ABSTRACT
"Glasnost" has become a household word in Western discussions of the Soviet Union, indeed an all-embracing symbol of the entire Gorbachev era. The years since Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary have been marked by a gradual widening of the role and scope of glasnost, a trend that is closely connected to the progressive radicalization of Gorbachev's conception of reform. Glasnost served as an instrument for consolidating Gorbachev's political position. The enormity of the task he has undertaken, and the limited institutional support on which it is based, compelled the Soviet leader to seek new ways of mobilizing support for his programs. In broadening the boundaries of legitimate public discussion, glasnost opened the door to a transformation of Soviet ideology itself, most visible in the party's ideological journal, Kommunist. Nikita Khrushchev launched the process of inclusion —a shift, however erratic, from the centralized, coercive statism of the Stalinist system to a more conciliatory and flexible approach to social forces.
