Mikhail Gorbachev: Assessment of achievements
In the second half of the 1980s, during perestroika, every year was more radical for Gorbachev than prediciting. He still spoke, in addition to perestroika, about the support of the “socialist idea”, but it was a tribute to the rhetorical tradition (which, however, was not except for conceptual innovations), and only very superficial observers could take it seriously.