katastroika

katastroika
 n.— «In the first phase of Mr Gorbachev’s rule, some Russians thought that glasnost was just a trick to get the reformers to stick their heads above the parapet and identify themselves. “Perestrelka,” said the satirists, meaning a general shoot-up. Now the joke is at the expense of the economic collapse: “katastroika.”» —“Five Years of Gorbachev: Soviet fears of katastroika” by Jonathon Steele Guardian (U.K.) Mar. 9, 1990. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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Further reading

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