Gorbachev had two policies that hurt the Soviet Union. They were known as Perestroika and Glasnost.
Perestroika revolves around giving individual citizens more freedom in the economy. Instead of planning everything for citizens, the government allowed businesses and individuals how to spend their money/resource.
Glasnost revolves around giving citizens more civil liberties (aka rights). This included more freedom of speech for citizens and gave the newspaper the ability to criticize the government without being censored.