PO SC 4710 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev, Glasnost

• School: Clemson University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: PO SC 4710
• Professor: Dr. Tannenbaum

Document Summary

First idea to get economy moving: raised price of alcohol and shortened store hours because too many people were drunk and no productive. Did not work, people made their own. Government decreased sugar, which caused people to be angry because they couldn"t bake. State didn"t talk about accidents didn"t happen in soviet union. Sweden radioactive meters recorded it, and sweden notified world. World news made it to the soviet union. Outrage in the country gave gorbachev the ability to perestroika: reconstruction of the economy. Introduced limited market reforms, destroyed central production system. This meant partial destruction of stalin economic system, which made ussr great. New policy glasnost: openness to people and media to cover party officals who criticized perestroika, not freedom of speech. Criticism extended past the bureaucrats and focused on stalins system, gulags, collective farming, gorbachev lost control of media. Gorbachev sent troops to support the neutral, but soviet leaning government.