Policy Goals Not Reached: Censorship
I will now give a brief description of the policies that were implemented by Mikhail Gorbachev. Although keep in mind that the goals of the policy Glasnost were not completely achieved. This is because KING 5 was still being censored by the Soviet Government.
Glasnost: "Openness"
This policy attempted to achieve greater freedoms of speech and of the press. As Mikhail Gorbachev explained, it was to include more people in the “political process through freedom of expression.” [3]This resulted in more opportunities for writers and journalists to expose the corruption of the government at the time of depressed Soviet people.
Perestroika: "Rebuilding"
It attempted to fix economic problems such as corruption. Next, it even aimed to fix social problems such as alcoholism. Seen below is propaganda that displays this issue. However, previous leaders before Mikhail Gorbachev (1985) saw the mass sales as a source for state revenue.
Reasons for Gorbachev's Policies:
The Soviet Union's economy was hurt as it attempted to compete with America that continuously increased defense spending, especially during the '80s with Ronald Reagan as president. He was not content with the decades-long Cold War and wanted to win it. Essentially, the arms race was leading the Soviet Union to bankruptcy.
However, a new sense of hope emerged when Mikhail Gorbachev entered in 1985 as the General Secretary of the Soviet Union. He ultimately represented a new generation of Soviet leaders rather than those who fought and led in WW2: Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Chernenko, Andropov.
Although he supported communism, he came in with reform in mind. He realized that drastic measures were needed to overcome the problems that engulfed the Soviet Union. There was a lack of technological advancements along with inefficient factories. Also, the consumers, unfortunately, were purchasing low-quality products and suffered from a shortage of various social freedoms.
Freedom of Speech concerns and Glasnost limitations:
One effort of Jean Enerson and Anne Stadler was the refusal to “submit to censorship” from authorities, which underscored the importance of free will and openness, particularly in the United States.[4]Nonetheless, they soon ran up against the limits of this freedom. A key moment came when the Gosteleradio demanded that Jean Enerson abandon a prepared segment about the pivotal 1979 Afghanistan War.
Seen below in the KING 5 video, the Soviet news anchor, Pavel Korchagin, explained this request by citing the emotional condition of “mothers, sisters, wives of those who fought,” as well as the sensitive fact that American-supplied weapons had contributed to an immense amount of deaths in Afghanistan.[5] On the other hand, it was critical that the report incorporated details that had been concealed from the Soviet public, such as the “35,000 casualties… [as well as] alcohol and drug abuse and anger among young people.”[6]
Clearly, Glasnost failed to fulfill its aspirations as there were still limitations on speech. This is what the Soviet political group in the image below is protesting about. Nonetheless, although the story wasn't presented to the Soviet Union, Enerson still had the opportunity to air the commentary in Seattle. This shows that she was still determined to inform the Seattle viewers.
