-
Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev redirects here. For other uses, seeGorbachev
(disambiguation).This name uses Eastern Slavic naming customs;
thepatronymic is Sergeyevich and the family name is Gor-bachev.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (/rbtf, -tf/;[1] Russian: ,
tr.Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachov; IPA: [mxil sre-jvt rbtf]; born 2
March 1931) is a formerSoviet statesman. He was the eighth and last
leader ofthe Soviet Union, having served as General Secretary ofthe
Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985until 1991 when the
party was dissolved. He served asthe countrys head of state from
1988 until its dissolutionin 1991 (titled as Chairman of the
Presidium of theSupreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, as Chairman of
theSupreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990, and as President ofthe Soviet
Union from 1990 to 1991). He was the onlygeneral secretary in the
history of the Soviet Union tohave been born after the October
Revolution.Gorbachev was born in Stavropol Krai into a
peasantUkrainianRussian family, and in his teens operatedcombine
harvesters on collective farms. He graduatedfrom Moscow State
University in 1955 with a degreein law. While he was at the
university, he joined theCommunist Party, and soon became very
active withinit. In 1970, he was appointed the First Party
Secretaryof the Stavropol Regional Committee, First Secretary tothe
Supreme Soviet in 1974, and appointed a member ofthe Politburo in
1979. Within three years of the death ofSoviet leader Leonid
Brezhnev, following the brief in-terregna of Andropov and
Chernenko, Gorbachev waselected General Secretary by the Politburo
in 1985. Be-fore he reached the post, he had occasionally been
men-tioned in Western newspapers as a likely next leader anda man
of the younger generation at the top level.Gorbachevs policies of
glasnost (openness) andperestroika (restructuring) and his
reorientation of So-viet strategic aims contributed to the end of
the ColdWar. He removed the constitutional role of the Commu-nist
Party in governing the state, and inadvertently led tothe
dissolution of the Soviet Union. He was awarded theOtto Hahn Peace
Medal in 1989, the Nobel Peace Prizein 1990 and the Harvey Prize in
1992, as well as honorarydoctorates from various universities.In
September 2008, Gorbachev and business oligarchAlexander Lebedev
announced they would form the
Independent Democratic Party of Russia,[2] and inMay 2009
Gorbachev announced that the launch wasimminent.[3] This was
Gorbachevs third attempt to es-tablish a political party, having
started the Social Demo-cratic Party of Russia in 2001 and the
Union of SocialDemocrats in 2007.[4]
1 Early and personal life
Gorbachev was born on 2 March 1931 in Privolnoye,Stavropol Krai,
Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, into amixed Russian-Ukrainian family[5]
of migrants fromVoronezh and Chernigov Governorates. As a child,
Gor-bachev experienced the Soviet famine of 19321933.He recalled in
a memoir that In that terrible year [in1933] nearly half the
population of my native village,Privolnoye, starved to death,
including two sisters andone brother of my father.[6] Both of his
grandfatherswere arrested on false charges in the 1930s; his
pater-nal grandfather Andrey Moiseyevich Gorbachev ( ) was sent to
exile in Siberia.[7][8]
His father was a combine harvester operator and WorldWar II
veteran, named Sergey Andreyevich Gorbachev.His mother, Maria
Panteleyevna Gorbacheva (ne Gop-kalo), was a kolkhoz worker.[8] He
was brought up mainlyby his Ukrainian maternal grandparents. In his
teens,he operated combine harvesters on collective farms.
Hegraduated from Moscow State University in 1955 witha degree in
law. In 1967 he qualified as an agriculturaleconomist via a
correspondence masters degree at theStavropol Institute of
Agriculture. While at the univer-sity, he joined the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union(CPSU) and soon became very active within
the party.Gorbachevmet his future wife, Raisa Titarenko, daughterof
a Ukrainian railway engineer, at Moscow State Uni-versity. They
married in September 1953 and moved toStavropol upon graduation.
