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 word glasnost 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.
The first public rally near the KGB building in Moscow on Lubyanka Square in a memory of Stalin's victims on the Day of Political Prisoners, 30 October 1989
The dissidents
On 5 December 1965 the Glasnost rally took place in Moscow, considered to be a key event in the emergence of the Soviet civil rights movement.[citation needed] Protesters on Pushkin Square led by Alexander Yesenin-Volpin demanded access to the closed trial of Yuly Daniel and Andrei 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 Code of Criminal Procedure. With a few specified exceptions, Article 111 of the Code stated that 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 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]
Glasnost was taken to mean increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union (USSR).[5]Glasnost reflected a commitment of the Gorbachev administration to allowing Soviet citizens to discuss publicly the problems of their system and potential solutions.[6] Gorbachev encouraged popular scrutiny and criticism of leaders, as well as a certain level of exposure by the mass media.[7]
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 perestroika (literally: restructuring or regrouping) and demokratizatsiya (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 the Central 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 greater freedom 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.[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:
The outright prohibition of censorship was enshrined in Article 29 of the new 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation.[25] This however has been the subject of ongoing controversy in contemporary Russia owing to heightened governmental interventions restricting access to information for Russian citizens, including internet censorship. There has also been pressure on government-operated media outlets to not publicize or discuss certain events or subjects in recent years. Monitoring of the infringement of media rights in the years from 2004 to 2013 found that instances of censorship were the most commonly reported type of violation.[26]
^Alexeyeva, Lyudmila; Goldberg, Paul (1990). The Thaw Generation: Coming of Age in the Post-Stalin Era. Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 108–109.
^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...
Gibbs, Joseph (1999). Gorbachev's Glasnost: The Soviet Media in the First Phase of Perestroika. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN0-89096-892-6.
Horvath, Robert (2005). The Legacy of Soviet Dissent: Dissidents, democratisation and radical nationalism in Russia. London & New York: Routledge Curzon. ISBN0-415-33320-2.
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