Definition of "perestroika" [perestroika]

• The restructuring of the Soviet economy and bureaucracy that began in the mid 1980s. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The term perestroika, meaning restructuring, was used by Gorbachev in the late 1980s to describe a series of reforms that abolished state planning in the Soviet Union."
• "Finding the economy in desperate shape, he set out to save the Soviet system by restructuring, what he called perestroika, and glasnost, greater openness in decision making."
• "To restructure the Soviet economy before it collapsed, Gorbachev announced an agenda of rapid reform, based upon what he called perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (liberalization, openness)."