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Period: to
Foreign policies
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Entr'acte: Andropov and Chernenko
Andropov: General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (November 1982 - Death fifteen months later)
Chernenko: led the Soviet Union (February 1984 - death March 1985) -
Period: to
Glasnost
Reforms of the judicial system, ensuring that the press and the public could attend court hearings and that the sentence was also read out in public. -
Period: to
Perestroika
"Restructuring", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system. Perestroika changed the USSR to be "opened". -
Chernobyl disaster
An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe. -
Demokratiztsiya
Gorbachev calling for the infusion of "democratic" elements (multi-candidate elections) into the Soviet Union's single-party government. -
Period: to
Gorbachov
8th and last leader of the USSR. His policies intended to turn the USSR to openess and instead they led to the disolution of the USSR.