A new Soviet leader tries to save communism by opening it up
What happened
Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet leader in March 1985 and launched two intertwined reform programs: perestroika, a restructuring of the stagnant Soviet economy, and glasnost, a new openness permitting public criticism and debate that would have been unthinkable under his predecessors. Between 1985 and 1988, Gorbachev and Reagan held four summit meetings, in Geneva, Reykjavik, Washington, and Moscow, building a personal working relationship that produced, in December 1987, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty eliminating an entire category of nuclear weapons outright.
Why it matters
Gorbachev intended his reforms to revitalize Soviet communism, easing the economic and military burdens weighing on the system, but glasnost's own permitted openness instead let long-suppressed nationalist and reformist movements organize publicly across the Soviet bloc, forces that would prove impossible to fully control once released.
How we know
The summit meetings between Reagan and Gorbachev were extensively documented by both governments' own diplomatic staffs, and the personal rapport historians describe between the two leaders is corroborated by both men's own later memoirs.
Sources
- Office of the Historian, US Department of State. Gorbachev and Perestroika · Reputable sourcehistory.state.gov · The domain "history.state.gov" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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