Glossary: perestroika
DEFINITION:
Russian term meaning ""restructuring."" Applied in the late 1980s to an official Soviet program of revitalization of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU--q.v.), the economy, and the society by adjusting economic, social, and political mechanisms in the central planning system. Identified with the tenure of Mikhail S. Gorbachev as leader of the Soviet Union.