Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev addresses a group of 150 business executives in San Francisco on June 5, 1990. David Longstreath/The Associated Press Mikhail Gorbachev, who presided over the peaceful collapse of the Soviet empire only to see that legacy succumb to Vladimir Putin’s revanchist Russia, died on Tuesday aged 91 after a long illness. Few people have shaped modern geopolitics more than Mr. Gorbachev, who rose to the position of general secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR in 1986 after his two immediate predecessors died within 13 months of each other. A relatively young 54 when he took office, Mr. Gorbachev was the first and only Soviet leader born after the Russian Revolution of 1917. He opened the country’s closed political and economic system to changes that would eventually explode it. Mr. Gorbachev’s greatest contribution was telling the Red Army to stand down when his predecessors would have ordered bloodshed. Soviet troops stood aside as the Berlin Wall fell and other pro-democracy uprisings broke out across Eastern Europe in 1989. As the threat of nuclear war receded, the man known affectionately in the West as “Gorby” was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Story continues below ad World leaders react to death of Mikhail Gorbachev with tributes on social media Equally famous were Mr. Gorbachev’s world-changing policies perestroika (“reform”) and sound volume (“opening”) in which the USSR underwent catastrophic economic and political changes that brought about the collapse of the system of totalitarianism that had lasted from Vladimir Lenin to Leonid Brezhnev to Konstantin Chernenko, Mr. Gorbachev’s immediate predecessor. The void was filled by an era of wild street politics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with McDonald’s and Coca-Cola arriving in Moscow while the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union went their separate ways. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised Mr. Gorbachev on Tuesday as “a one-of-a-kind politician who changed the course of history. He did more than any other individual to bring about a peaceful end to the Cold War.” Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russian President would send a telegram of condolence to Mr Gorbachev’s family and friends. Images are not available offline. Mr. Gorbachev addresses locals and the press in Siauliai on January 12, 1990 during his three-day visit to the Lithuanian Soviet Republic. Lithuania legally separated from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990. VITALY ARMAND/Getty Images In a conversation in the early 2000s with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Gorbachev said that the ideas that evolved into perestroika and sound volume were born during an early 1980s visit to Canada, a visit that took place shortly before he rose to the post of secretary general. Mr. Gorbachev, who was born into a poor farming family in southern Russia, and who worked on a collective farm in his youth, was hosted at a farm outside Windsor, Ont., by then-Agriculture Secretary Eugene Whelan. Another guest was Alexander Yakovlev, the Soviet ambassador in Ottawa. Mr. Gorbachev said that walking alone in Mr. Whelan’s fields, he and Yakovlev realized they shared the belief that the USSR was in desperate need of reform. It was a walk that changed the world – and not a conversation they could safely have in Moscow. After rising to the top job, Mr. Gorbachev brought Mr. Yakovlev into the Politburo, the small group of officials that ran the USSR. They were joined by another reformist like-minded, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. The tolerance shown by reformers as Eastern Europe abandoned its experiment with communism did not extend to the USSR itself, which Mr. Gorbachev tried in vain to contain. Fourteen people were killed in Lithuania in 1991 in clashes that began after Soviet troops seized government buildings in response to a declaration by the country’s parliament to restore Lithuania’s independence after five decades of Soviet occupation. Images are not available offline. US President Ronald Reagan, right, shakes hands with Mr Gorbachev after the two leaders signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington on December 8, 1987. BOB DAUGHERTY/The Associated Press Mr. Gorbachev’s reformist credentials were also tarnished by his decision to order a business-as-usual approach even as Soviet officials became aware of the 1986 nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl facility in northern Ukraine. Story continues below ad Mr. Gorbachev was often caught between them, including his one-time protégé Boris Yeltsin, who wanted to see reforms move faster, and