The Soviet policy of restructuring is known as what?

• A. Glasnost
• B. Perestroika
• C. Containment
• D. Shock Therapy

Answer: (B)

Perestroika is the name of the policy of restructuring in the Soviet Union, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s. It aimed to reform the economy by decentralizing decision-making, allowing some private enterprise and cooperative ventures, reducing heavy central planning, and introducing limited market-like mechanisms to boost efficiency. This reform effort went hand in hand with glasnost, which promoted openness and political reform, but perestroika itself focuses on changing how the system works economically and politically rather than just encouraging open discussion. It is not containment, which was a Cold War strategy by the United States to stop the spread of communism. It is not shock therapy, which refers to rapid market liberalization reforms used in post-Soviet states after the USSR collapsed. Perestroika ultimately contributed to sweeping changes that helped bring about broad reforms and the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union.