In one word, what is the meaning of 'Glasnost'?
Glasnost Glasnost In the Russian language the word Glasnost (; , ) has several general and specific meanings. It has been used in Russian to mean "openness and transparency" since at least the end of the eighteenth century. In the Russian Empire of the late-19th century, the term was particularly associated with reforms of the judicial system, ensuring that the press and the public could attend court hearings and that the sentence was read out in public. In the mid-1980s, it was popularised by Mikhail Gorbachev as a political slogan for increased government transparency in the Soviet Union. "For centuries", human
Glasnost rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva has explained, the word "glasnost" has been in the Russian language: "It was in the dictionaries and lawbooks as long as there had been dictionaries and lawbooks. It was an ordinary, hardworking, non-descript word that was used to refer to a process, any process of justice or governance, being conducted in the open." In the mid-1960s, however, as Alexeyeva recounts, it acquired a new and topical importance. On 5 December 1965, a key event in the emergence of the Soviet civil rights movement, often known as the Glasnost rally, took place in Moscow when protesters on