The essence of the “perestroika” phenomenon: experience of philosophical thought

The paper considers the phenomenon of perestroika from general philosophical positions: 1) the essence of perestroika is evaluated; 2) perestroika processes have been characterized from the point of view of ethics and axiology; 3) the author gives an assessment of perestroika in the world historical process from the point of view of the philosophy of history as an integral part of socio-philosophical knowledge. The research methodology includes the methods of historical and logical, concrete-historical and political analysis. There is also applied the method of historical parallels as a modification of analogy method. The main approaches to the study of the phenomenon of perestroika both in Russian and foreign scientific literature have been examined. The author defines perestroika as a political conspiracy of the Soviet establishment against the party and the Soviet people. From an ethical standpoint, perestroika was a social blemish, since it led to the destruction of the great state and caused a number of tragedies both on individual and social levels. The social structure of the society was destroyed. The values which constituted an ethical framework of personal and social worldview were completely annihilated. The Soviet civilization was destroyed as a historically logical form of the Russian world with its unique ethical and axiological core based on a synthesis of ideals of the thousand-year-old Russian statehood together with the achievements of a socialist socioeconomic formation. Perestroika is shown as a tragic event in the world history, which changed the global balance of power and the world balance in the international field at the end of the 20th century.