Mikhail Gorbachev — the final leader of the former Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 — has died at the age of 91. Gorbachev passed away after a protracted illness, according to Russian news sources.
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, RIA Novosti reports.
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” (restructuring) are the two ideals of the Gorbachev period.
According to the Gorbachev Foundation, he will be laid to rest alongside his wife at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, according to RIA Novosti.
A brief history of Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev came from modest beginnings. 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.
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.
Mikhail 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 trips abroad for their rising star.
Mikhail 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.
Mikhail Gorbachev, however, always seemed 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.