She gave birth to their onlychild, daughter Irina Mikhailovna
Virganskaya ( ), in 1957. Raisa Gorbachevadied of leukemia in
1999.[9] Gorbachev has two grand-daughters (Ksenia and Anastasia)
and one great grand-daughter (Aleksandra).
1
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2 3 GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE CPSU
2 Rise in the Communist Party
Gorbachev attended the important twenty-second PartyCongress in
October 1961, where Nikita Khrushchev an-nounced a plan to surpass
the U.S. in per capita produc-tion within twenty years. Gorbachev
rose in the Com-munist League hierarchy and worked his way up
throughterritorial leagues of the party. He was promoted to Headof
the Department of Party Organs in the Stavropol Re-gional Committee
in 1963.[10]
In 1970, he was appointed First Party Secretary of theStavropol
Regional Committee, a body of the CPSU, be-coming one of the
youngest provincial party chiefs in thenation.[10] In this position
he helped reorganise the col-lective farms, improve workers living
conditions, expandthe size of their private plots, and gave them a
greatervoice in planning.[10]
Identity cards of the General Secretary Central Committee of
theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)Mikhail
Gorbachev(1986-1991 yy.)
He was soon made a member of the Communist PartyCentral
Committee in 1971. Three years later, in 1974,he was made a Deputy
to the Supreme Soviet of theSoviet Union and Chairman of the
Standing Commis-sion on Youth Affairs. He was subsequently
appointedto the Central Committees Secretariat for Agriculturein
1978, replacing Fyodor Kulakov, who had supportedGorbachevs
appointment, after Kulakov died of a heartattack.[10][11] In 1979,
Gorbachev was elected a candidate(non-voting) member of the
Politburo, the highest author-ity in the country, and received full
membership in 1980.Gorbachev owed his steady rise to power to the
patron-age of Mikhail Suslov, the powerful chief ideologist ofthe
CPSU.[12]
During Yuri Andropovs tenure as General Secretary(19821984),
Gorbachev became one of the Politburosmost visible and active
members.[12] With responsibilityover personnel, working together
with Andropov, 20 per-cent of the top echelon of government
ministers and re-gional governors were replaced, often with younger
men.During this time Grigory Romanov, Nikolai Ryzhkov,and Yegor
Ligachev were elevated, the latter two work-ing closely with
Gorbachev, Ryzhkov on economics, Lig-achev on personnel.[13]
Gorbachevs positions within the CPSU created more op-portunities
to travel abroad, and this would profoundly af-fect his political
and social views in the future as leaderof the country. In 1972, he
headed a Soviet delegation to
Gorbachev in 1966
Belgium,[10] and three years later he led a delegation toWest
Germany; in 1983 he headed a delegation to Canadato meet with Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau and mem-bers of the Commons and Senate. In
1984, he travelledto the United Kingdom, where he met British
PrimeMin-ister Margaret Thatcher.Andropov died in 1984, and
indicated that he wantedGorbachev to succeed him as General
Secretary. Instead,the aged Konstantin Chernenko took power, even
thoughhe himself was terminally ill.[14] After Chernenkos deaththe
following year, it became clear to the party hierarchythat younger
leadership was needed.[15] Gorbachev waselected General Secretary
by the Politburo on 11 March1985, only three hours after Chernenkos
death. Uponhis accession at age 54, he was the youngest member
ofthe Politburo.[12] Hewas also the first person to be electedparty
leader after having initially failed in a previous bidfor the
post.[14]
3 General Secretary of the CPSU
Mikhail Gorbachev was the Partys first leader to havebeen born
after the Revolution. As de facto ruler ofthe USSR, he tried to
reform the stagnating Party andthe state economy by introducing
glasnost (openness),perestroika (restructuring), demokratizatsiya
(democ-ratization), and uskoreniye (acceleration of
economicdevelopment), which were launched at the 27th Congressof
the CPSU in February 1986.
