Nikita Khrushchev laid the groundwork for glasnost, or openness, more than three decades ago, the son of the late Soviet leader says.
The democratic-style reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev are similar to changes unsuccessfully sought by Khrushchev, Sergei Khrushchev said in an interview with the Yugoslav daily Vjesnik."I hope Mikhail Gorbachev succeeds where my father did not, because there is no alternative to changes and perestroika," he said. Perestroika, or reconstruction, and glasnost, or openess, are buzzwords for Gorbachev's reforms.
"My father was the first to `shake' the Soviet bureaucratic society. He dared to unmask (Soviet dictator Joseph) Stalin, start economic reforms and democratization and urge a dialogue with the United States on curbing the arms race," Sergei Khrushchev was quoted as saying.