening to punk music, and today this genre does not surprise anyone. This is a really great fact.
However, access to information and limitlessness had other consequences. Negative ones. As far as many Soviet people firmly believed before in what they were told on TV, they kept the same trust during the period when people with questionable personality received access to TV. For example, the film shows a psychologist, so-called healer, whose performances were very popular during the Perestroika period. However, the benefits of this broadcasting were highly questionable. People just fell into some kind of trance. It is impossible even to imagine how much of this information noise struck the people at that time and what impact it could have since the people`s mentality was just not as resistant to the media and other sources, as it is today.
But, step by step people have passed through this phase. They have learned to filter the information they received, to assess soberly what was happening around them in social life, politics, and culture. This kind of training can be regarded as a major success of perestroika and glasnost - people have gained skills to analyze the world around them. At the end of the film, Boris Meyerson reiterates that today his child and other young people never believe so easily what politicians say because today no one has a monopoly of information. Although the film also demonstrates that modern Russia has not become an entirely democratic country. None of them votes because everyone knows the winner in advance. Thus, this is another failure of the policy pursued by the perestroika. Government has not been able to build a democratic system of governance for which people struggled.
Work cited
My Perestroika. Dir. Robin Hessman. Red Square Productions LLC, 2011. DVD.
