Tag #144994 - Interview #78010 (Lev Galper)

When in the late 1980s Mikhail Gorbachev [56] started perestroika [57] in the USSR, a new party course, I was delighted at first. At the beginning the perestroika spirit was really very evident. Freedom of the press and freedom of speech emerged. The Iron Curtain [58] fell; we got an opportunity to meet with our friends and relatives from abroad, to correspond with them, to visit other countries without fear of the KGB [59] that used to cut short any contacts of the Soviet citizens with foreigners before perestroika. All this was new and very enjoyable.