Glasnost
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Glasnost | |
Russian | гласность |
---|---|
Romanization | glasnost' |
Literal meaning | publicity, transparency |
Glasnost (/ˈɡlæznɒst/; 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 word 'гласность' 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 calque of the word entered into 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.[1] 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."[2] 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
Politics of the Soviet Union |
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Soviet Union portal |
The dissidents
On 5 December 1965 the
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.[3]
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.[4]
Glasnost was taken to mean increased openness and
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".[8]
Various meanings
Between 1986 and 1991, during an era of reforms in the USSR, glasnost was frequently linked with other generalised concepts such as
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.[9]
International relations
Gorbachev's interpretation of "glasnost" can best be summarised in English as "openness".[citation needed] 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]
During Glasnost, Soviet history under Stalin was re-examined; censored literature in the libraries was made more widely available;[10][11] 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,[12] along with western popular culture.[13]
Outside the Soviet Union
Glasnost received mixed reception in communist states, especially outside the Eastern Bloc.
Support
Glasnost had a trickle-down effect on Eastern Europe and lead to democratic reforms, namely in Poland and Czech Republic.[14] Glasnost and similar reforms were applied in the following communist states:
- Bulgaria[15]
- Czechoslovakia
- East Germany[16]
- Hungary[17]
- Mongolia[18]
- Poland[19]
- Vietnam (see đổi mới)[20]
Furthermore, in the socialist state of Yugoslavia, similar reforms also existed, with the first major reforms beginning in Slovenia.[21]
Opposition
Glasnost or similar reforms were not applied in the following communist states:
- China (had its own non-Soviet-inspired reforms)[22][23]
- Cuba
- Laos
- North Korea[20]
- Romania (opposed by Nicolae Ceaușescu)[24]
In Russia since 1991
The outright prohibition of censorship was enshrined in Article 29 of the new 1993
See also
- 1965 Glasnost rally
- Demokratizatsiya (Gorbachev's "Democratization")
- Glasnost Bowl
- Perestroika (Gorbachev's "Restructuring")
- Uskoreniye (Gorbachev's "Acceleration")
- Common knowledge (logic)
- Mutual knowledge
- Pluralistic ignorance
- Stag hunt
Notes
- ^ Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906. .
- ^ Alexeyeva, Lyudmila; Goldberg, Paul (1990). The Thaw Generation: Coming of Age in the Post-Stalin Era. Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 108–109.
- ^ "Before the Trials of Kovalyov and Tverdokhlebov, March-October 1975 (38.2)". 7 March 2016.
- ^ "Alexander Yakovlev, 81". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Archived from the original on 20 October 2005. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
- ISBN 0-8157-3623-1.
- )
- )
- ^ "Фонд Защиты Гласности". www.gdf.ru.
- S2CID 154312740.
- ^ Bruhn, Peter (1989). "Glasnost im sowjetischen Bibliothekswesen" [Glasnot in Soviet library]. Journal for Library and Bibliography. 36 (4): 360–366.
- ^ Shikman, Anatoly Pavlovich (1988). "Совершенно несекретно" [Completely unclassified]. Soviet Bibliography. 6 (231): 3–12.
- ISBN 1-56663-048-7.
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.
- ISBN 1-56663-048-7.
...market forces had taken over publishing...
- ISSN 0009-4978.
- ^ Kamm, Henry (3 October 1987). "Back Seat for Glasnost Amid Bulgarian Drive". The New York Times.
- JSTOR 20672242.
- ^ "Hungary Jumps Gun on Glasnost". 6 December 1988.
- ^ Henze, Paul B. (January 1989). "Mongolia faces glasnost and perestroika".
- ^ "GORBACHEV'S POLICY OF OPENNESS CHEERED BY POLISH LEADERS". The Journal of Commerce. 24 February 1987. Archived from the original on 9 November 2022.
- ^ a b "Can Vietnam's Doi Moi Reforms Be an Inspiration for North Korea? | Australian Strategic Policy Institute | ASPI".
- ^ "Slovenes set reform pace. In Yugoslavia, there is a group for nearly every cause as activists test limits of one-party state". Christian Science Monitor. 13 September 1988.
- ^ "China's Gorbachev phobia". 2 September 2022.
- Independent.co.uk. 16 November 2013.
- JSTOR 20672144.
- ^ "Поиск по сайту | Конституция Российской Федерации". www.constitution.ru.
- ^ "mediaconflictsinrussia.org - mediaconflictsinrussia Resources and Information". ww16.mediaconflictsinrussia.org.
References
- Cohen, Stephen F.; Katrina Vanden Heuvel (1989). Voices of Glasnost: Interviews With Gorbachev's Reformers. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-30735-2.
- Gibbs, Joseph (1999). Gorbachev's Glasnost: The Soviet Media in the First Phase of Perestroika. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 0-89096-892-6.
- Horvath, Robert (2005). The Legacy of Soviet Dissent: Dissidents, democratisation and radical nationalism in Russia. London & New York: Routledge Curzon. ISBN 0-415-33320-2.