g voices within his party and his country. He wouldn't stop there though. Still being enough of a Marxist, Stalin wanted to see the realization of the ultimate goal of world socialist revolution. He and many other Soviet leaders would look toward this ultimate goal. They would hold the furtherance of world revolution above the preservation of the dictatorship. It remained an important goal through the leadership of Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko. However, this came to a head during the leadership of Gorbachev.Gorbachev had a country that was falling apart dumped in to his lap. Dissension was widespread. In an effort to bring the country back to it's former glory, Gorbachev implemented a program known as Perestroika, or restructuring. It's aim was to make good on the promises of socialism or else it would sink to the status of a third world country. One part of Perestroika was particularly odd. It was called Glasnost. The purpose of it was to hear constructive criticism, much different from Stalin's views, and possibly implement it in an effort to help the country. When western criticism said that Perestroika was slowing down, Glasnost went ahead at full speed, revealing not only the crimes of the Stalin era, but also the full horrifying dimensions of the contemporary crisis. In foreign affairs, not only was there great progress on arms control, but Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan. Most spectacular of all, in 1989, Gorbachev allowed Soviet control over Eastern Europe to evaporate, as communism was overthrown and independent governments were established in one satellite country after another. In 1991, Gorbachev changed course as he came to realize that his only chance to preserve the union was to work with the leaders of the republics and not against them. For many loyal members of the party and the security forces, as well as managers of industry and collective farms, the country as they had known it was on t...
