Perestroika for the Country and the World: Perspectives 20 Years After Conference Held at the Russian Academy of Sciences

On April 7, 2005, the building of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN) hosted the international scientific conference with the theme Perestroika for the Country and the World: Perspectives 20 Years After. The conference was organized by the Russian Academy of Sciences.
 
The event was opened by Academician Aleksandr Nekipelov, Vice-President of the RAN. Participants of the Conference were also greeted by Mikhail Gorbachev and Yury Osipov, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The discussion opened at the plenary session “Perestroika on the Scales of History” was continued at the Round Table meetings held within the framework of the Conference with the following themes:
- Perestroika of the Political System and Social Causes;
- The struggle around the Issue of Reforming the Economy;
- Freedom of Speech and Creativity;
- The History of the Soviet Union: Was any other Outcome Possible?
- Perestroika in the Context of the World Development.

The speakers were unanimous in calling Perestroika one of the landmark events, which fundamentally changed Russia and the world. Twenty years after its start, Perestroika still remains the subject of most heated debates and the focus of the clash of ideas in the Russian society, while the events and lessons of that period will long be discussed among academics, politicians and ordinary citizens.
  
Among the speakers at the Conference were: Mikhail Gorbachev; Academicians Leonid Abalkin, Georgy Arbatov, Oleg Bogomolov, Yury Ryzhov, Nikolay Petrakov, Nikolay Shmelyov, Aleksandr Tchubarian, Aleksandr Yakovlev; Corresponding Members of the RAN Vadim Medvedev and Natalia Rimashevskaya;  Archie Brown,  Professor of Politics at Oxford University; Zakhari Zakhariev, President of Slaviani Foundation, Bulgaria; Giulietto Chiesa, Member of the European Parliament, Italy; researcher and writer Lilly Marcou, France; former Prime Minister of Hungary Gyula Horn, and others.

Proceedings and papers from the Conference are planned to be published as a book.