Soviet Union in less than two years. In an attempt to avoid a third short-lived leader, in 1985, the Soviets turned to the next generation and selected Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev made significant changes in the economy and party leadership, called "perestroika". His policy of "glasnost" freed public access to information after decades of heavy government censorship. Gorbachev also moved to end the Cold War. In 1988, the Soviet Union abandoned its nine-year war in Afghanistan and began to withdraw its forces. In the late 1980s, , which paved the way for Revolutions of 1989. With the tearing down of the Berlin Wall
Anatoly Chernyaev the Soviet Union. He became General Secretary Gorbachev's foreign-policy advisor in 1986 and continued to advise Gorbachev when the latter became President of the Soviet Union. In 2004, Chernyaev donated his diaries from the Gorbachev period to the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which has published portions of them in English translation; according to the editor, "One can confidently say that every bold foreign policy initiative advanced by Gorbachev in the years 1985-1991 bears Chernyaev's mark on it." Since then, the National Security Archive has made available Chernyaev's diaries from 1972 to 1978 with an English translation of