Solution

Mikhail Gorbachev was the General Secretary of Communist Party of Soviet Union in 1985. He was forced to initiate the reforms in the USSR due to following reasons:
1. To keep the USSR abreast of information and technological revolutions at par the West.
2. To normalise the relations with that of the West.
3. To democratise the Soviet System.
4. To loosen the administrative system which exempted ordinary people from the privileges.