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The USSR, stretching from the Pacific coast in the East all the way to central Europe, looked to be in a strong position in 1980. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, an energetic man in his fifties, took over leadership of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was clearly different from his predecessors and he had decided that the Soviet Union needed to change in many aspects. The two slogans, now so well known, perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) were coined under Gorbachev’s leadership, who wanted to achieve both.

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