3.1 Domestic reforms
Gorbachevs primary goal as General Secretary was torevive the
Soviet economy after the stagnant Brezh-nev years.[12] In 1985, he
announced that the econ-omy was stalled and that reorganization was
needed.Gorbachev proposed a vague programme of reform,which was
adopted at the April Plenum of the Cen-tral Committee.[11] He
called for fast-paced technologicalmodernization and increased
industrial and agricultural
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3.1 Domestic reforms 3
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev shakinghands
at the American-Soviet summit in Washington, D.C., in1987
productivity, and tried to reform the Soviet bureaucracyto be
more efficient and prosperous.[12]
Gorbachev soon came to believe that fixing the Sovieteconomy
would be nearly impossible without reform-ing the political and
social structure of the Communistnation.[17] He also initiated the
concept of gospriyomka(state acceptance of production) during his
time asleader,[18] which represented quality control.[19]
In a speech in May 1985 in Leningrad (now St. Peters-burg), he
advocated widespread reforms. The reformsbegan with personnel
changes, most notably by replac-ing Andrei Gromyko with Eduard
Shevardnadze as Min-ister of Foreign Affairs. Gromyko, disparaged
as MrNyet in the West, had served in the post for 28 yearsand was
considered an 'old thinker'. Robert D. Englishnotes that, despite
Shevardnadzes diplomatic inexperi-ence, Gorbachev shared with him
an outlook and ex-perience in managing an agricultural region of
the SovietUnion (Georgia), which meant that both had weak linksto
the powerful military-industrial complex.[20]
A number of reformist ideas were discussed by Polit-buro
members. One of the first reforms Gorbachev in-troduced was the
anti-alcohol campaign, begun in May1985, which was designed to
fight widespread alcoholismin the Soviet Union. Prices of vodka,
wine, and beerwere raised, and their sales were restricted. It was
pur-sued vigorously and cut both alcohol sales and govern-ment
revenue.[21] As a result, alcohol production mi-
grated to the black market economy and dealt a blow tostate
revenuea loss of approximately 100 billion rubles,according to
Alexander Yakovlev. However, the programproved to be a useful
symbol for change in the country.[21]
The purpose of reform, was to prop up the centrallyplanned
economy, not to transition to market socialism.Speaking in late
summer 1985 to the secretaries for eco-nomic affairs of the central
committees of the East Euro-pean communist parties, Gorbachev said:
Many of yousee the solution to your problems in resorting to
marketmechanisms in place of direct planning. Some of youlook at
the market as a lifesaver for your economies. But,comrades, you
should not think about lifesavers but aboutthe ship, and the ship
is socialism.[22]
3.1.1 Perestroika
Main article: PerestroikaGorbachev initiated his new policy of
perestroika (liter-
Gorbachev at the Brandenburg Gate in 1986 during a visit to
EastGermany
ally restructuring in Russian) and its attendant radicalreforms
in 1986; they were sketched, but not fully spelledout, at the
XXVIIth Party Congress in FebruaryMarch1986. The reconstruction was
proposed in an attemptto overcome the economic stagnation by
creating a de-pendable and effective mechanism for accelerating
eco-nomic and social progress.[23]
According to Gorbachev, perestroikawas the conferenceof
development of democracy, socialist self-government,encouragement
of initiative and creative endeavor, im-proved order and disciple,
more glasnost, criticism andself-criticism in all spheres of our
society. It is utmostrespect for the individual and consideration
for personaldignity.[23]
Domestic changes continued. In a bombshell speech dur-ing
Armenian SSR's Central Committee Plenum of the
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4 3 GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE CPSU
Communist Party, the young First Secretary of ArmeniasHrazdan
Regional Communist Party, Hayk Kotanjian,criticised rampant
corruption in the Armenian Commu-nist Partys highest echelons,
implicating Armenian SSRCommunist Party First Secretary Karen
Demirchyan andcalling for his resignation. Symbolically,
intellectualAndrei Sakharov was invited to return to Moscow
byGorbachev in December 1986 after six years of internalexile in
Gorky. During the samemonth, however, signs ofthe nationalities
problem that would haunt the later yearsof the Soviet Union
surfaced as riots, named Jeltoqsan,occurred in Kazakhstan after
Dinmukhamed Kunayevwas replaced as First Secretary of the Communist
Partyof Kazakhstan.The Central Committee Plenum in January 1987 saw
thecrystallisation of Gorbachevs political reforms,
includingproposals for multi-candidate elections and the
appoint-ment of non-Party members to government positions. Healso
first raised the idea of expanding co-operatives. Eco-nomic reforms
took up much of the rest of 1987, as a newlaw giving enterprises
more independence was passed inJune and Gorbachev released a book,
Perestroika: NewThinking for Our Country and the World, in
November,elucidating his main ideas for reform. In 1987, he
reha-bilitatedmany opponents of Joseph Stalin, another part ofthe
De-Stalinization, which began in 1956, when LeninsTestament was
published.
