Editing Perestroika (section)

==''Perestroika'' and ''glasnost''==
[[File:Wall of Sorrow on the victims of the Stalin's Gulag at the first exhibition in the USSR about the crimes of Stalinism.jpg|thumb|"Wall of Sorrow" at the first exhibition of the victims of [[Stalinism]] in Moscow, 19 November 1988]]
One of the final important measures taken on the continuation of the movement was a report from the central committee meeting of the CPSU titled "On Reorganization and the Party's Personnel Policy".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.lib.ru/MEMUARY/GORBACHEV/doklad_xxvi.txt|title=On Reorganization and the Party's Personnel Policy|journal=Pravda|language=Russian|date=27 January 1987}} (Gorbachev's report to the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU).</ref><ref name="Mishota,2019" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gidadhubli |first=R. G. |date=1987 |title=Perestroika and Glasnost |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4376986 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=22 |issue=18 |pages=784–787 |jstor=4376986 |issn=0012-9976}}</ref> Gorbachev emphasized the need of a faster political personnel turnover and of a policy of democratization that opened the political elections to multiple candidates and to non-party members.<ref name="Mishota,2019">{{cite book|first1=Yugina|last1= Mishota|first2=Manuela|last2=Mantovani|first3=Alessandra|last3= Pietrobon|url=http://abkhazworld.com/Pdf/TESI_DOTTORATO_PADUARESEARCH_Mishota.pdf|title=The right of peoples to self-determination in the Post Soviet area: the case of Abkhazia|pages=22, 18|oclc=1138915891|date=31 January 2019|publisher=University of Padua, Faculty of International Private and Labour Law|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210720153340/http://abkhazworld.com/Pdf/TESI_DOTTORATO_PADUARESEARCH_Mishota.pdf|archive-date=20 July 2021|url-status=live}} (PhD thesis).</ref>

This report was in such high demand in Prague and Berlin that many people could not get a copy. One effect was the abrupt demand for Russian dictionaries in order to understand the content of Gorbachev's report.{{citation needed|reason=These two sentences need a reliable source|date=November 2018}}

In an interview with Mieczyslaw Rakowski he states the success of ''perestroika'' was impossible without ''glasnost''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McForan |first1=D.W.J. |title=Glasnost, Democracy, and ''Perestroika'' |journal=International Social Science Review |date=Autumn 1988 |volume=63 |issue=4 |page=166 |jstor=41881835 }}</ref>

Despite early enthusiasm, the reforms of perestroika and glasnost ultimately failed to deliver lasting improvements. By the late 1980s, the Soviet Union faced deepening economic crisis, with widespread shortages and deficits. Gorbachev’s leadership lost credibility as the public saw little tangible progress. Scholars argue that he and his advisors underestimated the severity of the crisis and the political risks of decentralization. Without a clear strategy and amid rising public disillusionment, these reforms contributed to growing instability and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Strovsky |first1=Dmitry |last2=Schleifer |first2=Ron |date=2021-07-21 |title=Soviet Politics and Journalism under Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika and Glasnost: Why Hopes Failed |url=https://www.athensjournals.gr/media/2021-7-4-2-Strovsky.pdf |journal=Athens Journal of Mass Media and Communications |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=239–256 |doi=10.30958/ajmmc.7-4-2}}</ref>