glasnost

{{short description|1980s policy of the Soviet Union promoting openness and freedom of information}}

{{russianterm

| russian = гласность

| rusr = glasnost'

| literal meaning = publicity, transparency

| native pronunciation = {{IPA|ru|ˈɡlasnəsʲtʲ|}}

}}

Glasnost ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|g|l|æ|z|n|ɒ|s|t}} {{respell|GLAZ|nost}}; {{langx|ru|link=no|гласность}}, {{IPA|ru|ˈɡlasnəsʲtʲ|IPA|ru-гласность.ogg}}) is a concept relating to openness and transparency. It has several general and specific meanings, including a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information and the inadmissibility of hushing up problems. In Russian, the word glasnost has long been used to mean 'openness' and 'transparency'. In the mid-1980s, it was popularised by Mikhail Gorbachev as a political slogan for increased government transparency in the Soviet Union within the framework of perestroika, and the word came to be used in English in the latter meaning.

Historical usage

In the Russian Empire of the late-19th century, the term was used in its direct meanings of "openness" and "publicity" and applied to politics and the judicial system. Some reforms were introduced towards reforms permitting attendance of the press and the public at trials. After some liberalization under Alexander II of Russia, the openness of trials started to be restricted again.{{cite Efron|Гласность}} Human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva writes that the word glasnost has been in the Russian language for several hundred years as a common term: "It was in the dictionaries and lawbooks as long as there had been dictionaries and lawbooks. It was an ordinary, hardworking, non-descript word that was used to refer to a process, any process of justice or governance, being conducted in the open."{{cite book|title=The Thaw Generation: Coming of Age in the Post-Stalin Era|last1=Alexeyeva|first1=Lyudmila|last2=Goldberg|first2=Paul|publisher=Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press|year=1990|pages=108–109}} In the mid-1960s it acquired a revived topical importance in discourse about the necessity of changing the Cold War era internal policy of the Soviet Union.

In the USSR

File:The Live Ring campaign around the KGB building in Moscow.jpg building in Moscow on Lubyanka Square in a memory of Stalin's victims on the Day of Political Prisoners, 30 October 1989]]

=The dissidents=

On 5 December 1965 the Glasnost rally took place in Moscow, considered to be a key event in the emergence of the Soviet civil rights movement.Peter Reddaway, Uncensored Russia, 1972, "The Case of Sinyavsky and Daniel", pp. 61-71 Protesters on Pushkin Square led by Alexander Yesenin-Volpin demanded access to the closed trial of Yuly Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky. The protestors made specific requests for "glasnost", herein referring to the specific admission of the public, independent observers and foreign journalists, to the trial that had been legislated in the then newly issued RSFSR Code of Criminal Procedure. Article 111 of the Code stated that, with a few specified exceptions, judicial hearings in the USSR should be held in public.

Such protests against closed trials continued throughout the post-Stalin era. Andrei Sakharov, for example, did not travel to Oslo to receive his Nobel Peace Prize due to his public protest outside a Vilnius court building demanding access to the 1976 trial of Sergei Kovalev, an editor of the Chronicle of Current Events and prominent rights activist.{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2016/03/07/38-2-before-the-trials-of-kovalyov-and-tverdokhlebov/|title=Before the Trials of Kovalyov and Tverdokhlebov, March-October 1975 (38.2)|date=7 March 2016}}

=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.{{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}}

Glasnost was taken to mean increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union (USSR).{{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 }} Glasnost reflected a commitment of the Gorbachev administration to allowing Soviet citizens to discuss publicly the problems of their system and potential solutions.{{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 }} Gorbachev encouraged popular scrutiny and criticism of leaders, as well as a certain level of exposure by the mass media.{{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 }}

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".{{Cite web|url=http://www.gdf.ru/|title=Фонд Защиты Гласности|website=www.gdf.ru}}

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 (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.{{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}}

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;{{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}}{{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}} 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,{{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.}} along with western popular culture.{{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...}}

Outside the Soviet Union

Gorbachev's policy of glasnost received mixed reception in communist states, especially outside the Eastern Bloc.

