Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet president who took down the Iron Curtain, dies

 At age 91, Mikhail Gorbachev, the final head of state of the former Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, passed away.

Gorbachev passed away after a protracted illness, according to Russian state news sources. According to RIA Novosti on Tuesday, "Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev died this evening following a severe and protracted illness," the Central Clinical Hospital announced.

The man who is credited with ending the Cold War by bringing important political and economic reforms to the USSR had been ill for some time. According to Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's spokesman, the Russian president sent his sympathies. Putin will communicate with Gorbachev's loved ones on Wednesday, according to RIA Novosti.

Gorbachev changed the norm for Soviet leaders, who up until then had typically been distant, frigid personalities, with his outgoing, personable attitude. He worked to implement important reforms to make the system operate more effectively and democratically almost from the beginning of his administration. Thus, "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika," the two catchphrases of the Gorbachev period (restructuring).

"When I started these reforms, freedom and democracy—without any bloodshed—were my compass points. The people would stop being a herd being herded by a shepherd as a result. They'd acquire citizenship, "Later, he said. According to the Gorbachev Foundation, he will be laid to rest alongside his wife at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, according to RIA Novosti.

From a farm worker to a rising party star

Gorbachev came from modest origins. He was born on March 2, 1931, into a peasant family close to Stavropol, and as a youngster, he worked on the family farm alongside his studies while helping his father, a combine harvester operator.

Later in life, Gorbachev remarked that he was "very proud of my ability to promptly identify a flaw in the combine, just by sound of it." In 1952, he joined the Communist Party, and in 1955, Moscow University awarded him a law degree.

Here, he met Raisa Titarenko, a fellow student, whom he later married. Gorbachev was appointed director of agriculture for the Stavropol region in the early 1960s. He had ascended to the top of the party structure in the area by the end of the decade.

He caught the eye of Mikhail Suslov and Yuri Andropov, members of the Politburo, the main body responsible for establishing policy in the Soviet Union's Communist Part. They helped him win election to the Central Committee in 1971 and organized travels abroad for their emerging star.

 

Gorbachev returned to Moscow in 1978, and the following year, he was selected as a candidate for the Politburo. His management of Soviet agriculture did not turn out well. He eventually understood that there were numerous basic issues with the communal structure.

Gorbachev, a full Politburo member since 1980, gained power in 1982 when his mentor, Andropov, took over as general secretary of the party from Leonid Brezhnev.

After establishing a reputation as a foe of corruption and incompetence, he attained party leadership in March 1985.

A trustworthy business partner

Gorbachev started making the case for the cessation of the armaments competition with the West in an effort to redirect resources to the Soviet economy's civic sector.

 

Gorbachev, however, always looked to be going too quickly for the party elite, which saw its privileges endangered, and too slowly for more extreme reformers, who planned to do away with the one-party state and the command economy, throughout his six years in government.

He seems to have overestimated the severity of the economic crisis while desperately seeking to maintain control over the reform process.

In the late 1980s, as a result of Glasnost, calls for independence from the Baltic states and other Soviet republics became stronger. He also appeared to have a blind spot for the importance of the nationality problem.

Although primarily from a global standpoint, he was effective in foreign policy, and other world leaders took notice.

"A man one can do business with," said Margaret Thatcher, a former British prime minister.

At a conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1986, Gorbachev made a startling suggestion to American President Ronald Reagan: destroy all long-range missiles that the Soviet Union and the United States both possessed.

The Cold War was about to come to an end at that time.

His leadership in the peace process, which currently defines significant facets of the world community, earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

The agreement that ensued, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, stood as a cornerstone of arms control for thirty years till the United States formally withdrew from it in 2019 and the Russian government declared it to be a waste of time.

Extremists rebel

Gorbachev's arms control agreements with the US may have also been in the Soviet Union's best interests, but the breakup of some Eastern European nations, followed by the unification of Germany and NATO membership for the newly united Germany (West Germany had previously been a member), infuriated traditional Communists.

