Tag #142882 - Interview #78247 (Adolf Landsman)

When at the end of 1980 the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev [59], declared the new course to be taken by the party, i.e. perestroika [60], I was rapt by the coming prospects as we would have opportunities we had never had before. We would have the freedom of speech, the freedom of press, no censorship in the press and all kinds of other liberties. It seemed like a godsend. Frankly speaking, I couldn't even imagine anything like that in my lifetime. There was no Iron Curtain [61] anymore, which had isolated our country from the rest of the world for decades. People were able to go overseas, invite their friends and relatives who resided in foreign countries. Liberty of religion was only in the USSR constitution, but in actuality religious people were persecuted.