Editing Glasnost (section)

===Gorbachev===
In 1986, Soviet General Secretary [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] and his advisers adopted ''glasnost'' as a political slogan, together with the term ''[[perestroika]]''. [[Alexander Yakovlev]], Head of the Propaganda Department of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], is considered to be the intellectual force behind Gorbachev's reform program.<ref name="Chief Ideologue">{{cite news |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051018.wyakov1018/BNStory/International/ |location=Toronto |work=The Globe and Mail |title=Alexander Yakovlev, 81 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051020010403/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051018.wyakov1018/BNStory/International/ |archive-date=20 October 2005 |access-date=24 May 2013}}</ref>

Glasnost was taken to mean increased openness and [[Transparency (social)|transparency]] in government institutions and activities in the [[Soviet Union]] (USSR).<ref>{{cite book | title = Milestones in Glasnost and Perestroyka: Politics and People | publisher = Brookings Institution Press | year = 1991 | url =https://archive.org/details/milestonesinglas00edah| url-access =registration| isbn = 0-8157-3623-1 }}</ref> ''Glasnost'' reflected a commitment of the Gorbachev administration to allowing Soviet citizens to discuss publicly the problems of their system and potential solutions.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The world transformed : 1945 to the present|last=H.|first=Hunt, Michael|isbn=9780199371020|pages=315|oclc=907585907|date = 26 June 2015|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> Gorbachev encouraged popular scrutiny and criticism of leaders, as well as a certain level of exposure by the mass media.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The world transformed : 1945 to the present|last=H.|first=Hunt, Michael|isbn=9780199371020|pages=316|oclc=907585907|date = 26 June 2015|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref>

Some critics, especially among legal reformers and dissidents, regarded the Soviet authorities' new slogans as vague and limited alternatives to more basic liberties. Alexei Simonov, president of the Glasnost Defence Foundation, makes a critical definition of the term in suggesting it was "a tortoise crawling towards Freedom of Speech".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gdf.ru/|title=Фонд Защиты Гласности|website=www.gdf.ru}}</ref>

Between 1986 and 1991, during an era of reforms in the USSR, glasnost was frequently linked with other generalised concepts such as [[perestroika]] (literally: restructuring or regrouping) and [[Demokratizatsiya (Soviet Union)|demokratizatsiya]] (democratisation). Gorbachev often appealed to glasnost when promoting policies aimed at reducing corruption at the top of the Communist Party and the Soviet government, and moderating the abuse of administrative power in the [[Central Committee]]. The ambiguity of "glasnost" defines the distinctive five-year period (1986–1991) at the end of the USSR's existence. There was decreasing pre-publication and pre-broadcast censorship and greater [[freedom of information]].

The "Era of Glasnost" saw greater contact between Soviet citizens and the Western world, particularly the United States: restrictions on travel were loosened for many Soviet citizens which further eased pressures on international exchange between the Soviet Union and the West.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=International Tourism In The Soviet Union In The Era Of Glasnost And Perestroyka|journal = Journal of Travel Research|volume = 29|issue = 4|pages = 2–6|doi=10.1177/004728759102900401|year = 1991|last1 = Arefyev|first1 = V.|last2 = Mieczkowski|first2 = Z.|s2cid = 154312740}}</ref>

While associated with [[freedom of speech]], the main goal of this policy was to make the country's management transparent, and circumvent the holding of near-complete control of the economy and bureaucracy of the Soviet Union by a concentrated body of officials and bureaucratic personnel.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

During Glasnost, Soviet history under Stalin was re-examined; censored literature in the libraries was made more widely available;<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.ib.hu-berlin.de/~pbruhn/glasnost.htm |title=Glasnost im sowjetischen Bibliothekswesen|trans-title=Glasnot in Soviet library|last=Bruhn|first=Peter|journal=Journal for Library and Bibliography|volume=36|year=1989|issue=4|pages=360–366}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Совершенно несекретно|trans-title=Completely unclassified|journal=Soviet Bibliography|year=1988|volume=6|issue=231|pages=3–12|last=Shikman|first=Anatoly Pavlovich}}</ref> and there was a greater freedom of speech for citizens and openness in the media. It was in the late 1980s when most people in the Soviet Union began to learn about the atrocities of Stalin, and learned about previously suppressed events.

Information about the supposedly higher quality of consumer goods and quality of life in the United States and Western Europe began to be transmitted to the Soviet population,<ref name="ScottChapter8">{{cite book|title=Dismantling Utopia: How Information Ended the Soviet Union|last=Shane|first=Scott|publisher=Ivan R. Dee|year=1994|isbn=1-56663-048-7|location=Chicago|pages=212 to 244|chapter=Letting Go of the Leninist Faith|quote=All this degradation and hypocrisy is laid not just at the feet of Stalin but of Lenin and the Revolution that made his rule possible.}}</ref> along with western popular culture.<ref name="ScottChapter7">{{cite book|last=Shane|first=Scott|title=Dismantling Utopia: How Information Ended the Soviet Union|year=1994|publisher=Ivan R. Dee|location=Chicago|isbn=1-56663-048-7|pages=182 to 211|chapter=A Normal Country: The Pop Culture Explosion|quote=...market forces had taken over publishing...}}</ref>