3.1.2 Glasnost
Main article: Glasnost1988 would see Gorbachevs introduction of
glasnost,
Gorbachev with Erich Honecker, East Germany
which gave the Soviet people freedoms that they hadnever
previously known, including greater freedom ofspeech. The press
became far less controlled, and thou-sands of political prisoners
and many dissidents were re-leased. Gorbachevs goal in undertaking
glasnost was topressure conservatives within the CPSU who opposed
hispolicies of economic restructuring, and he also hoped
thatthrough different ranges of openness, debate and
partic-ipation, the Soviet people would support his reform
ini-tiatives. At the same time, he opened himself and hisreforms up
for more public criticism, evident in Nina An-
dreyeva's critical letter in a March edition of
SovetskayaRossiya.[11] Gorbachev acknowledged that his
liberalis-ing policies of glasnost and perestroika owed a great
dealto Alexander Dubek's Socialism with a human face.Indeed, when
one reporter asked him what was the dif-ference between his
policies and the Prague Spring, Gor-bachev replied, Nineteen
years.[24]
The Law on Cooperatives, enacted inMay 1988, was per-haps the
most radical economic reform of the early Gor-bachev era. For the
first time since Vladimir Lenin's NewEconomic Policy, the law
permitted private ownershipof businesses in the service,
manufacturing, and foreign-trade sectors. The law initially imposed
high taxes andemployment restrictions, although these were ignored
bysome SSRs. Later, the restrictions were revised to
avoiddiscouraging private-sector activity. Under the provisionfor
private ownership, cooperative restaurants, shops, andmanufacturers
became part of the Soviet scene. Underthe new law, the
restructuring of large All-Union in-dustrial organisations also
began. Aeroflot was split up,eventually becoming several
independent airlines. Thesenewly autonomous business organisations
were encour-aged to seek foreign investment.In June 1988, at the
CPSUs Party Conference, Gor-bachev launched radical reforms meant
to reduce partycontrol of the government apparatus. He proposed a
newexecutive in the form of a presidential system, as well as anew
legislative element, to be called the Congress of Peo-ples
Deputies.[11] Elections to the Congress of PeoplesDeputies were
held throughout the Soviet Union inMarchand April 1989. This was
the first free election in the So-viet Union since 1917. Gorbachev
became Chairman ofthe Supreme Soviet (or head of state) on 25 May
1989.
3.2 Presidency of the USSR
On 15 March 1990, Gorbachev was elected as the firstexecutive
President of the Soviet Union with 59% ofthe Deputies votes. He was
the sole candidate on theballot. The Congress met for the first
time on 25 Mayin order to elect representatives from Congress to
sit onthe Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Nonetheless,the
Congress posed problems for Gorbachev: its ses-sions were
televised, airing more criticism and encour-aging people to expect
ever more rapid reform. In theelections, many Party candidates were
defeated. Further-more, Boris Yeltsin was elected in Moscow and
returnedto political prominence to become an increasingly
vocalcritic of Gorbachev.[11]
Following American practice, Gorbachev chose a VicePresident.
