After Konstantin Chernenko’s death, Mikhail Gorbachev was chosen as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), beginning the leadership period associated with perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness).
At a CPSU plenum, Gorbachev promoted uskorenie (“acceleration”) as an initial reform slogan aimed at speeding up economic and social development—an early stage of the broader reform agenda later associated with perestroika and glasnost.
The 27th Party Congress—Gorbachev’s first as party leader—publicly signaled a new course, framing modernization and reform priorities that would evolve into more explicit programs of perestroika, glasnost, and political change.
The explosion at reactor no. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant became a defining shock to Soviet governance and credibility. The disaster’s handling and information constraints became closely associated with later arguments for greater transparency under glasnost.
A CPSU Central Committee plenum in late January 1987 advanced demokratizatsiya (democratization), a political reform line that sought to introduce limited competitive elements (e.g., multi-candidate contests) while maintaining the CPSU’s leading role.
The USSR adopted the Law on the State Enterprise (Association), a major perestroika-era economic reform aimed at shifting firms toward self-financing and greater operational autonomy, while still operating within a planned economy framework.
The Law on Cooperatives permitted independent, worker-owned cooperatives to operate in services, manufacturing, and other sectors—often described as among the most radical economic reforms of the early perestroika period.
The 19th All-Union Party Conference backed wide political reforms, including steps toward competitive elections and institutional changes that helped create the Congress of People’s Deputies—shifting the reform center of gravity from party organs toward new state bodies.
In December 1988, constitutional amendments were adopted that fundamentally reshaped Soviet political institutions and elections, including establishing the Congress of People’s Deputies and opening the electoral process to multiple candidacies (though not full multi-party competition).
The USSR held elections to the Congress of People’s Deputies with unprecedented competitive features. These elections brought reformers and critics into a national forum and widened public political debate under glasnost.
The new Congress first met in Moscow, becoming the highest state authority and a televised arena for open criticism of policy and performance—an institutional turning point in the political dimension of glasnost and democratizatsiya.
The Congress of People’s Deputies voted to remove Article 6 from the 1977 constitution, eliminating the CPSU’s constitutionally guaranteed “leading role” and accelerating pluralization and the erosion of one-party dominance.
A new executive presidency was established, and Gorbachev was elected president by the Congress of People’s Deputies—an effort to shift authority from party leadership toward a state office amid intensifying political fragmentation.
Senior officials formed the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP) and attempted to seize control, aiming to halt reforms. The failed coup fatally weakened the CPSU and accelerated the breakup of Soviet state structures.
In the coup’s aftermath, Gorbachev resigned as CPSU General Secretary and urged the party’s Central Committee to dissolve, marking a decisive break between the reform presidency and the party apparatus that had historically governed the USSR.
Gorbachev resigned the USSR presidency as the union disintegrated and authority shifted to republican leaders. His resignation symbolized the end stage of the reform era that began in 1985 and culminated in the Soviet state’s collapse.
Gorbachev's Reforms: Perestroika and Glasnost (1985–1991)
