Americans have a severe disease - worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
I paid too heavy a price for perestroika.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the deep cost associated with significant political reform.
Mikhail Gorbachev's quote highlights the consequences and sacrifices made during the implementation of perestroika, the policy aimed at restructuring the political and economic system of the Soviet Union. It suggests that while change can be necessary for progress, it often comes with significant hardships and personal costs that may not be immediately apparent.
In practice
During a speech on political reform, one might use this quote to emphasize the challenges of implementing new policies.
Americans have a severe disease - worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.
Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about Glasnost and Perestroika and democracy in the coming years. They are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal changes in the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep.
The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.
To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.
New approaches are needed, new orientations in both thought and action. We must make the transition to a new civilization...We are talking of a transition toward a new civilization. No one knows what it will be like. What is important is to orient in that direction... I am convinced that a new civilization will inevitably take on certain features that are characteristic of, or inherent in, the socialist ideal.
According to Lenin, socialism and democracy are indivisible.... The essence of perestroika lies in the fact that it unites socialism with democracy and revives the Leninist concept of socialist construction both in theory and in practice. We want more socialism and, therefore, more democracy.
In the developing world, most people don't yet live in big well-run cities. Given the chance to move to one, hundreds of millions of people would go there to get a job, get an education for their children, and live in a place that is clean, safe, and healthy.
So I cut off my hair and I rode straight away, to the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong.
The point is not for women simply to take power out of men’s hands, since that wouldn’t change anything about the world. It’s a question precisely of destroying that notion of power.
I supported this bill. I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and who have lived here even though sometime back they may have entered illegally.
Economic, social, and other kinds of regional cooperation are not possible so long as there is apartheid. Therefore, it seems the duty of all mankind to destroy it.
Everybody believes in innovation until they see it. Then they think, 'Oh, no; that'll never work. It's too different.'
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