However, when first Shevardnadze, thenKazakh leader Nursultan
Nazarbayev, turned it down,Gorbachev chose Gennady Yanayev, the
head of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and a
knownhardliner. This decision would come back to haunt Gor-bachev
later.[14]
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3.2 Presidency of the USSR 5
3.2.1 Foreign engagements
Gorbachev meets Romanian leader Nicolae Ceauescu, 1985
In contrast to his controversial domestic reforms, Gor-bachev
was largely hailed in the West for his 'new think-ing' in foreign
affairs. During his tenure, he sought to im-prove relations and
trade with the West by reducing ColdWar tensions. He established
close relationships with sev-eral Western leaders, such as West
German ChancellorHelmut Kohl, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and
BritishPrime Minister Margaret Thatcherwho famously re-marked: I
like Mr. Gorbachev; we can do businesstogether.[25]
Gorbachev understood the link between achieving inter-national
dtente and domestic reform and thus beganextending New Thinking
abroad immediately. On 8April 1985, he announced the suspension of
the deploy-ment of SS-20s in Europe as a move towards
resolvingintermediate-range nuclear weapons (INF) issues. Laterthat
year, in September, Gorbachev proposed that the So-viets and
Americans both cut their nuclear arsenals inhalf. He went to France
on his first trip abroad as So-viet leader in October. November saw
the Geneva Sum-mit between Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan. Though
noconcrete agreement was made, Gorbachev and Reaganstruck a
personal relationship and decided to hold furthermeetings.[11]
January 1986 would see Gorbachev make his boldest in-ternational
move so far, when he announced his pro-posal for the elimination of
intermediate-range nuclearweapons in Europe and his strategy for
eliminating allnuclear weapons by the year 2000 (often referred to
asthe 'January Proposal'). He also began the process ofwithdrawing
troops from Afghanistan and Mongolia on28 July.[11] Nonetheless,
many observers, such as JackF. Matlock, Jr. (despite generally
praising Gorbachev aswell as Reagan), have criticized Gorbachev for
taking toolong to achievewithdrawal from theAfghanistanWar, cit-ing
it as an example of lingering elements of old think-
Reagan and Gorbachev with wives (Nancy and Raisa, respec-tively)
attending a dinner at the Soviet Embassy in Washington,DC. 9
December 1987
ing in Gorbachev.[26]
On 11 October 1986, Gorbachev and Reagan met atHfi house in
Reykjavk, Iceland, to discuss reducingintermediate-range nuclear
weapons in Europe. To theimmense surprise of both mens advisers,
the two agreedin principle to removing INF systems from Europe
andto equal global limits of 100 INF missile warheads. Theyalso
essentially agreed in principle to eliminate all nu-clear weapons
in 10 years (by 1996), instead of by theyear 2000 as in Gorbachevs
original outline.[26] Contin-uing trust issues, particularly over
reciprocity and Rea-gans Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), meant
that thesummit is often regarded as a failure for not produc-ing a
concrete agreement immediately, or for leading toa staged
elimination of nuclear weapons. In the longterm, nevertheless, this
would culminate in the signingof the Intermediate-Range Nuclear
Forces (INF) Treatyin 1987, after Gorbachev had proposed this
eliminationon 22 July 1987 (and it was subsequently agreed on
inGeneva on 24 November).[11]
In February 1988, Gorbachev announced the full with-drawal of
Soviet forces from Afghanistan. The with-drawal was completed the
following year, although thecivil war continued as the Mujahedin
pushed to over-throw the pro-Soviet Najibullah government. An
esti-mated 28,000 Soviets were killed between 1979 and 1989as a
result of the Afghanistan War.Also during 1988, Gorbachev announced
that the SovietUnion would abandon the Brezhnev Doctrine, and
allowthe Eastern bloc nations to freely determine their own
in-ternal affairs. Jokingly dubbed the "Sinatra Doctrine"by
Gorbachevs Foreign Ministry spokesman GennadiGerasimov, this policy
of non-intervention in the affairsof the other Warsaw Pact states
proved to be the mostmomentous of Gorbachevs foreign policy
reforms. Inhis 6 July 1989 speech arguing for a "common Euro-pean
home" before the Council of Europe in Strasbourg,France, Gorbachev
declared: The social and politicalorder in some countries changed
in the past, and it canchange in the future too, but this is
entirely a matter for
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6 3 GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE CPSU
Gorbachev in one-on-one discussions with Reagan
each people to decide. Any interference in the internalaffairs,
or any attempt to limit the sovereignty of anotherstate, friend,
ally, or another, would be inadmissible. Amonth earlier, on 4 June
1989, elections had taken placein Poland and the communist
government had alreadybeen deposed.Moscows abandonment of the
Brezhnev Doctrine al-lowed the rise of popular upheavals in Eastern
Europethroughout 1989, in which Communism was overthrown.By the end
of 1989, revolts had spread from one EasternEuropean capital to
another, ousting the regimes built inEastern Europe after World War
II. Except in Romania,the popular upheavals against the pro-Soviet
regimes wereall peaceful (see Revolutions of 1989). The loosening
ofSoviet hegemony over Eastern Europe effectively endedthe Cold
War, and for this, Gorbachev was awarded theOtto Hahn Peace Medal
in Gold in 1989 and the NobelPeace Prize on 15 October 1990.
