Author Description

This study looks at the scope and significance of the reforms in the Soviet Union under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev since his election as General Secretary of the Communist Party in March 1985. Based on a range of readings from Soviet and Western sources, the book deals with a number of aspects of reform in the USSR under Gorbachev's leadership, spanning question of leadership, politics and ideological changes, the 'perestroika' of the economy and the new thinking in foreign policy.