hard-liners who resisted any kind of change. In August 1991, the hardliners moved against Mr. Gorbachev, trying to seize power in Moscow while Mr. Gorbachev was on vacation in Crimea. The coup attempt failed when Mr Yeltsin rallied his supporters outside the White House in Moscow – an event that marked the rise of Mr Yeltsin and an independent Russia and the beginning of the end for Mr Gorbachev and the USSR. On Christmas Day that year, Mr. Gorbachev announced his resignation. Within days, the Soviet Union ceased to exist, replaced by a Russian Federation headed by Mr. Yeltsin as president, along with 14 other independent countries. During the three decades that followed, Mr. Gorbachev was hailed as a hero in the West for helping end the Cold War, even as he was reviled in Russia for destroying the country’s empire. Accusations that Mr. Gorbachev was a “traitor” who had sold out his country grew louder as Russia descended into political chaos and a deep economic crisis in the late 1990s. Images are not available offline. Mr. Gorbachev, left, former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, center, and former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher pose for photographers next to a piece of the Berlin Wall during the opening of the Museum of Glienicker Bridge in Potsdam on November 8, 2009, as part of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. MICHAEL KAPPELER/Getty Images The depth of Mr. Gorbachev’s unpopularity at home became clear when he ran against Mr. Yeltsin in Russia’s 1996 presidential election, finishing seventh with less than 0.5 percent of the vote. After that, Mr. Gorbachev faded into semi-retirement, making only occasional statements about the direction Russia was taking under Mr. Yeltsin and his chosen successor, Mr. Putin. A fierce critic of Mr. Yeltsin’s tumultuous rule, Mr. Gorbachev was initially a supporter of Mr. Putin and attended his first presidential inauguration in 2000. But Mr. Gorbachev became a critic when Mr. Putin returned to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012, accusing the former KGB agent – who openly lamented the collapse of the USSR – of “castrating” Russia’s fledgling republic, Mr. Gorbachev was equally critical of what he saw as American triumphalism and a lack of respect for Russian interests. He was critical of the post-Cold War expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into Eastern Europe, moves he said violated a verbal promise he had made that NATO would not expand eastward. NATO’s eastward expansion and the possibility that Ukraine might one day join the alliance were used by Mr Putin to justify his February 24 decision to invade Ukraine. Western scholars have noted that the promise to Mr. Gorbachev was never put in writing. Sergei Utkin, a Russian scholar of international relations, said that while Mr Gorbachev’s rule had ended in “failure”, he had “started an urgently needed reform and allowed people to speak freely, for the first time in many decades”. Images are not available offline. Mr Gorbachev leaves his handprints in plaster bolted to an original piece of the Berlin Wall from the former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing in Nove. 7, 2014 in Berlin. ODD ANDERSEN/Getty Images Mr Utkin said the changes unlocked by Mr Gorbachev were continuing. “Although now it seems we are back in the old vicious cycle, I think we have made a lot of progress since then and gained experience that will help us in the future. … The transformation that started from perestroika it’s going to continue.” The Ukraine war and Russia’s slide into dictatorship is a sad end to the era of euphoria dubbed ‘Gorbymania’. The Soviet leader and his chic wife Raisa, who died in 1999, were global celebrities to the extent that Mr Gorbachev appeared in a 1998 TV ad for Pizza Hut. Mr. Gorbachev’s mixed heritage at home was the central theme of the ad. “Because of this, we have a financial mess!” A man says after the former leader was spotted eating at a branch of the American restaurant in Moscow. “Because of this, we have new opportunities,” counters another customer. An old lady finally settled the argument by pointing out that Mr. Gorbachev had brought many things to Russia, including Pizza Hut. But this, like many others, has been reversed by Mr Putin. Pizza Hut, like many international brands, has now ceased operations in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine. Images are not available offline. US President George HW Bush, left, and Mr Gorbachev shake hands in front of US and Soviet Union flags at the end of a news conference in Moscow on July 31, 1991. RICK WILKING/Reuters
title: “Mikhail Gorbachev Soviet Leader Who Helped End Cold War Dies Aged 91 Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-28” author: “Augustus Polhemus”