Reagan and Vice-President Bush meeting with Gorbachev
onGovernors Island, New York City, 7 December 1988
On 9 November, people in East Germany (the GermanDemocratic
Republic, GDR) were suddenly allowed tocross through the Berlin
Wall into West Berlin, followinga peaceful protest against the
countrys dictatorial admin-istration, including a demonstration by
some one millionpeople in East Berlin on 4 November. Unlike earlier
ri-ots which were ended by military force with the help of
the USSR, Gorbachev, who came to be lovingly calledGorby in West
Germany, now decided not to interferewith the process in
Germany.[27] He stated that Germanreunification was an internal
German matter.The rest of 1989 was taken up by the increasingly
prob-lematic question of nationalities and the dramatic
frag-mentation of the Eastern Bloc. Despite
unprecedentedinternational dtente, due to Soviet withdrawal
fromAfghanistan completed in January and continuing talksbetween
Gorbachev and George H. W. Bush, domesticreforms suffered from
increasing divergence between re-formists, who wanted faster
change, and conservatives,who wanted to limit change. Gorbachev
states that hetried to find middle ground between both groups, but
thiswould draw more criticism towards him.[11] The storyfrom this
point onmoves away from reforms and becomesone of the nationalities
question and the eventual dissolu-tion of the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev and George H. W. Bush, 1990
Coit D. Blacker wrote in 1990 that the Soviet leadershipappeared
to have believed that whatever loss of authoritythe Soviet Union
might suffer in Eastern Europe wouldbe more than offset by a net
increase in its influence inWestern Europe.[28] Nevertheless, it is
unlikely that Gor-bachev ever intended for the dismantling of
Communismin Warsaw Pact countries. Rather, he assumed that
theCommunist parties of Eastern Europe could be reformedin a
similar way to the reforms he hoped to achieve in theCPSU. Just as
perestroikawas aimed at making the USSRmore efficient economically
and politically, Gorbachevbelieved that the Comecon and Warsaw Pact
could be re-formed into more effective entities. Alexander
Yakovlev,a close advisor to Gorbachev, would later state that
itwould have been absurd to keep the system in EasternEurope. In
contrast to Gorbachev, Yakovlev had come tothe conclusion that the
Soviet-dominated Comecon wasinherently unworkable and that the
Warsaw Pact had norelevance to real life.[29]
3.2.2 Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Main article: Dissolution of the Soviet Union
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3.2 Presidency of the USSR 7
While Gorbachevs political initiatives were positive forfreedom
and democracy in the Soviet Union and its East-ern bloc allies, the
economic policy of his governmentgradually brought the country
close to disaster. By theend of the 1980s, severe shortages of
basic food supplies(meat, sugar) led to the reintroduction of the
war-timesystem of distribution using food cards that limited
eachcitizen to a certain amount of product per month. Com-pared to
1985, the state deficit grew from 0 to 109 billionrubles; gold
funds decreased from 2,000 to 200 tons; andexternal debt grew from
0 to 120 billion dollars.Furthermore, the democratisation of the
Soviet Unionand Eastern Europe had irreparably undermined thepower
of the CPSU and Gorbachev himself. The relax-ation of censorship
and attempts to create more politi-cal openness had the unintended
effect of re-awakeninglong-suppressed nationalist and anti-Russian
feelings inthe Soviet republics. Calls for greater independence
fromMoscows rule grew louder, especially in the Baltic re-publics
of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, which had beenannexed into the
Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin in 1940.Nationalist feeling also took
hold in Georgia, Ukraine,Armenia, and Azerbaijan.In December 1986,
the first signs of the nationalitiesproblem that would haunt the
later years of the SovietUnions existence surfaced as riots, named
Jeltoqsan, oc-curred in Alma Ata and other areas of Kazakhstan
af-ter Dinmukhamed Kunayev was replaced as First Secre-tary of the
Communist Party of Kazakhstan. National-ism would then surface in
Russia in May 1987, as 600members of Pamyat, a nascent Russian
nationalist group,demonstrated in Moscow and were becoming
increas-ingly linked to Boris Yeltsin, who received their
repre-sentatives at a meeting.[11]
Glasnost hastened awareness of the national sovereigntyproblem.
The free flow of information had been so com-pletely suppressed for
so long in the Soviet Union thatmany of the ruling class had all
but forgotten that theSoviet Union was an empire conquered through
militaryforce. Thus, the extreme degree of local desire for
inde-pendent control of their own affairs took these leaders
bysurprise, and the leaders were unprepared for the depthof the
long pent-up feelings that were released.Violence erupted in
Nagorno-Karabakhan Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijanbetween
February andApril, when Armenians living in the area began a
newwave of demands to transfer of NKAO from Azerbaijanto Armenia
which eventually led to full scale Nagorno-KarabakhWar.[30]
Gorbachev imposed a temporary solu-tion, but it did not last, as
fresh trouble arose in Nagorno-Karabakh between June and July.
Turmoil would onceagain return in late 1988, this time in Armenia
itself,when the Spitak earthquake hit the region on 7 Decem-ber.
Poor local infrastructure magnified the hazard andsome 25,000
people died.[11] Gorbachev was forced tobreak off his trip to the
United States and cancel planned
travel to Cuba and the UK.[11]
In March and April 1989 elections to the Congressof Peoples
Deputies took place throughout the SovietUnion. This returned many
pro-independence repub-licans, as many CPSU candidates were
rejected. Thetelevised Congress debates allowed the dissemination
ofpro-independence propositions. Indeed, 1989 would seenumerous
nationalistic protests; for example, beginningwith the Baltic
republics in January, laws were passed inmost non-Russian republics
giving precedence for the lo-cal language over Russian.
Gorbachev addressing the United Nations General Assembly
inDecember 1988. During the speech he dramatically announceddeep
unilateral cuts in Soviet military forces in Eastern Europe.
9 April would see the crackdown of nationalist demon-strations
by Soviet troops in Tbilisi, Georgia. Therewould be further bloody
protests in Uzbekistan in June,where Uzbeks and Meskhetian Turks
clashed in Fergana,Uzbekistan. Apart from this violence, three
major eventsthat altered the face of the nationalities issue
occurred in1989. Estonia had declared its sovereignty on 16
Novem-ber 1988, to be followed by Lithuania inMay 1989 and byLatvia
in July (the Communist Party of Lithuania wouldalso declare its
independence from the CPSU in Decem-ber). This brought the Union
and the republics into clearconfrontation and would form a
precedent for other re-publics.Around the 50th anniversary of the
signing of the 1939Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in July 1989, the Soviet
gov-
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8 3 GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE CPSU
ernment formally acknowledged that the plan had in-cluded the
placing of the Baltic states into the Sovietsphere of influence,
which paved the way for their an-nexation into the USSR in 1940.
