In mid-1985, under the initiative of M. S. Gorbachev, the course for perestroika was proclaimed in the USSR. The ideas of perestroika were discussed at the April (1985) Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, then at the XXVII Congress of the Party and the XIX All-Union Party Conference. This was undoubtedly a positive step, the beginning of a new political course. New economic and political thinking began to be talked about everywhere. However, at that time, much was unclear: there was no clear program for the reforms being carried out, and there was no ultimate goal for the planned transformations. Enthusiasm and the desire to reform the socio-economic life for the better turned out to be insufficient. To solve the tasks set, a scientifically grounded strategy and well-calibrated tactics were required, but this was not done. The party began the restructuring of the national economy without solid theoretical and organizational preparation. All this had a negative impact on the work of the mass media throughout the country, including Kyrgyzstan. Moreover, the materials of the aforementioned party forums maintained an unwavering line on the centralization of party leadership over the mass media, the goal of which was the mandatory implementation of the directives of the CPSU.
Democratization and glasnost not only opened new topics for journalists but also created enormous difficulties for them. Never before had the one-party Soviet journalism faced the necessity of objectively reflecting the numerous problems born from the new political and economic thinking. The real life, with its achievements and contradictions, had to be reflected on the pages of newspapers and magazines, in television and radio programs, in all the diversity of various opinions and judgments.
Nevertheless, the proclamation of democratization and glasnost opened up opportunities for the mass media to analyze events and phenomena, raise serious problems, and propose solutions. The tasks of truthfully reflecting reality came to the forefront of the media's work. After many years of restrictions, the media began to speak out loudly. They became a powerful lever for the transformations that had begun, contributing to the development of the democratization of the masses, their psychological restructuring, and the activation of conscious actions aimed at breaking the administrative-command system. Glasnost became the most important lever for the media in the struggle for the democratization of society. As for journalists, the very fact of having the opportunity to reliably and comprehensively inform the public about the processes occurring in the country and the republic evoked in them a sense of freedom and internal liberation. This was largely facilitated by M. S. Gorbachev's statement at one of the meetings with the heads of mass media that, under the conditions of a one-party ruling system, the media should perform the role of an opposition organization. This allowed journalists to actively, and in some cases even excessively sharply, engage in the propaganda and agitation campaign for perestroika.
It should be noted that the widely advertised policy of glasnost, the course towards freedom of speech and democratization of all public life was received with great interest by the Soviet people. The central newspapers, especially "Economic Life," "Komsomolskaya Pravda," "Moscow Komsomolets," the magazine "Ogonyok," central television and radio, and in Kyrgyzstan - the newspapers "Komsomolets of Kyrgyzstan," "Leninchil Zhas," and the magazine "Literary Kyrgyzstan" laid the groundwork for preparing the masses for the upcoming transformations. On the pages of these newspapers and magazines, in some television and radio broadcasts from Moscow and the republic, journalists began to raise problematic questions concerning the imperfections of many socio-economic aspects of public life, as well as the malaise in the sphere of morality and ethics.
Here is what Zamira Sydykova, the deputy editor of "Komsomolets of Kyrgyzstan," later the organizer and editor of the first opposition newspaper in Kyrgyzstan "Respublika," wrote at that time: "As is known, for more than 50 years 'Komsomolets of Kyrgyzstan' was the organ of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Kyrgyzstan. It is clear that its pages were filled with such headings as 'Moral Education,' 'Construction Brigade,' 'Komsomol and Me,' but one could not ignore the fact that it was precisely the youth that was characterized by a movement forward. This newspaper was the first to go beyond the unified party line; under its editorial board, the first round tables and interest clubs appeared, where radical thoughts about the future of the generation were discussed, what awaited it, and with what it would enter the new century. Doubts - that was what made them gather together, after which they realized that they were not alone. This did not please the party functionaries, who, without hesitation, intervened in the layout plan of the next issue, calling the chief editor to account. But they did not know how to behave - after all, it was already 'perestroika.'
