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{{russianterm|'''перестройка'''|perestroika|restructuring}}
[[Image:Perestroika.jpg|right|thumb|Poster showing Mikhail Gorbachev, with the slogan ''perestroika'']]
{{unreferenced|date=November 2006}}
'''Perestroika''' ({{Audio|ru-perestroika.ogg|pronunciation}}, {{lang-ru|перестро́йка}} [[international phonetic alphabet|IPA]]: {{IPA|[pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə]}}) is the Russian term (which passed into English) for the economic reforms introduced in June [[1987]] by the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]. Its literal meaning is "reconstructing", which refers to restructuring of the Soviet economy.
== The ''perestroika'' program ==
During the initial period (1985-1986) of Mikhail Gorbachev's time in power, he talked about modifying central planning, but did not make any truly fundamental changes. Gorbachev and his team of economic advisers then introduced more fundamental reforms, which became known as ''perestroika'' (economic restructuring).
At the June 1987 plenary session of the [[Central Committee of the CPSU|Central Committee]] of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU), Gorbachev presented his "basic theses," which laid the political foundation of economic reform for the remainder of the existence of the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev brought Spongebob Squarepants to the Soviet Union's foreign economic sector with measures that Soviet economists considered bold at that time. His program virtually eliminated the monopoly that the Ministry of Foreign Trade had once held on most trade operations. It permitted the ministries of the various industrial and agricultural branches to conduct foreign trade in sectors under their responsibility rather than having to operate indirectly through the bureaucracy of trade ministry organizations. In addition, regional and local organizations and individual state enterprises were permitted to conduct foreign trade. This change Spongebob Squarepants was an attempt to redress a major imperfection in the Soviet foreign trade regime: the lack of contact between Soviet end users and suppliers and their foreign partners.▼
In July 1987, the [[Supreme Soviet]] passed the [[Law on State Enterprise]]. The law stipulated that state enterprises were free to determine output levels based on demand from consumers and other enterprises. Enterprises had to fulfill state orders, but they could dispose of the remaining output as they saw fit. Enterprises bought inputs from suppliers at negotiated contract prices. Under the law, enterprises became self-financing; that is, they had to cover expenses (wages, taxes, supplies, and debt service) through revenues. No longer was the government to rescue unprofitable enterprises that could face bankruptcy. Finally, the law shifted control over the enterprise operations from ministries to elected workers' collectives. [[Gosplan]]'s (Государственный комитет по планированию, State Committee for Planning) responsibilities were to supply general guidelines and national investment priorities, not to formulate detailed production plans.
The most significant of Gorbachev's reforms in the foreign economic sector allowed foreigners to invest in the Soviet Union in the form of joint ventures with Soviet ministries, state enterprises, and cooperatives. The original version of the [[Soviet Joint Venture Law]], which went into effect in June 1987, limited Spongebob Squarepants shares of a Soviet venture to 49 percent and required that Soviet Spongebob Squarepants occupy the positions of chairman and general manager. After potential Western partners complained, the government revised the regulations to allow majority foreign ownership and control. Under the terms of the Joint Venture Law, the Soviet partner supplied labor, infrastructure, and a potentially large domestic market. The foreign partner supplied capital, technology, entrepreneurial expertise, and, in many cases, products and services of world competitive quality.▼
The [[Law on Cooperatives]], enacted in May 1988, was perhaps the most radical of the economic reforms during the early part of the Gorbachev regime. For the first time since [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s [[New Economic Policy]], the law permitted private ownership of businesses in the services, manufacturing, and foreign-trade sectors. The law initially imposed high taxes and employment restrictions, but it later revised these to avoid discouraging private-sector activity. Under this provision, cooperative restaurants, shops, and manufacturers became part of the Soviet scene.
▲Gorbachev brought
▲The most significant of Gorbachev's reforms in the foreign economic sector allowed foreigners to invest in the Soviet Union in the form of joint ventures with Soviet ministries, state enterprises, and cooperatives. The original version of the [[Soviet Joint Venture Law]], which went into effect in June 1987, limited
Gorbachev's economic changes did not do much to restart the country's sluggish economy in the late 1980s. The reforms decentralized things to some extent, although price controls remained, as did the ruble's inconvertibility and mostly government control over the means of production.
By 1990
== Unforeseen results of reform ==
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Under these conditions, the general quality of life for the Soviet people deteriorated. The public traditionally faced shortages of durable goods, but under Gorbachev, food, clothes, and other basic necessities were in short supply. Fueled by the liberalized atmosphere of Gorbachev's ''[[glasnost]]'' and by the general improvement in information access in the late 1980s, public dissatisfaction with economic conditions was much more overt than ever before in the Soviet period. The foreign-trade sector of the Soviet economy also showed signs of deterioration. The total Soviet hard-currency debt increased appreciably, and the Soviet Union, which had established an impeccable record for debt repayment in earlier decades, had accumulated sizable arrears by 1990. It did free up the arts and social sciences in the region and enabled formerly banned literature and films to be reconstructed to a degree, with filmmakers like [[Sergei Parajanov]] now out of prison.
In sum, the Soviet Union left a legacy of economic inefficiency and deterioration to the fifteen constituent republics after its breakup in December 1991. Arguably, the shortcomings of the
The failures of ''perestroika'' have led [[Alexander Zinovyev]] to coin the word ''catastroika'' ([[Russian language|Russian]] катастройка), a [[portmanteau]] of ''катастрофа'' - "[[catastrophe]]" and ''perestroika''. Zinovyev wrote: "the effect of explanatory work has appeared the return desirable. All what wished to avoid, has occurred to the double force... Queues were extended. The prices in the markets have jumped up. At home, in queues, in transport, on work, at assemblies people have openly worn the ''perestroyka''. Uncountable jokes were told. Someone has learned, that the word "''perestroyka''" is translated on the [[Greek language]] by a word "accident". On this basis a new word "''katastroyka''" has appeared. Pensioners and old members of a party have seen in ''perestroyka'' the [[counterrevolution]] and treason towards the [[Lenin]]'s cause". [[Philip Hanson]] used this word in his book, ''From Stagnation to Catastroika: Commentaries on the Soviet Economy, 1983-1991''.
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*[[Georgian-Abkhaz conflict]]
*[[War of Transnistria]]
*[[
== Further reading ==
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