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Andropov and Chernenko
Andropov and Chernenko inherited a country that had been overseen by Leonid Brezhnev, who served from 1960-1982, and a regime marked by considerable political repression, declining agricultural production and exorbitant military expenditures. -
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Chernobyl
The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel.Two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning. -
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Mikhail Gorbachev
He was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991 when the party was dissolved. -
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Glasnost
The term “Glasnost” means “openness” and was the name for the social and political reforms to bestow more rights and freedoms upon the Soviet people. Its goals were to include more people in the political process through freedom of expression. This led to a decreased censoring of the media, which in effect allowed writers and journalists to expose news of government corruption and the depressed condition of the Soviet people. -
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Perestroika
Perestroika refers to the reconstruction of the political and economic system established by the Communist Party. Politically, contested elections were introduced to reflect the democratic practices of Western society and allow citizens to have a slight say in government. -
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Demokratiztsiya
was a slogan introduced by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in January 1987 calling for the infusion of "democratic" elements into the Soviet Union's single-party government. Gorbachev's Demokratizatsiya meant the introduction of multi-candidate, not multiparty, elections for local Communist Party, and Soviets