State and Ideology

Abstract

Gorbachev came to power at a time when weaknesses in the Soviet state institutions, identified for several decades but not successfully tackled, needed urgent attention if their effectiveness in solving the country’s complex problems were to be raised. It was also a time when, to a considerable extent, the Soviet leadership’s room for manoeuvre on the ideological front was more restricted than it had been for some years. It required some ingenuity on the part of Gorbachev’s ideological advisers to establish an appropriate watchword for his administration.