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Mikhail Gorbachev | |||||||||||||||||||||
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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 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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 |
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Succeeded by |
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Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union | |||||||||||||||||||||
In office 25 May 1989 – 15 March 1990 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Deputy | Anatoly Lukyanov | ||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | |||||||||||||||||||||
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
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Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Privolnoye, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union | 2 March 1931||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 30 August 2022 Moscow, Russia | (aged 91)||||||||||||||||||||
Resting place | Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow | ||||||||||||||||||||
Political party |
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Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||
Children | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Alma mater | Moscow State University (LLB) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Awards | Nobel Peace Prize (1990) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Signature | ![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||
Website | Official website | ||||||||||||||||||||
Central institution membership Other offices held
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Leader of the Soviet Union
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Former General Secretary of the CPSU Secretariate (1985–1991)
Presidency (1990–1991)
Foreign policy Post-leadership
Media gallery |
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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. He was the first and only Soviet leader born after the country's foundation.
Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye, Russian SFSR, 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. His democratization measures and formation of the elected Congress of People's Deputies undermined the one-party state. Gorbachev declined to intervene militarily when various Warsaw Pact countries abandoned Marxist–Leninist governance in 1989. Growing nationalist sentiment within constituent republics threatened to break up the Soviet Union, leading the 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.
Gorbachev is considered one of the most significant figures of the second half of the 20th century. The recipient of a wide range of awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, in the West he is 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. Gorbachev has a complicated legacy in Russia. While in power, he had net positive approval ratings, being viewed as a reformer and changemaker. However, as the Soviet Union collapsed as a result of these reforms, so did his approval rating; contemporary Russians often deride him for weakening Russia's global influence and precipitating an economic collapse in the country.
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