Countless words will be dedicated in the following days toMikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader who died Aug. 30 at the age of 91. But throughout his obituaries, two specific words will likely be repeated:glasnostandperestroika. Those two transliterations of Russian words were synonymous with his campaign for reforming Soviet society through policies, and the latter was the title of his 1982 bookPerestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World.

But what do they actually mean?

Shortly after Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, he ramped up talk aboutglasnost—meaning “openness,” particularly openness of information—andperestroika,meaning a “restructuring,” specifically of the Communist economy and political system. The terms went hand-in-hand because, together, the reforms they described would make the Soviet Union more democratic and incorporate some features of capitalism to revitalize the economy.

In more concrete terms,glasnost was supposed to translate into aloosening of state censorship of the media — “‘Those who attempt to suppress the fresh voice, the just voice, according to old standards and attitudes, need to get out of the way,'” as TIME reported Gorbachev saying in a July 1986speech.

Perestroikawas supposed to translate into the incorporation of some features of a market economy into the Soviet economy, by loosening price controls, encouraging more entrepreneurism and limited private businesses, and by making imported consumer goods easier to purchase, as TIME explained toreaders in 1989. “It is particularly important that the actual pay of every worker be closely linked to his personal contribution to the end result, and that no limit be set,'” he said in a 1987speech.

In a July 27, 1987cover story, TIME dubbed the policies “Gorbachev’s Revolution” and described the “chilly dawn of reform” spreading in Soviet society: “Mikhail Gorbachev’s calls forglasnost (openness),demokratizatsiya (democratization) andperestroika (restructuring) have become the watchwords of a bold attempt to modernize his country’s creaky economic machinery and revitalize a society stultified by 70 years of totalitarian rule.” As a footnote clarified, “In current Soviet parlance, [glasnost]’s meaning is not so much openness as public airing or public disclosure.”

The factors that went into the development of those policies were many.

For example, in the wake of the 1986Chernobyl disaster, Soviet news outlets produced what TIMEcalled “unprecedented candor” about the mismanagement of the nuclear power plant. Even the newspaperPravda,the “official voice of the Communist party,” as TIMEput it “dropped the rosy prose” and photos of happy workers “in favor of a strong slap at Soviet incompetence, confusion and cowardice” as it reported on officials who left their posts after the accident and the firing of the plant’s director and chief engineer. That openness about what had gone wrong—turning to the truth rather than to propaganda—was just one hint at the coming ofglasnost.

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As forperestroika, thatinvolved, as the magazine put it, “making the Soviet Union an economic superpower as well as a military one.” It meant modernizing Soviet factories and forging business partnerships with the West. (For example, Bloomingdale’s department store in New York Citystarted selling Soviet rye bread in 1989.) TIME alsoreported that Gorbachev’s effort to get a handle on the high levels of alcoholism in the Soviet Union—by raising the drinking age from 18 to 21, shortening liquor store hours and raising the prices of vodka—were a “perestroika of the personality,” an attempt to restructure individuals.

Gorbachev himself provided one view of the effectiveness of the policies in aninterview with TIME around the 20th anniversary of those words becoming part of the international lexicon. “Seventy-seven percent of Russians say they want to live in a free and democratic country,” he said. “That is the legacy ofperestroika.” The idea ofglasnost also empowered the Russian LGBTQ community—which has been threatened by recentanti-gay government policies—to speakmore openly about sexuality.

But the change was not immediate, or total.

Some U.S. businesses initially weren’t eager to work with Soviet companies, feeling that their values still weren’t aligned and that there wasn’t enough profit in it anyway, given currency conversion issues with rubles. “Many Americans believe that helping strengthen the Soviet Union could damage U.S. interests,” TIMEreported in 1988. “And because of Western security concerns, many U.S. commercial technologies will remain off limits to ventures with the Soviets… Imports of Soviet goods to the U.S. are inhibited by an American law that withholds favorable trading status from certain countries practicing repressive emigration policies. Result: the Soviets have turned to West Germany, Japan and other industrial partners for investment capital and production expertise… Meanwhile, their Western partners, who are mainly eager to sell products and services in the Soviet Union, must cope with the nonconvertibility of Soviet currency. No matter how profitable a Soviet joint venture may be, U.S. companies have little use for rubles.”