Hardliners had had enough by August 1991. They staged a coup when Gorbachev was on vacation in the Crimea. Despite being a harsh critic of what he saw as Gorbachev's mediocre reforms, Russia's president, Boris Yeltsin, came to his aid by confronting and overpowering the coup plotters.

Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, as republics began to declare their independence all around the Soviet Union. Gorbachev stated that the country's acquisition of freedom—both politically and spiritually—was his most significant accomplishment as he read his resignation address.

The USSR flag of red, which had been flying over the Kremlin, was lowered. Yeltsin was in charge and the Soviet Union was no more. Gorbachev declared, "We are living in a new world. Gorbachev was questioned by CNN's Christiane Amanpour in April 2012 on whether he was responsible for the fall of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev said that his statements had contained nothing "that had encouraged its breakdown up until the very end: "The union's dissolution was the product of betrayal by the Soviet nomenklatura, by the bureaucracy, as well as Yeltsin's treason.

He mentioned cooperating with me and working on a new union treaty with me. He signed and initialed the draft union treaty. He was nonetheless working behind my back at the same time." Gorbachev challenged Yeltsin for the Russian presidency in 1996, but he received fewer than 1% of the vote.

Speaking out post-presidency

Three years later, Gorbachev lost the love of his life — his wife of 46 years, Raisa — to cancer. Irina, the couple's only child, was born. "I was always quite composed and cool, even in the toughest circumstances. I don't want to live, though, now that she's gone. Our life' focal point is no longer there "said he.

However, Gorbachev continued to speak out on issues such as nuclear disarmament, the environment, and poverty. In addition, he established the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation with the family to battle childhood cancer in honor of his late wife.

Prior to that, he founded the International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies, also known as the Gorbachev Foundation, and the Green Cross to address environmental issues. In order to honor "those who have changed the world for the better," Gorbachev also established the yearly "Gorbachev Awards" in 2011.

Gorbachev continues to be active in Russian politics. From 2001 until his resignation from the Social Democratic Party of Russia in 2004 due to disagreements with the party's leadership and direction.

He assumed leadership of the Union of Social Democrats in 2007, which later gave birth to the opposition Independent Democratic Party of Russia.

In 2012, he admitted to Christiane Amanpour of CNN that he thought Russian democracy was "Nevertheless, he continued: "That it is 'good'... not so. I am still here, but I can't say I'm doing well." He argued that "democratic institutions are not functioning effectively in Russia because they are ultimately not free."

mixed heritage

In a 2019 interview with CNN, Gorbachev stated that despite escalating tensions, the US and Russia must work to prevent the emergence of a "New Cold War." "This could develop into a bloody conflict that ends up wiping out our entire civilisation. This cannot be permitted, "said he.

Gorbachev voiced the hope that such arms control accords may be restored when questioned about the death of the 1987 treaty he signed with Reagan.

All of the existing agreements are kept and not deleted, he claimed. But they are the initial steps toward destroying something that shouldn't be destroyed at all. He further stated that the complete abolition of nuclear weapons must be the ultimate goal of arms control.

A few unexpected things happened in Gorbachev's life after the fall of the USSR as he attempted to promote his ideals by appearing in Pizza Hut and Louis Vuitton commercials. For "Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf / Beintus: Wolf Tracks," which he co-wrote with former US President Bill Clinton and actress Sophia Loren, Gorbachev won a Grammy Award in 2004 for best spoken word album for kids.

 

In addition, he received the Order of St. Andrew, Russia's highest honor, which was presented to him by then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on his 80th birthday in 2011 and the 2008 Liberty Medal from the US National Constitution Center.

However, Gorbachev ultimately enjoyed greater respect abroad than he did at home. He received scorn in Russia from some for overthrowing the Soviet Union and from others for taking too long to liberate his country from communism. But in the West, he is still remembered as the Cold War's principal architect and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.