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev addresses a group of 150 business executives in San Francisco on June 5, 1990. David Longstreath/The Associated Press Mikhail Gorbachev, who presided over the peaceful collapse of the Soviet empire only to see that legacy succumb to Vladimir Putin’s revanchist Russia, died on Tuesday aged 91 after a long illness. Few people have shaped modern geopolitics more than Mr. Gorbachev, who rose to the position of general secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR in 1986 after his two immediate predecessors died within 13 months of each other. A relatively young 54 when he took office, Mr. Gorbachev was the first and only Soviet leader born after the Russian Revolution of 1917. He opened the country’s closed political and economic system to changes that would eventually explode it. Mr. Gorbachev’s greatest contribution was telling the Red Army to stand down when his predecessors would have ordered bloodshed. Soviet troops stood aside as the Berlin Wall fell and other pro-democracy uprisings broke out across Eastern Europe in 1989. As the threat of nuclear war receded, the man known affectionately in the West as “Gorby” was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Story continues below ad World leaders react to death of Mikhail Gorbachev with tributes on social media Equally famous were Mr. Gorbachev’s world-changing policies perestroika (“reform”) and sound volume (“opening”) in which the USSR underwent catastrophic economic and political changes that brought about the collapse of the system of totalitarianism that had lasted from Vladimir Lenin to Leonid Brezhnev to Konstantin Chernenko, Mr. Gorbachev’s immediate predecessor. The void was filled by an era of wild street politics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with McDonald’s and Coca-Cola arriving in Moscow while the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union went their separate ways. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised Mr. Gorbachev on Tuesday as “a one-of-a-kind politician who changed the course of history. He did more than any other individual to bring about a peaceful end to the Cold War.” Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russian President would send a telegram of condolence to Mr Gorbachev’s family and friends. Images are not available offline. Mr. Gorbachev addresses locals and the press in Siauliai on January 12, 1990 during his three-day visit to the Lithuanian Soviet Republic. Lithuania legally separated from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990. VITALY ARMAND/Getty Images In a conversation in the early 2000s with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Gorbachev said that the ideas that evolved into perestroika and sound volume were born during an early 1980s visit to Canada, a visit that took place shortly before he rose to the post of secretary general. Mr. Gorbachev, who was born into a poor farming family in southern Russia, and who worked on a collective farm in his youth, was hosted at a farm outside Windsor, Ont., by then-Agriculture Secretary Eugene Whelan. Another guest was Alexander Yakovlev, the Soviet ambassador in Ottawa. Mr. Gorbachev said that walking alone in Mr. Whelan’s fields, he and Yakovlev realized they shared the belief that the USSR was in desperate need of reform. It was a walk that changed the world – and not a conversation they could safely have in Moscow. After rising to the top job, Mr. Gorbachev brought Mr. Yakovlev into the Politburo, the small group of officials that ran the USSR. They were joined by another reformist like-minded, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. The tolerance shown by reformers as Eastern Europe abandoned its experiment with communism did not extend to the USSR itself, which Mr. Gorbachev tried in vain to contain. Fourteen people were killed in Lithuania in 1991 in clashes that began after Soviet troops seized government buildings in response to a declaration by the country’s parliament to restore Lithuania’s independence after five decades of Soviet occupation. Images are not available offline. US President Ronald Reagan, right, shakes hands with Mr Gorbachev after the two leaders signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington on December 8, 1987. BOB DAUGHERTY/The Associated Press Mr. Gorbachev’s reformist credentials were also tarnished by his decision to order a business-as-usual approach even as Soviet officials became aware of the 1986 nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl facility in northern Ukraine. Story continues below ad Mr. Gorbachev was often caught between them, including his one-time protégé Boris Yeltsin, who