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Bridget Kendall explores the major turning points in the later decades of the Cold War.

In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev embarked on a reform programme called Perestroika, or restructuring, intended to reorganise the moribund and corrupt Soviet economy. Within a year a second reform initiative was launched called Glasnost, or openness, which gave a green light to free expression and led to the release of political prisoners and the lifting of censorship.

Glasnost had a dramatic impact on public discourse. No longer were people afraid to speak their minds. For the first time in their lives, people began to gather in public to debate, challenge and argue. Through this grassroots engagement Gorbachev hoped to protect his reform programme from the objections of more conservative Politburo colleagues.

Bridget Kendall hears from three witnesses to Gorbachev's precarious balancing act.

With Pavel Palazhchenko, Lev Ponomarev and Vitali Tretyakov.

Readings by Samuel James and John Norton.

Producer: Martin Williams.