Gorbachev implemented economic and political reforms called Perestroika and Glasnost in the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Perestroika restructured the Soviet command economy to introduce private businesses and free markets. Glasnost increased openness, freedoms of speech and the press. These reforms weakened the Soviet government's control and emboldened independence movements. Ultimately, the Soviet Union disintegrated as its republics declared sovereignty, and Gorbachev resigned on December 24, 1991, dissolving the USSR into 15 independent states.