Glasnost (/ˈɡlæznɒst/GLAZ-nost; Russian:гласность,IPA:[ˈɡlasnəsʲtʲ]ⓘ) 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 wordglasnost has long been used to mean 'openness' and 'transparency'. In the mid-1980s, it was popularised byMikhail Gorbachev as a political slogan for increased governmenttransparency in theSoviet Union within the framework ofperestroika, and the word came to be used in English in the latter meaning.
In theRussian Empire of the late-19th century, the term was used in its direct meanings of "openness" and "publicity" and applied to politics and thejudicial system. Some reforms were introduced towards reforms permitting attendance of the press and the public at trials. After some liberalization underAlexander II of Russia, the openness of trials started to be restricted again.[1]Human rights activistLyudmila Alexeyeva writes that the wordglasnost 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."[2] In the mid-1960s it acquired a revived topical importance in discourse about the necessity of changing theCold War era internal policy of the Soviet Union.
The first public rally near theKGB building in Moscow onLubyanka Square in a memory ofStalin's victims on the Day of Political Prisoners, 30 October 1989
On 5 December 1965 theGlasnost rally took place in Moscow, considered to be a key event in the emergence of the Soviet civil rights movement.[3] Protesters on Pushkin Square led byAlexander Yesenin-Volpin demanded access to the closed trial ofYuly Daniel andAndrei 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 hisNobel Peace Prize due to his public protest outside a Vilnius court building demanding access to the 1976 trial ofSergei Kovalev, an editor of theChronicle of Current Events and prominent rights activist.[4]
Glasnost was taken to mean increased openness andtransparency in government institutions and activities in theSoviet Union (USSR).[6]Glasnost reflected a commitment of the Gorbachev administration to allowing Soviet citizens to discuss publicly the problems of their system and potential solutions.[7] Gorbachev encouraged popular scrutiny and criticism of leaders, as well as a certain level of exposure by the mass media.[8]
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".[9]
Between 1986 and 1991, during an era of reforms in the USSR, glasnost was frequently linked with other generalised concepts such asperestroika (literally: restructuring or regrouping) anddemokratizatsiya (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 theCentral 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 greaterfreedom 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.[10]
While associated withfreedom 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]
During Glasnost, Soviet history under Stalin was re-examined; censored literature in the libraries was made more widely available;[11][12] 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,[13] along with western popular culture.[14]
Glasnost had a trickle-down effect on Eastern Europe and led to democratic reforms, namely in Poland and Czech Republic.[15] Glasnost and similar reforms were applied in the following communist states:
^Alexeyeva, Lyudmila; Goldberg, Paul (1990).The Thaw Generation: Coming of Age in the Post-Stalin Era. Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 108–109.
^Peter Reddaway, Uncensored Russia, 1972, "The Case of Sinyavsky and Daniel", pp. 61-71
^H., Hunt, Michael (26 June 2015).The world transformed : 1945 to the present. Oxford University Press. p. 315.ISBN9780199371020.OCLC907585907.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^H., Hunt, Michael (26 June 2015).The world transformed : 1945 to the present. Oxford University Press. p. 316.ISBN9780199371020.OCLC907585907.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Arefyev, V.; Mieczkowski, Z. (1991). "International Tourism In The Soviet Union In The Era Of Glasnost And Perestroyka".Journal of Travel Research.29 (4):2–6.doi:10.1177/004728759102900401.S2CID154312740.
^Shane, Scott (1994). "Letting Go of the Leninist Faith".Dismantling Utopia: How Information Ended the Soviet Union. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. pp. 212 to 244.ISBN1-56663-048-7.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.
^Shane, Scott (1994). "A Normal Country: The Pop Culture Explosion".Dismantling Utopia: How Information Ended the Soviet Union. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. pp. 182 to 211.ISBN1-56663-048-7....market forces had taken over publishing...
^"Gorbachev's glasnost: the Soviet media in the first phase of perestroika".Choice Reviews Online.37 (8): 37–4301–37-4301. 1 April 2000.doi:10.5860/choice.37-4301 (inactive 1 February 2025).ISSN0009-4978.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2025 (link)
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).
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