Openness of speech and expression was the underlying basis of the "glasnost" policy initiated in 1985 by Mikhail Gorbachev in the USSR.
"Glasnost" is the Russian word for openness. It meant a relaxing of government control of the media in the Soviet Union, as well as allowing individuals to express themselves more freely. Even religious groups were given more room to operate than previously had been the case within the communist state system.
