History of the Soviet Union (1985–1991)
Under the policy of glasnost (political openness), the Soviet government and the Communist Party lost control over the media. A free media brought to notice of the public many bad aspects of the society and the economy of the Soviet Union. These bad aspects included poor housing, alcoholism, drug abuse, pollution, out-of-date technologies in many factories, and corruption. People also learnt of many crimes committed by Stalin. For example, they learnt about prisoners at Gulags, agreement with Adolf Hitler, and large massacres of Stalin opponents. Further, people also learnt details about such events as the ongoing Soviet war in Afghanistan and bad management of nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl (the Soviet Union didn't publicly admit to the meltdown until three days after it happened). In short, people learnt about the negative aspects of the Soviet life. People began to lose faith in their Soviet system and ideology of Communism.