OREANDA-NEWS. The first President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev claimed that perestroika had fallen through due to the actions of the State Committee on the State of Emergency of the USSR, as well as those who used the situation after the coup to break up the Union. However, the politician added that this does not cancel the significance of perestroika.

April 23 marks the 35th anniversary of the speech of USSR Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev at the plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, during which he officially proclaimed a course to accelerate social and economic development. The course provided for the modernization of the country’s economy, the introduction of new management methods and the use of the latest achievements of scientific and technological progress.