Hello fellow Cold War historians!
I am a A-level student who was meant to be taking their history A-level this year but due to Coronavirus this is no longer happening. Instead I am being asked to write a coursework-esque piece of work that will contribute towards my final grade and have been tasked to use unusual sources to do so. I have found some interesting stuff relating his anti-alcohol campaign and how it contributed to the social unrest Russia was experiencing towards the end of the 1980's but was hoping that some historians specialising in this field who could recommend some cool sources. I want to make clear that I am not in any way asking for pre-written essays! stay safe :)
First, some "not-unusual" sources:
Of Gorbachev's own writing, his Perestroika (1987) is the one I'd go for, if you're just reading one (not as a piece of writing, per se, but a primary source document).
Taubman's recent (2017) biography of Gorbachev is good in itself, and for your purposes, I should note a fine bibliography at the end.
Two "unusual" ones:
Declassified CIA documents make for interesting reading, like "Gorbachev, The New Broom" written after Gorbachev's first 100 days.
I'd also recommend the Thatcher-Gorbachev conversations as taken from the Gorbachev Foundation.