wanted to see reforms move faster, and hard-liners who resisted any kind of change. In August 1991, the hardliners moved against Mr. Gorbachev, trying to seize power in Moscow while Mr. Gorbachev was on vacation in Crimea. The coup attempt failed when Mr Yeltsin rallied his supporters outside the White House in Moscow – an event that marked the rise of Mr Yeltsin and an independent Russia and the beginning of the end for Mr Gorbachev and the USSR. On Christmas Day that year, Mr. Gorbachev announced his resignation. Within days, the Soviet Union ceased to exist, replaced by a Russian Federation headed by Mr. Yeltsin as president, along with 14 other independent countries. During the three decades that followed, Mr. Gorbachev was hailed as a hero in the West for helping end the Cold War, even as he was reviled in Russia for destroying the country’s empire. Accusations that Mr. Gorbachev was a “traitor” who had sold out his country grew louder as Russia descended into political chaos and a deep economic crisis in the late 1990s. Images are not available offline. Mr. Gorbachev, left, former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, center, and former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher pose for photographers next to a piece of the Berlin Wall during the opening of the Museum of Glienicker Bridge in Potsdam on November 8, 2009, as part of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. MICHAEL KAPPELER/Getty Images The depth of Mr. Gorbachev’s unpopularity at home became clear when he ran against Mr. Yeltsin in Russia’s 1996 presidential election, finishing seventh with less than 0.5 percent of the vote. After that, Mr. Gorbachev faded into semi-retirement, making only occasional statements about the direction Russia was taking under Mr. Yeltsin and his chosen successor, Mr. Putin. A fierce critic of Mr. Yeltsin’s tumultuous rule, Mr. Gorbachev was initially a supporter of Mr. Putin and attended his first presidential inauguration in 2000. But Mr. Gorbachev became a critic when Mr. Putin returned to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012, accusing the former KGB agent – who openly lamented the collapse of the USSR – of “castrating” Russia’s fledgling republic, Mr. Gorbachev was equally critical of what he saw as American triumphalism and a lack of respect for Russian interests. He was critical of the post-Cold War expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into Eastern Europe, moves he said violated a verbal promise he had made that NATO would not expand eastward. NATO’s eastward expansion and the possibility that Ukraine might one day join the alliance were used by Mr Putin to justify his February 24 decision to invade Ukraine. Western scholars have noted that the promise to Mr. Gorbachev was never put in writing. Sergei Utkin, a Russian scholar of international relations, said that while Mr Gorbachev’s rule had ended in “failure”, he had “started an urgently needed reform and allowed people to speak freely, for the first time in many decades”. Images are not available offline. Mr Gorbachev leaves his handprints in plaster bolted to an original piece of the Berlin Wall from the former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing in Nove. 7, 2014 in Berlin. ODD ANDERSEN/Getty Images Mr Utkin said the changes unlocked by Mr Gorbachev were continuing. “Although now it seems we are back in the old vicious cycle, I think we have made a lot of progress since then and gained experience that will help us in the future. … The transformation that started from perestroika it’s going to continue.” The Ukraine war and Russia’s slide into dictatorship is a sad end to the era of euphoria dubbed ‘Gorbymania’. The Soviet leader and his chic wife Raisa, who died in 1999, were global celebrities to the extent that Mr Gorbachev appeared in a 1998 TV ad for Pizza Hut. Mr. Gorbachev’s mixed heritage at home was the central theme of the ad. “Because of this, we have a financial mess!” A man says after the former leader was spotted eating at a branch of the American restaurant in Moscow. “Because of this, we have new opportunities,” counters another customer. An old lady finally settled the argument by pointing out that Mr. Gorbachev had brought many things to Russia, including Pizza Hut. But this, like many others, has been reversed by Mr Putin. Pizza Hut, like many international brands, has now ceased operations in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine. Images are not available offline. US President George HW Bush, left, and Mr Gorbachev shake hands in front of US and Soviet Union flags at the end of a news conference in Moscow on July 31, 1991. RICK WILKING/Reuters
