Mikhail Gorbachev
Born in 1931. Top bureaucrat of the Communist Party, lawyer by education. 1985-91 secretary general of the CPSU, 1990-91 the first and last president of the USSR.
Mikhail Gorbachev is without doubt one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century. Was he a clever reformer, who outplayed his opponents and dissolved the USSR, or a short sighted ideologue and the man who unwittingly destroyed Communism? Some blame him for the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century (Vladimir Putin), others thank him for the reunion of Europe. Who was Gorbi, loved, even adored in the world, but hated and even despised in his own country?
The historian Stephen Kotkin has written that Gorbi was a “true believer”. This means that he was convinced of the superiority of socialism over capitalism, of the righteousness of the Soviet way. But the Soviet system had to renew itself, move towards “socialism with a human face”.
Unfortunately, Gorbi's background was that of an ordinary party bureaucrat from the provinces – before his career in Moscow he had worked as a party leader in the region of Stavropol in the Northern Caucasus. As a consequence he had many strange habits: in the most critical times, which demanded quick decisions, he could spend days on party congresses and ponder on the wording of an inconsequential declaration. At the same time the economy of the country collapsed, there was neither bread nor milk in shops.
The arsenal of his skills included the ability to speak for hours without pause. This is not to say that Gorbi did not easily surpass other party functionaries for his education and intellectual capacities. Indeed, this might explain why he was able to outmanoeuvre his rivals or – out-speak them. All this helped him push the resistance of orthodox communists all the way into August 1991, when they finally attempted a coup d’état.
Gorbachev now lives in retirement but remains in the focus of international media. On 9 November 2009 he was one of the guests of honour at the celebration of the fall of the Wall in Berlin, beside the Polish freedom fighter and later president Lech Wałęsa.
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