Countless studies have assessed the dramatic reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, but their analysis of the impact on European communism has focused overwhelmingly on the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc nations. This ambitious collection takes a much broader view, reconstructing and evaluating the historical trajectories of glasnost and perestroika on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Moving beyond domestic politics and foreign relations narrowly defined, the research gathered here constitutes a transnational survey of these reforms’ collective impact, showing how they were variably received and implemented, and how they shaped the prospects for “proletarian internationalism” in diverse political contexts.

Relates the Soviet changes in attitudes, ideas, and practices that he is implementing.

Contains primary source material.

Mikhail Gorbachev and Zdenek Mlynar were friends for half a century, since they first crossed paths as students in 1950. Although one was a Russian and the other a Czech, they were both ardent supporters of communism and socialism. One took part in laying the groundwork for and carrying out the Prague spring; the other opened a new political era in Soviet world politics. In 1993 they decided that their conversations might be of interest to others and so they began to tape-record them. This book is the product of that “thinking out loud” process. It is an absorbing record of two friends trying to explain to one another their views on the problems and events that determined their destinies. From reminiscences of their starry-eyed university days to reflections on the use of force to “save socialism” to contemplation of the end of the cold war, here is a far more candid picture of Gorbachev than we have ever seen before.

This argues that Perestroika failed as the result of the lack of understanding of market and political processes with reform processes representing

Gorbachev and Perestroika goes beyond most other books on perestroika by covering not only the economy but also personnel policy, culture and foreign affairs. It presents a thorough and broad-ranging assessment and analysis of the Soviet Union at a time when the initial excitement of reform is expanding in cultural and intellectual affairs, radical economic experiments are being tried and political opposition is being more openly discussed.

With new information from Russian archives, this work examines the historical roots of Gorbachev's perestroika and the reforms that would eventually lead to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The controversies among Soviet leaders from Lenin to Gorbachev over party role, economic management, resource allocation, ethnic policies, legality and foreign relations are discussed. An appendix "reads between the lines" in historic Soviet texts, and a helpful list of Soviet leaders, with brief identifications, is included. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.