title: “Mikhail Gorbachev Soviet Leader Who Helped End Cold War Dies Aged 91 Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-30” author: “Sandra Chambers”
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev addresses a group of 150 business executives in San Francisco on June 5, 1990. David Longstreath/The Associated Press Mikhail Gorbachev, who presided over the peaceful collapse of the Soviet empire only to see that legacy succumb to Vladimir Putin’s revanchist Russia, died on Tuesday aged 91 after a long illness. Few people have shaped modern geopolitics more than Mr. Gorbachev, who rose to the position of general secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR in 1986 after his two immediate predecessors died within 13 months of each other. A relatively young 54 when he took office, Mr. Gorbachev was the first and only Soviet leader born after the Russian Revolution of 1917. He opened the country’s closed political and economic system to changes that would eventually explode it. Mr. Gorbachev’s greatest contribution was telling the Red Army to stand down when his predecessors would have ordered bloodshed. Soviet troops stood aside as the Berlin Wall fell and other pro-democracy uprisings broke out across Eastern Europe in 1989. As the threat of nuclear war receded, the man known affectionately in the West as “Gorby” was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Story continues below ad World leaders react to death of Mikhail Gorbachev with tributes on social media Equally famous were Mr. Gorbachev’s world-changing policies perestroika (“reform”) and sound volume (“opening”) in which the USSR underwent catastrophic economic and political changes that brought about the collapse of the system of totalitarianism that had lasted from Vladimir Lenin to Leonid Brezhnev to Konstantin Chernenko, Mr. Gorbachev’s immediate predecessor. The void was filled by an era of wild street politics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with McDonald’s and Coca-Cola arriving in Moscow while the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union went their separate ways. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised Mr. Gorbachev on Tuesday as “a one-of-a-kind politician who changed the course of history. He did more than any other individual to bring about a peaceful end to the Cold War.” Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russian President would send a telegram of condolence to Mr Gorbachev’s family and friends. Images are not available offline. Mr. Gorbachev addresses locals and the press in Siauliai on January 12, 1990 during his three-day visit to the Lithuanian Soviet Republic. Lithuania legally separated from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990. VITALY ARMAND/Getty Images In a conversation in the early 2000s with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Gorbachev said that the ideas that evolved into perestroika and sound volume were born during an early 1980s visit to Canada, a visit that took place shortly before he rose to the post of secretary general. Mr. Gorbachev, who was born into a poor farming family in southern Russia, and who worked on a collective farm in his youth, was hosted at a farm outside Windsor, Ont., by then-Agriculture Secretary Eugene Whelan. Another guest was Alexander Yakovlev, the Soviet ambassador in Ottawa. Mr. Gorbachev said that walking alone in Mr. Whelan’s fields, he and Yakovlev realized they shared the belief that the USSR was in desperate need of reform. It was a walk that changed the world – and not a conversation they could safely have in Moscow. After rising to the top job, Mr. Gorbachev brought Mr. Yakovlev into the Politburo, the small group of officials that ran the USSR. They were joined by another reformist like-minded, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. The tolerance shown by reformers as Eastern Europe abandoned its experiment with communism did not extend to the USSR itself, which Mr. Gorbachev tried in vain to contain. Fourteen people were killed in Lithuania in 1991 in clashes that began after Soviet troops seized government buildings in response to a declaration by the country’s parliament to restore Lithuania’s independence after five decades of Soviet occupation. Images are not available offline. US President Ronald Reagan, right, shakes hands with Mr Gorbachev after the two leaders signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington on December 8, 1987. BOB DAUGHERTY/The Associated Press Mr. Gorbachev’s reformist credentials were also tarnished by his decision to order a business-as-usual approach even as Soviet officials became aware of the 1986 nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl facility in northern Ukraine. Story continues below ad Mr. Gorbachev was often caught between them, including