perestroika

Where does the word "perestroika" come from? It comes from Russian perestroika, and was adopted directly into English (1986).

Perestroika’s story begins in Russian: perestroika meant “restructuring.” Pere- 're-' + stroika 'building'; Mikhail Gorbachev made it the watchword of reform at the 27th Party Congress in 1986. It reached English by 1986 as perestroika. Gorbachev's 1987 book Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World became a Western bestseller. Today, perestroika means the economic and political restructuring of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

1. Stage 1 · Russian · 1986 perestroika "restructuring", pere- 're-' + stroika 'building'; Mikhail Gorbachev made it the watchword of reform at the 27th Party Congress in 1986.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1986 perestroika "Soviet economic and political reform", Gorbachev's 1987 book Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World became a Western bestseller.