Under the new leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, the final Secretary of the Soviet Union, Culture was given less censorship, under his goals of glasnost and perestroika, which included a lot of liberalization given to culture. Talking about politics was normalized, and artists, along with citizens in general were allowed to discuss and create works about criticizing the leadership. Similarly, during this time was the explosion of Chernobyl, which caused a lot of talking about environmental issues. Under this, independence was also higher than previously.