First of all, rest in peace Mikhail Gorbachev.Secondly, if you don’t know who Mikhail Gorbachev is or was,let’s start you off by informing you that he was the last leader of the Soviet Union before it’s collapse in 1991.He resigned from the post after some members started pulling out of the Soviet Union gradually becoming fourteen independent states.
Aside from that, he also won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in ending the ugly cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States of America.The cold war was the closest period in time that the world almost used nuclear weapons on the battlefield.Stakes were seriously high especially during the Kennedy era.Remember Fidel Castro?Yeah, the Soviet Union was setting up its nuclear arsenal in his backyard Cuba,only 90 miles from the American coastline well within firing range of intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads.That’s how Cuba and it’s leader Fidel Castro became headlines around the globe.
Gorbachev came into power in 1985 as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, a post he held till it’s break up in 1991.Additionally he was 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 only 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 is most credited for the dissolution of the Soviet Union thereby creating 15 new independent states effectively ending the coldwar.During his tenure, he also introduced the policy of Glasnost and Perestroika. Glasnost (“openness”) allowed for enhanced freedom of speech and press while his perestroika (“restructuring”) sought to decentralize economic decision-making to improve its efficiency.At first, it was received well and improved standards of living but it also led to high demand for goods with supply being significantly lower which led to an economic downturn.
Gorbachev also withdrew troops from the Soviet–Afghan War a short while after assuming office and embarked on summits with United States president Ronald Reagan to limit nuclear weapons and end the Cold War. After resigning 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.
In Russia, he is loved and hated in equal measure considering the current president Vladimir Putin did not even attend his state-sponsored funeral despite a higher than expected public turnout.Russians are divided when it comes to Gorbachev for his role in ending the Soviet Union.All the same, personally, I believe that was the greatest geopolitical move of the century.R.I.P Gorbachev;your name will forever remain relevant in history books.
Metropolitan 