Daniel YerginWhat was your diagnosis of what was wrong with the Soviet economy, and what did you hope to do about it? Mikhail GorbachevWell, perestroika – that is to say, restructuring of the Soviet system – was not an idea born from scratch. It was the most militarized, the most centralized, the most rigidly disciplined; it was stuffed with nuclear weapons and other weapons. So the domestic reasons for reform were very important but just as important were personal and private reasons, because people felt unfree. In the Soviet Union, those structural changes were being postponed or deferred indefinitely.

Source: Washington Post September 04, 2022 10:27 UTC