The idea of a nuclear-free Arctic , the first point of Gorbachev ’s speech , was not a new one . A formal Soviet proposal had been made in 1958 by then Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin , and similar ideas had become popular in the following decades , especially in specific governments and organizations in Nordic countries . Gorbachev had seen these countries as potentially being more responsive to his “ new political thinking ” and towards the shift toward East-West dialogue , coming off the heels of the Reykjavik Summit of 1986 , which Gorbachev would explicitly refer to as a watershed for more peaceful Cold War politics in the Murmansk speech
Reykjavik Summit of 1986
Reykjavík Summit
Murmansk Initiative