his one-time protégé Boris Yeltsin, who wanted to see reforms move faster, and hard-liners who resisted any kind of change. In August 1991, the hardliners moved against Mr. Gorbachev, trying to seize power in Moscow while Mr. Gorbachev was on vacation in Crimea. The coup attempt failed when Mr Yeltsin rallied his supporters outside the White House in Moscow – an event that marked the rise of Mr Yeltsin and an independent Russia and the beginning of the end for Mr Gorbachev and the USSR. On Christmas Day that year, Mr. Gorbachev announced his resignation. Within days, the Soviet Union ceased to exist, replaced by a Russian Federation headed by Mr. Yeltsin as president, along with 14 other independent countries. During the three decades that followed, Mr. Gorbachev was hailed as a hero in the West for helping end the Cold War, even as he was reviled in Russia for destroying the country’s empire. Accusations that Mr. Gorbachev was a “traitor” who had sold out his country grew louder as Russia descended into political chaos and a deep economic crisis in the late 1990s. Images are not available offline. Mr. Gorbachev, left, former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, center, and former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher pose for photographers next to a piece of the Berlin Wall during the opening of the Museum of Glienicker Bridge in Potsdam on November 8, 2009, as part of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. MICHAEL KAPPELER/Getty Images The depth of Mr. Gorbachev’s unpopularity at home became clear when he ran against Mr. Yeltsin in Russia’s 1996 presidential election, finishing seventh with less than 0.5 percent of the vote. After that, Mr. Gorbachev faded into semi-retirement, making only occasional statements about the direction Russia was taking under Mr. Yeltsin and his chosen successor, Mr. Putin. A fierce critic of Mr. Yeltsin’s tumultuous rule, Mr. Gorbachev was initially a supporter of Mr. Putin and attended his first presidential inauguration in 2000. But Mr. Gorbachev became a critic when Mr. Putin returned to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012, accusing the former KGB agent – who openly lamented the collapse of the USSR – of “castrating” Russia’s fledgling republic, Mr. Gorbachev was equally critical of what he saw as American triumphalism and a lack of respect for Russian interests. He was critical of the post-Cold War expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into Eastern Europe, moves he said violated a verbal promise he had made that NATO would not expand eastward. NATO’s eastward expansion and the possibility that Ukraine might one day join the alliance were used by Mr Putin to justify his February 24 decision to invade Ukraine. Western scholars have noted that the promise to Mr. Gorbachev was never put in writing. Sergei Utkin, a Russian scholar of international relations, said that while Mr Gorbachev’s rule had ended in “failure”, he had “started an urgently needed reform and allowed people to speak freely, for the first time in many decades”. Images are not available offline. Mr Gorbachev leaves his handprints in plaster bolted to an original piece of the Berlin Wall from the former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing in Nove. 7, 2014 in Berlin. ODD ANDERSEN/Getty Images Mr Utkin said the changes unlocked by Mr Gorbachev were continuing. “Although now it seems we are back in the old vicious cycle, I think we have made a lot of progress since then and gained experience that will help us in the future. … The transformation that started from perestroika it’s going to continue.” The Ukraine war and Russia’s slide into dictatorship is a sad end to the era of euphoria dubbed ‘Gorbymania’. The Soviet leader and his chic wife Raisa, who died in 1999, were global celebrities to the extent that Mr Gorbachev appeared in a 1998 TV ad for Pizza Hut. Mr. Gorbachev’s mixed heritage at home was the central theme of the ad. “Because of this, we have a financial mess!” A man says after the former leader was spotted eating at a branch of the American restaurant in Moscow. “Because of this, we have new opportunities,” counters another customer. An old lady finally settled the argument by pointing out that Mr. Gorbachev had brought many things to Russia, including Pizza Hut. But this, like many others, has been reversed by Mr Putin. Pizza Hut, like many international brands, has now ceased operations in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine. Images are not available offline. US President George HW Bush, left, and Mr Gorbachev shake hands in front of US and Soviet Union flags at the end of a news conference in Moscow on July 31, 1991. RICK WILKING/Reuters
