Mikhail Gorbachev made communism and himself obsolete by introducing political reforms under the then mighty Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. That’s how many people like to think about the demise of what Ronald Reagan called, “the evil empire”.
Perestroika was the generic name given to reforms that Gorbachev introduced after rising to power in the former Soviet Union. Glasnost (political openness), Uskoreniye (acceleration), and demokratizatsiya (democratization) were among those he advocated to solve the worsening economic conditions he inherited as President..
Watch My Perestroika Online the movie goes back to the “good old days” before Mikhail Gorbachev’s rule, when children in Russia lived a happy, sheltered life. It chronicles how and why things turned bad, how the communist government tried reforms under Gorbachev, to no avail, and why the mighty empire crumbled. It did not stop there. It showed us how people in dire straits try to cope under volatile political and economic conditions. All these transitions we see come thru the eyes of five ordinary Russian folks.
What struck me hard was the presentation of actual events and real people like Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the others. They emphasize the fact that this is a documentary, not Hollywood, that the events actually happened and could repeat itself. That’s scary.
The human element brings a sobering impact, bringing us face to face with history and the realities of the human experience.
