The famous Russian leader known for his policies of glasnost and perestroika was Mikhail Gorbachev. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1985 and was the last leader of the Soviet Union. Glasnost, meaning "openness," encouraged more transparency in government and greater freedom of expression, while perestroika, meaning "restructuring," aimed to reform the stagnant Soviet economy by introducing limited market-like reforms. These policies ultimately led to significant political changes in the USSR and contributed to the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.