ShmoopTube

00:03

And here's your Shmoop du jour brought to you by the Soviet Union

00:07

they're much quieter than the plumbers Union. Alright well take a look at this image [Plumbers with Mario and Luigi shouting]

00:12

Right there perestroika well the image references the Soviet leader Mikhail

00:17

Gorbachev's policy of perestroika which was a political movement too (what) that's Russian [Picture of russian stamp]

00:25

for what and here are your potential answers (quickly reads throughs answers)

00:29

All right well we love America land of the free great country amazing

00:33

people Happy Meals all that good stuff but even we have to admit that our stamp [Man sat with the US at a table with a happy meal]

00:38

game was no match for the Soviet Union Come on that things pretty hardcore anyway

00:44

perestroika what was it you know besides something that we all struggle to

00:48

pronounce (laughs) yeah was it (A) a political movement to modify central planning

00:53

we don't think so Gorbachev initially discussed the idea as a means of reform [Gorbachev pointing at a whiteboard that says reform]

00:57

but then dropped it in terms of something even better was that even

01:02

better something the termination of private ownership nope under Gorbachev

01:08

private ownership of production was actually permitted which when you think [Kid holding a minion toy]

01:11

about it kind of goes against the whole spirit of communism thing well you could [Kid takes another minion toy from the other child]

01:15

even say that it led to the downfall of the Communist Party but seeing as

01:19

Gorbachev was the General Secretary of the Communist Party removing communism

01:24

was not exactly on his to-do list so we can eliminate C and D in fact [Gorbachev crossing out remove communism from his to-do list]

01:29

perestroika was a reform movement within the Communist Party during the later

01:34

years of the Cold War that aims to restructure the Soviet economic and

01:38

political systems, sound good? Well maybe but seeing as it's often

01:42

considered to be the cause of the actual dissolution of the Soviet Union from [Crack appears in the USSR]

01:46

Gorbachev's perspective at least it probably wasn't a resounding success so

01:51

B is the correct answer all right now say perestroika 5 times fast, 5 times slow [Answer B is circled]

01:57

say it once while drinking milk how about that we hope you got the last one

02:01

on video good coming out your nose... [Man has milk coming out his nose onto his shirt]

Full Transcript