Introduction
Glasnost, or openness was, alongside perestroika, part of Gorbachev’s attempt to restructure USSR in order to avoid the imminent economic crisis he feared, but also, as a personal ambition to bring Russia in line with the Western superpowers. Although his reforms were necessary and well-received by the people, the Soviet system itself did not pass the democratization test, and broke into pieces only five years after the implementation of Gorbachev’s double strategy. Glasnost had a major role in destabilizing the Soviet Union, as this paper will further show. Being intended to regain the trust of the people, but also, ...