Abstract: The subject of this research is the process of revision of the Soviet past that took place in USSR during the years of Perestroika (1985-1991). The author analyzes the indicated process within the paradigm of the “historical policy”. This article familiarizes with the key vectors of historical policy implemented over the recent years of the existence of Soviet Union, as well as the factors that affected their emergence. The accent is made on description of the process of formation of the contours of “historical policy”, analysis of creation of infrastructure within the “realm of memory”, and factors that affect the implementation of historical policy. The author examines the documents and decrees, party publications, mass media, stenographs of the meetings and conferences. For determination of the main principles of historical policy, was conducted a discourse analysis of the performances of the top officials and their memorial speeches, as well as quantitative and qualitative content analysis of a number of publishers, including the newspapers “Moscow News”, journal “Communist”, etc. The scientific novelty consists in a comprehensive description of the revision of the Soviet past during the years of Perestroika, concept of the “historical policy”. Currently, within the historiography, this term is referred to as the phenomenon of post-Soviet period. The author reveals the application of the key methods and approaches of the historical policy during the period of Perestroika, and their interrelation with the historical policy in the post-Soviet context. The article for the first time introduces into the scientific discourse some documents from the personal archives of the Secretary of  Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR A. N. Yakovlev and editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Moscow News” Yegor Yakovlev.