Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

by Svetlana Alexievich

Important reforms undertaken by Gorbachev between 1985 and 1991 under the umbrella of perestroika and glasnost: restitution of land to peasants after sixty years of collectivized agriculture; progressive restoration of political pluralism and freedom of speech, liberation of political prisoners, publication of banned literature; withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan; creation of a new legislative assembly, the Congress of People’s Deputies. The Congress elects Gorbachev to the presidency of the Soviet Union for five years and institutes constitutional reforms in March 1990. Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) agreements are signed with the United States in 1991. FEBRUARY 1986: Boris Yeltsin becomes a member of the Politburo a few months after being named First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee (effectively making him the mayor of Moscow). He is removed from the Politburo in 1988.