Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Moscow) street. In the late 1970s the city considered renovating the building, possibly to use as a concert hall for organ recitals, or as a general cultural administration centre. These projects were never carried out due to resistance from the research institute. The "glasnost" (openness) policy, introduced during the rule of Mikhail Gorbachev, played a major role in developing religious freedom in the Soviet Union. Consequently, in 1989, a group of Moscow Catholics and the cultural association "The Polish House" (Russian: "Дом Польский"), suggested that the building should again be used for religious purposes. Following the city's assent, the first Mass
1996 Mikhail Gorbachev presidential campaign During the course of his candidacy, Gorbachev, accompanied by his wife Raisa, traveled the country to deliver stump speeches. Gorbachev regularly encountered hecklers. Gorbachev once responded to hecklers by exclaiming, On the stump, Gorbachev defended his record, claiming that he had tried to save the Soviet Union, but that he had been betrayed by both communist hard-liners and an ambitious Yeltsin. He additionally placed blame on the 1991 coup attempt for undermining his efforts to preserve the Soviet Union. In his speeches Gorbachev would often refer to himself in third-person. He spent most of his time on the campaign trail