Beyond Perestroika and Glasnost: An Introduction

Abstract

If one week is said to be a long time in politics, then the five years since the Soviet Union embarked upon a new, revolutionary path would seem an eternity. In international politics, however, it is not the actual time-span that determines its length, but the events that took place within a given period. In this respect, the reforms introduced in the USSR since Gorbachev came to power would appear as having taken effect over a much longer time than they actually did. Therefore, if one were to consider perestroika and glasnost a revolutionary transformation of the Soviet system, the scope of the reforms and the speed with which they have occurred should make one wonder whether the changes are of a permanent nature or whether we are seeing another economic and political experiment — a different variant of past attempts.