=Support=

Glasnost had a trickle-down effect on Eastern Europe and led to democratic reforms, namely in Poland and Czech Republic.{{Cite journal |date=2000-04-01 |title=Gorbachev's glasnost: the Soviet media in the first phase of perestroika |journal=Choice Reviews Online |volume=37 |issue=8 |pages=37–4301–37-4301 |doi=10.5860/choice.37-4301 |doi-broken-date=1 February 2025 |issn=0009-4978}} Glasnost and similar reforms were applied in the following communist states:

Bulgaria{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/03/world/back-seat-for-glasnost-amid-bulgarian-drive.html | title=Back Seat for Glasnost Amid Bulgarian Drive | work=The New York Times | date=3 October 1987 | last1=Kamm | first1=Henry }}
Czechoslovakia
East Germany{{cite journal |last1=Hager |first1=Kurt |title=Glasnost Comes to East Germany |journal=World Affairs |date=1990 |volume=152 |issue=4 |pages=198–207 |jstor=20672242 }}
Hungary{{cite web | url=https://www.afr.com/politics/hungary-jumps-gun-on-glasnost-19881206-k35a9 | title=Hungary Jumps Gun on Glasnost | date=6 December 1988 }}
Mongolia{{cite web | url=https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P7598.html | title=Mongolia faces glasnost and perestroika | date=January 1989 | last1=Henze | first1=Paul B. }}
Poland{{cite journal|url=https://www.joc.com/maritime-news/gorbachevs-policy-openness-cheered-polish-leaders_19870224.html|title=GORBACHEV'S POLICY OF OPENNESS CHEERED BY POLISH LEADERS|date=24 February 1987|journal=The Journal of Commerce|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221109235526/https://www.joc.com/maritime-news/gorbachevs-policy-openness-cheered-polish-leaders_19870224.html}}
Vietnam (see đổi mới){{Cite web|url=https://www.aspi.org.au/opinion/can-vietnams-doi-moi-reforms-be-inspiration-north-korea|title=Can Vietnam's Doi Moi Reforms Be an Inspiration for North Korea? | Australian Strategic Policy Institute | ASPI}}

Furthermore, in the socialist state of Yugoslavia, similar reforms also existed, with the first major reforms beginning in Slovenia.{{cite journal | url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1988/0913/ociv2.html | title=Slovenes set reform pace. In Yugoslavia, there is a group for nearly every cause as activists test limits of one-party state | journal=Christian Science Monitor | date=13 September 1988 }}

=Opposition=

Glasnost or similar reforms were not applied in the following communist states:

China (had its own non-Soviet-inspired reforms){{cite web | url=https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/chinas-gorbachev-phobia/ | title=China's Gorbachev phobia | date=2 September 2022 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/a-glasnost-moment-unlikely-the-chinese-remember-what-happened-to-the-soviets-8943270.html | title=A glasnost moment? Unlikely. The Chinese remember what happened to the | website=Independent.co.uk | date=16 November 2013 }}
Cuba
Laos
North Korea
Romania (opposed by Nicolae Ceaușescu){{cite journal |last1=TISMANEANU |first1=VLADIMIR |title=Ceausescu Against Glasnost |journal=World Affairs |date=1987 |volume=150 |issue=3 |pages=199–203 |jstor=20672144 }}

Notes

References

{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/voicesofglasnost00cohe |title=Voices of glasnost: interviews with Gorbachev's reformers |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-393-02625-2 |editor-last=Cohen |editor-first=Stephen F. |location=New York |editor-last2=Vanden Heuvel |editor-first2=Katrina |url-access=registration}}
{{Cite book |last=Gibbs |first=Joseph |url=https://archive.org/details/gorbachevsglasno0000gibb |title=Gorbachev's glasnost: the Soviet media in the first phase of perestroika |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-89096-892-5 |series=Eastern European studies |location=College Station, Tex |url-access=registration}}
{{Cite book |last=Horváth |first=Róbert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQpaBWWh4_AC |title=The legacy of Soviet dissent: dissidents, democratisation and radical nationalism in Russia |publisher=RoutledgeCurzon |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-415-33320-7 |series=East European studies |location=London}}
Reddaway, Peter (1972) Uncensored Russia: The Human Rights Movement, London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 978-0-224-00632-3.(American Heritage Press. ISBN 978-0-070-51354-9).