title: “Mikhail Gorbachev Soviet Leader Who Helped End Cold War Dies Aged 91 Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-03” author: “Ryan Greenwood”
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev addresses a group of 150 business executives in San Francisco on June 5, 1990. David Longstreath/The Associated Press Mikhail Gorbachev, who presided over the peaceful collapse of the Soviet empire only to see that legacy succumb to Vladimir Putin’s revanchist Russia, died on Tuesday aged 91 after a long illness. Few people have shaped modern geopolitics more than Mr. Gorbachev, who rose to the position of general secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR in 1986 after his two immediate predecessors died within 13 months of each other. A relatively young 54 when he took office, Mr. Gorbachev was the first and only Soviet leader born after the Russian Revolution of 1917. He opened the country’s closed political and economic system to changes that would eventually explode it. Mr. Gorbachev’s greatest contribution was telling the Red Army to stand down when his predecessors would have ordered bloodshed. Soviet troops stood aside as the Berlin Wall fell and other pro-democracy uprisings broke out across Eastern Europe in 1989. As the threat of nuclear war receded, the man known affectionately in the West as “Gorby” was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Story continues below ad World leaders react to death of Mikhail Gorbachev with tributes on social media Equally famous were Mr. Gorbachev’s world-changing policies perestroika (“reform”) and sound volume (“opening”) in which the USSR underwent catastrophic economic and political changes that brought about the collapse of the system of totalitarianism that had lasted from Vladimir Lenin to Leonid Brezhnev to Konstantin Chernenko, Mr. Gorbachev’s immediate predecessor. The void was filled by an era of wild street politics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with McDonald’s and Coca-Cola arriving in Moscow while the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union went their separate ways. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised Mr. Gorbachev on Tuesday as “a one-of-a-kind politician who changed the course of history. He did more than any other individual to bring about a peaceful end to the Cold War.” Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russian President would send a telegram of condolence to Mr Gorbachev’s family and friends. Images are not available offline. Mr. Gorbachev addresses locals and the press in Siauliai on January 12, 1990 during his three-day visit to the Lithuanian Soviet Republic. Lithuania legally separated from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990. VITALY ARMAND/Getty Images In a conversation in the early 2000s with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Gorbachev said that the ideas that evolved into perestroika and sound volume were born during an early 1980s visit to Canada, a visit that took place shortly before he rose to the post of secretary general. Mr. Gorbachev, who was born into a poor farming family in southern Russia, and who worked on a collective farm in his youth, was hosted at a farm outside Windsor, Ont., by then-Agriculture Secretary Eugene Whelan. Another guest was Alexander Yakovlev, the Soviet ambassador in Ottawa. Mr. Gorbachev said that walking alone in Mr. Whelan’s fields, he and Yakovlev realized they shared the belief that the USSR was in desperate need of reform. It was a walk that changed the world – and not a conversation they could safely have in Moscow. After rising to the top job, Mr. Gorbachev brought Mr. Yakovlev into the Politburo, the small group of officials that ran the USSR. They were joined by another reformist like-minded, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. The tolerance shown by reformers as Eastern Europe abandoned its experiment with communism did not extend to the USSR itself, which Mr. Gorbachev tried in vain to contain. Fourteen people were killed in Lithuania in 1991 in clashes that began after Soviet troops seized government buildings in response to a declaration by the country’s parliament to restore Lithuania’s independence after five decades of Soviet occupation. Images are not available offline. US President Ronald Reagan, right, shakes hands with Mr Gorbachev after the two leaders signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington on December 8, 1987. BOB DAUGHERTY/The Associated Press Mr. Gorbachev’s reformist credentials were also tarnished by his decision to order a business-as-usual approach even as Soviet officials became aware of the 1986 nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl facility in northern Ukraine. Story continues below ad Mr. Gorbachev was