Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev
Михаил Горбачёв
Gorbachev in 1987
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office 11 March 1985 – 24 August 1991[a]
Premier	Nikolai Tikhonov Nikolai Ryzhkov Valentin Pavlov Ivan Silayev
Deputy	Vladimir Ivashko
Preceded by	Konstantin Chernenko
Succeeded by	Vladimir Ivashko (acting)
President of the Soviet Union
In office 15 March 1990 – 25 December 1991[b]
Vice President	Gennady Yanayev[c]
Preceded by	Himself as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet
Succeeded by	Office abolished[d]
Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
In office 25 May 1989 – 15 March 1990
Deputy	Anatoly Lukyanov
Preceded by	Himself as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
Succeeded by	Anatoly Lukyanov
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
In office 1 October 1988 – 25 May 1989
Preceded by	Andrei Gromyko
Succeeded by	Himself as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet
Additional positions Co-Chairman of the Union of Social Democrats In office 11 March 2000[e] – 15 November 2017 Preceded by Party established Succeeded by Party disestablished Acting Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union In office 9 February 1984 – 10 March 1985 Preceded by Konstantin Chernenko Succeeded by Yegor Ligachyov
Personal details
Born	(1931-03-02)2 March 1931 Privolnoye, North Caucasus Krai, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	30 August 2022(2022-08-30) (aged 91) Moscow, Russia
Resting place	Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow, Russia
Political party	CPSU (1952–1991) Independent (1991–2000; from 2013) ROSDP (2000–2001) SDPR (2001–2007) USD (2007–2013)
Spouse	Raisa Titarenko ​ ​ (m. 1953; died 1999)​
Children	1
Alma mater	Moscow State University
Signature
Website	Official website
Mikhail Gorbachev's voice Recorded November 2012
Central institution membership 1980–1991: Member, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th Politburo 1979–1980: Candidate, 25th Politburo 1978–1991: Member, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th Secretariat 1971–1991: Member, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th Central Committee Other offices held 2001–2004: Chairman, Social Democratic Party of Russia 1985–1991: Chairman, Defense Council 1970–1978: First Secretary, Stavropol Regional Committee
Leader of the Soviet Union ← Chernenko None (last holder)

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev^[f][g] (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 and additionally as head of state beginning in 1988, as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990 and the president of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Ideologically, Gorbachev initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism but moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s.

Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye, North Caucasus Krai, to a poor peasant family of Russian and Ukrainian heritage. Growing up under the rule of Joseph Stalin, in his youth he operated combine harvesters on a collective farm before joining the Communist Party, which then governed the Soviet Union as a one-party state. Studying at Moscow State University, he married fellow student Raisa Titarenko in 1953 and received his law degree in 1955. Moving to Stavropol, he worked for the Komsomol youth organization and, after Stalin's death, became a keen proponent of the de-Stalinization reforms of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. He was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee in 1970, overseeing the construction of the Great Stavropol Canal. In 1978, he returned to Moscow to become a Secretary of the party's Central Committee; he joined the governing Politburo (25th term) as a non-voting member in 1979 and a voting member in 1980. Three years after the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev—following the brief tenures of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko—in 1985, the Politburo elected Gorbachev as general secretary, the de facto leader.

Although committed to preserving the Soviet state and its Marxist–Leninist ideals, Gorbachev believed significant reform was necessary for its survival. He withdrew troops from the Soviet–Afghan War and embarked on summits with United States president Ronald Reagan to limit nuclear weapons and end the Cold War. Domestically, his policy of glasnost ("openness") allowed for enhanced freedom of speech and press, while his perestroika ("restructuring") sought to decentralize economic decision-making to improve its efficiency. Ultimately, Gorbachev's democratization measures and formation of the elected Congress of People's Deputies undermined the one-party state. When various Warsaw Pact countries abandoned Marxist–Leninist governance in 1989, he declined to intervene militarily. Growing nationalist sentiment within constituent republics threatened to break up the Soviet Union, leading hardliners within the Communist Party to launch an unsuccessful coup against Gorbachev in August 1991. In the coup's wake, the Soviet Union dissolved against Gorbachev's wishes. After resigning from the presidency, he launched the Gorbachev Foundation, became a vocal critic of Russian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and campaigned for Russia's social-democratic movement.

Considered one of the most significant figures of the second half of the 20th century, Gorbachev remains controversial. The recipient of a wide range of awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, he was praised for his role in ending the Cold War, introducing new political and economic freedoms in the Soviet Union, and tolerating both the fall of Marxist–Leninist administrations in eastern and central Europe and the German reunification. Critics see him as weakening Russia's global influence and precipitating an economic collapse in the country.

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