concept
Glasnost / Freedom of the Press
glasnost
also: гласность
Literally "publicity" or "openness"; here Optimov invokes it grandly as the freedom of the press to criticize, a self-important flourish that the police chief brushes off entirely.
Reading notes
- Ferment of Minds §85 the freedom of the press
Optimov invokes glasnost -- "openness" or freedom of the press -- with grand self-importance, a flourish the police chief simply ignores.
- A Fairy Tale §5 паук, боящийся гласности
"Glasnost" (openness/publicity, the same word later famous under Gorbachev) was already, in the 1880s press, the buzzword for public exposure and scrutiny -- the spider's fear of it, and his hiding, mark him as the fable's one skeptical, ungullible figure, wary of exactly the kind of self-promotion the fly practices.