ABSTRACT
Looking back at the almost seven years that Mikhail Gorbachev was in power, from March 1985 until December 1991, it is striking to note the sharp contrast that emerged between the respective results of his foreign and domestic policies. While the “new political thinking” marked a radical and successful departure from the old Cold War confrontation between East and West, the parallel attempt to undertake a “perestroika” on the domestic scene turned into a long string of failures.