often caught between them, including his one-time protégé Boris Yeltsin, who wanted to see reforms move faster, and hard-liners who resisted any kind of change. In August 1991, the hardliners moved against Mr. Gorbachev, trying to seize power in Moscow while Mr. Gorbachev was on vacation in Crimea. The coup attempt failed when Mr Yeltsin rallied his supporters outside the White House in Moscow – an event that marked the rise of Mr Yeltsin and an independent Russia and the beginning of the end for Mr Gorbachev and the USSR. On Christmas Day that year, Mr. Gorbachev announced his resignation. Within days, the Soviet Union ceased to exist, replaced by a Russian Federation headed by Mr. Yeltsin as president, along with 14 other independent countries. During the three decades that followed, Mr. Gorbachev was hailed as a hero in the West for helping end the Cold War, even as he was reviled in Russia for destroying the country’s empire. Accusations that Mr. Gorbachev was a “traitor” who had sold out his country grew louder as Russia descended into political chaos and a deep economic crisis in the late 1990s. Images are not available offline. Mr. Gorbachev, left, former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, center, and former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher pose for photographers next to a piece of the Berlin Wall during the opening of the Museum of Glienicker Bridge in Potsdam on November 8, 2009, as part of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. MICHAEL KAPPELER/Getty Images The depth of Mr. Gorbachev’s unpopularity at home became clear when he ran against Mr. Yeltsin in Russia’s 1996 presidential election, finishing seventh with less than 0.5 percent of the vote. After that, Mr. Gorbachev faded into semi-retirement, making only occasional statements about the direction Russia was taking under Mr. Yeltsin and his chosen successor, Mr. Putin. A fierce critic of Mr. Yeltsin’s tumultuous rule, Mr. Gorbachev was initially a supporter of Mr. Putin and attended his first presidential inauguration in 2000. But Mr. Gorbachev became a critic when Mr. Putin returned to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012, accusing the former KGB agent – who openly lamented the collapse of the USSR – of “castrating” Russia’s fledgling republic, Mr. Gorbachev was equally critical of what he saw as American triumphalism and a lack of respect for Russian interests. He was critical of the post-Cold War expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into Eastern Europe, moves he said violated a verbal promise he had made that NATO would not expand eastward. NATO’s eastward expansion and the possibility that Ukraine might one day join the alliance were used by Mr Putin to justify his February 24 decision to invade Ukraine. Western scholars have noted that the promise to Mr. Gorbachev was never put in writing. Sergei Utkin, a Russian scholar of international relations, said that while Mr Gorbachev’s rule had ended in “failure”, he had “started an urgently needed reform and allowed people to speak freely, for the first time in many decades”. Images are not available offline. Mr Gorbachev leaves his handprints in plaster bolted to an original piece of the Berlin Wall from the former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing in Nove. 7, 2014 in Berlin. ODD ANDERSEN/Getty Images Mr Utkin said the changes unlocked by Mr Gorbachev were continuing. “Although now it seems we are back in the old vicious cycle, I think we have made a lot of progress since then and gained experience that will help us in the future. … The transformation that started from perestroika it’s going to continue.” The Ukraine war and Russia’s slide into dictatorship is a sad end to the era of euphoria dubbed ‘Gorbymania’. The Soviet leader and his chic wife Raisa, who died in 1999, were global celebrities to the extent that Mr Gorbachev appeared in a 1998 TV ad for Pizza Hut. Mr. Gorbachev’s mixed heritage at home was the central theme of the ad. “Because of this, we have a financial mess!” A man says after the former leader was spotted eating at a branch of the American restaurant in Moscow. “Because of this, we have new opportunities,” counters another customer. An old lady finally settled the argument by pointing out that Mr. Gorbachev had brought many things to Russia, including Pizza Hut. But this, like many others, has been reversed by Mr Putin. Pizza Hut, like many international brands, has now ceased operations in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine. Images are not available offline. US President George HW Bush, left, and Mr Gorbachev shake hands in front of US and Soviet Union flags at the end of a news conference in Moscow on July 31, 1991. RICK WILKING/Reuters
