Question

Which aspect of life in the Soviet Union were Nikita Khrushchev and Mikhail Gorbachev BOTH concerned with during their tenure as leaders?

Answer 1

Answer:

Domestically, his policy of glasnost ("openness") allowed for enhanced freedom of speech and press, while his perestroika ("restructuring") sought to decentralise economic decision making to improve efficiency.In May 1985, two months after coming to power, Mikhail Gorbachev delivered a speech in St. Petersburg (then known as Leningrad), in which he publicly criticized the inefficient economic system of the Soviet Union, making him the first Communist leader to do so.

This was followed by a February 1986 speech to the Communist Party Congress, in which he expanded upon the need for political and economic restructuring, or perestroika, and called for a new era of transparency and openness, or glasnost.

But by 1987, these early attempts at reform had achieved little, and Gorbachev embarked on a more ambitious program.