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It was the era of glasnost and perestroika.

Rather than reconstructing lives, Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika had undermined many of them; economic “shock therapy” was therapeutic only for some.

His restructuring and openness — perestroika and glasnost — of the late 1980s led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union and, peacefully and fleetingly, brought a divided Europe together in liberty.

And after perestroika everything changed: Girls became dolls.”

As Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began the fateful era of “perestroika,” or restructuring, in the late 1980s, Mr. Strougal followed suit with efforts to lessen state controls on the Czechoslovak economy.