Soviet Union
...re the time of their sentence was supposed to last. With the coming of the Gorbachev administration many things changed. The monocratic structure that the USSR had seen for so long was augmented. A somewhat democratic party was emerging. Unfortunately much of the top leaders of the former Communist Party started calling themselves democrats. Nonetheless, it was a start. For the first time since 1917, the republics got the option and right to be more independent. Because of the lack of experience with democracy, most of the changes that were considered to be democratic or positive ended up failing to some extent. Gorbachev persuaded the party elite that if socialism were to survive, economic restructuring would be necessary. Perestroika (Ïåðåñòðîéêà) was the reconstruction that Gorbachev was talking about. He wanted to give factory managers, not socialist planners, the power to determine what is produced and in what quantities. Greater openness (glasnost) was desired so that information could be better utilized. What Gorbachev didn’t see was that once his policy of glasnost took effect, there would be no turning back. All of the people would be able to see what was really going on in the Soviet Union, they would see that the only way to improve standards of living would be to end communism. These reforms are sometimes said to have been doomed from the beginning. As a result of Gorbachev’s reforms, the whole Soviet Union, a force that took up quite a considerable amount of area in our world, changed dramatically. As a result of greater freedom of information, people began to learn the truth about Soviet history. With glasnost in effect, new programs were allowed and the news began to cover politics from a very different approach. Television provided citizens with an opportunity to watch the lies of the KGB revealed. Glasnost also threw out any idea that the markets were dehumanizing. The effects that television ultimately had on the society’s thinking were, indeed, dramatic. As a result of the new openness in the USSR, the union itself became more open to the rest of the world. Communications were improving. While the press was restoring Soviet history and television was reviving politics, the publishers were causing a stir as well, taking steps closer to normalizing everyday life for the citizens. In 1987 most Western books were either banned, mostly censored, or unavailable. By 1991, however, there were no restraints and everything was available. As for the economy, some people starting owning businesses, as opposed to the government owning them all. Du...