“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.”

~ Mikhail Gorbachev (1931- ) General Secretary of the Communist Party

of the Soviet Union, the last head of state of the USSR (1985-1991)

in a speech to the Soviet Politburo, November 1987