A paradox about Mikhail Gorbachev for my generation of Russians – I was seven years old when he became general secretary in 1985 – is that he will be remembered as both liberal and killjoy, an uneasy combination that left him at times making enemies in all directions.
The first is easy enough to understand. Gorbachev’s glasnost – a determination that political life (indeed, personal life) should become more open and transparent – was partly just canny politics. Any reasonable politician requires people to speak candidly to him and needs a feedback loop to govern effectively (indeed, it’s arguably Putin’s lack of one that led him into this war). The new decline in fear under Gorbachev also gave rise to some of the most exciting (latterly televised and broadcast live) sessions in the supreme council of ministers anyone had witnessed.
It had its knock-on effect in the world of the arts too.
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