perestroika
pronunciation
How to pronounce perestroika in British English:
UK [ˌperəs'trɔɪkə]
How to pronounce perestroika in American English:
US [ˌpɛrɪˈstrɔɪkə, pjɛrjɪˈstrɔɪkɑ]
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- Noun:
- an economic policy adopted in the former Soviet Union; intended to increase automation and labor efficiency but it led eventually to the end of central planning in the Russian economy
Word Origin
- perestroika
- perestroika: [20] Along with glasnost, perestroika was catapulted into English from Russian in the mid-1980s by Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms in the Soviet Union. It means literally ‘rebuilding, reconstruction, reform’, and is a compound formed from pere- ‘re-’ and stroika ‘building, construction’. In the context of Gorbachev’s sweeping changes, it denotes a ‘sweeping restructuring of Soviet society, industry, etc’.
- perestroika (n.)
- 1981, from Russian perestroika, literally "rebuilding, reconstruction, reform" (of Soviet society, etc.), from pere- "re-" (from Old Russian pere- "around, again," from Proto-Slavic *per-, from PIE *per- (1) "forward, through;" see per) + stroika "building, construction," from Old Russian stroji "order," from PIE *stroi-, from root *stere- "to spread" (see structure (n.)). First proposed at the 26th Party Congress (1981); popularized in English 1985 during Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership of the U.S.S.R.
Example
- 1. Oh , you mean your cute little attempt at perestroika ?
- 2. By 1989 his perestroika , or reconstruction and opening , was in full swing .
- 3. In doing so , he is stirring ghosts of perestroika in the late 1980s .
- 4. It was those financial pressures that helped to persuade him that economic reform perestroika was unavoidable .
- 5. We see perestroika leading to glasnost .