Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022): The Man Who Changed the Course of History - Time (2025)

Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, as General Secretary of the Communist Party and President of the USSR, paved the way to the end of the Hades War, enabled the fall of the Berlin Wall, the unification of Germany and turned the world as it existed after World War II upside down. While in the West they still celebrate him for this, in Moscow they blame him for the capitulation, after which the United States of America assumed primacy in the world, the Soviet Empire collapsed, and Russia was pushed into the abyss.

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022): The Man Who Changed the Course of History - Time (1)

Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan

Already in the 1980s, the USSR, headed by Gorbachev, had signed a number of agreements on nuclear disarmament with the USA. At home, he implemented the policy of "glasnost" (openness and freedom of speech) and "perestroika" (reconstruction and construction), for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for the beginning of the democratization of the totalitarian system. With Gorbachev at the head of the USSR, the fear of nuclear war began to subside.

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022): The Man Who Changed the Course of History - Time (2)

Russia Obit Gorbachev

This was not Gorbachev's goal, but his reforms and the illiberalization of Soviet society ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet empire. The Russians did not like him either because he introduced a kind of prohibition in 1985, i.e. a partial ban on alcohol consumption would not improve the health of the population and productivity at work.

Political career

Mikhail Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931 in the village of Privolnoye in the Krasnogvarde District of the North Caucasus Territory (now in the Stavropol Territory) in a peasant family. His father, Sergey Andreyevich, worked as a machine operator in a machine and tractor station. Mother Maria Panteleevna (maiden name Gopkalo), worked all her life on a collective farm. From 1950 to 1955, he studied law in Moscow and obtained a degree in agricultural engineering. From 1971 he was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, from 1980 a member of the Politburo. At the age of 54, he became the General Secretary of the CP in 1985, and in 1988, after the resignation of Andrei Gromyk (1909-1989), the President of the Soviet Union.

He resigned on December 25, 1991, shortly before the collapse of the USSR. He came to power in Moscow Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007). At the Kremlin, the red flag was taken down and the blue-white-red Russian tricolor flew. The communist world power has gone down in history.

Life after politics

Despised in Russia, celebrated in the West, Gorbachev wrote numerous books and founded a foundation in Moscow that advocates democratic values ​​and bringing Russia closer to the West. He was a co-owner of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", which reported critically about the Kremlin. In recent years, he criticized Vladimir Putin for restricting media freedom and not allowing free elections.

Gorbachev will be buried in Moscow at the cemetery of meritorious citizens next to his wife Raisa.

Disagreement with the Germans

In an interview for the German "Spiegel" that was published in early 2015, Gorbachev expressed his concern that his life's work was called into question - the rapprochement of East and West.

He blamed both Europe and the USA for the crisis in Ukraine at the time, and pointed to the West's part of responsibility. Affectionately nicknamed "Gorby" in Germany, the Western pet began to express views that were reluctant to be heard in the West. Gorbachev defended Russia's annexation of Crimea, which, he said, was "completely in line with the wishes of the darkening population."

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022): The Man Who Changed the Course of History - Time (4)

Mikhail Gorbachev

He called the USA "a great plague". He defended Vladimir Putin's policy at the time, saying that he was convinced that Putin "defends Russia's interests better than anyone else." From the "father of the German nation" he became in the German media a "senile old man" who does not understand what is happening, he was criticized in Germany for having switched to the patriotic camp of Putin's devotees.

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Mikhail Gorbachev, Erich Honecker

"Spiegel" relativized such derogatory statements: if the last head of the Soviet party and state between Hamburg and Munich is no longer understood, it is not that he is the only one to blame. Many Germans practically "adopted" Mikhail Gorbachev as one of their own and forgot that he is Russian and that he feels Russian. He viewed Ukraine as a sphere of Russian influence.

Relationship with Putin

Although he defended Putin's foreign policy, they were not on friendly terms. "He sees himself right next to God," Gorbachev told Spiegel. He harshly criticized the Kremlin's internal policy, and at one time took sides Alexei Navalny, said he was put under house arrest "just because he opened his mouth."

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Mikhail Gorbachev, Vladimir Putin

During his first presidential term, Gorbachev supported Putin and believed that he had done a lot to stabilize Russia. But the longer Putin was in power, the more often Gorbachev criticized him that "he himself is an obstacle to the development of Russia."

After that, Putin did not want to see him anymore.

As the years passed, Gorbachev, who "sold the USSR like Judas Jesus", became increasingly to blame for the crisis and all of Russia's misfortunes.

A happy man

Gorbachev joined the Communist Party at the age of 19. He distanced himself from Stalinism, but remained a supporter of Lenin's revolutionary teachings until the end. And it was the Russian communists who wanted to try him for "high treason".

The Kremlin has completely turned against Gorbachev in recent years, writes "Spiegel". Komsomolskaya Pravda, loyal to Putin, even attacked him for being an agent of the Nazis during the Second World War and that is why he so zealously contributed to German unification.

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Mikhail Gorbachev, Raisa Gorbacheva

Many people who, thanks to Gorbachev, were able to travel freely for the first time and express their opinions without fear, today hate him in Russia.

When asked by "Spiegel" in January 2015 if he was happy after everything, he answered that he had read in an article "that there are no happy reformers". He used to feel that way too, but later he saw things differently. He said, "Yes, when I look back, I am a lucky man."

JH/Spiegel/BBC/TASS

Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022): The Man Who Changed the Course of History - Time (2025)

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