The revelation sup-ported the long-denied proposition that the
Baltic stateshad been involuntarily brought into the Soviet Union,
andso it boosted the Baltic aspirations to reestablish their
in-dependence. Finally, the Eastern bloc fragmented in theautumn of
1989, raising hopes that Gorbachev would ex-tend his
non-interventionist doctrine to the internal work-ings of the
USSR.[11]
Crisis of the Union: 19901991 1990 began withnationalist turmoil
in January. Azerbaijanis riotedand troops were sent in to restore
order; manyMoldovans demonstrated in favour of unification
withpost-Communist Romania; and Lithuanian demonstra-tions
continued. The same month, in a hugely signifi-cant move, Armenia
asserted its right to veto laws com-ing from the All-Union level,
thus intensifying the warof laws between republics and
Moscow.[11]
Soon after, the CPSU, which had already lost muchof its control,
began to lose even more power as Gor-bachev deepened political
reform. The February CentralCommittee Plenum advocated multi-party
elections; lo-cal elections held between February and March
returneda large number of pro-independence candidates. TheCongress
of Peoples Deputies then amended the SovietConstitution in March,
removing Article 6, which guar-anteed the monopoly of the CPSU.
Thus, the political re-form came from above and below, and
gainedmomentumthat would augment republican nationalism. Soon
afterthe constitutional amendment, Lithuania declared inde-pendence
and elected Vytautas Landsbergis as Chairmanof the Supreme Council
(head of state).[11]
On 15 March, Gorbachev himself was elected as thefirstand as it
turned out, onlyPresident of the So-viet Union by the Congress of
Peoples Deputies andchose a Presidential Council of 15 politicians.
Gorbachevwas essentially creating his own political support base
in-dependent of CPSU conservatives and radical reform-ers. The new
Executive was designed to be a power-ful position to guide the
spiraling reform process, andthe Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
and Congress ofPeoples Deputies had already given Gorbachev
increas-ingly presidential powers in February. This was
againcriticized by reformers. Despite the apparent increase
inGorbachevs power, he was unable to stop the process
ofnationalistic assertion. Further embarrassing facts aboutSoviet
history were revealed in April, when the govern-ment admitted that
the NKVD had carried out the in-famous Katyn Massacre of Polish
army officers duringWorld War II; previously, the USSR had blamed
NaziGermany. More significantly for Gorbachevs position,Boris
Yeltsin reached a new level of prominence, as hewas elected
Chairman of the Presidium of the SupremeSoviet of the Russian SFSR
in May, effectively making
him the de jure leader of the Russian Soviet FederativeSocialist
Republic. Problems for Gorbachev once againcame from the Russian
parliament in June, when it de-clared the precedence of Russian
laws over All-Union-level legislation.[11]
Anti-Armenian and anti-government Dushanbe riots inTajikistan,
1990
Gorbachevs personal position continued changing. Atthe 28th CPSU
Congress in July, Gorbachev was re-elected General Secretary but
this position was now com-pletely independent of Soviet government,
and the Polit-buro had no say in the ruling of the country.
Gorbachevfurther reduced Party power in the same month, whenhe
issued a decree abolishing Party control of all areasof the media
and broadcasting. At the same time, Gor-bachev worked to
consolidate his presidential position,culminating in the Supreme
Soviet granting him specialpowers to rule by decree in September in
order to passa much-needed plan for transition to a market
economy.However, the Supreme Soviet could not agree on whichprogram
to adopt. Gorbachev pressed on with politicalreform, his proposal
for setting up a new Soviet govern-ment, with a Soviet of the
Federation consisting of repre-sentatives from all 15 republics,
was passed through theSupreme Soviet in November. In December,
Gorbachevwas once more granted increased executive power by
theSupreme Soviet, arguing that such moves were necessaryto counter
the dark forces of nationalism". Such movesled to Eduard
Shevardnadze's resignation; Gorbachevsformer ally warned of an
impending dictatorship. Thismove was a serious blow to Gorbachev
personally and tohis efforts for reform.[11]
Meanwhile, Gorbachev was losing further ground tonationalists.
October 1990 saw the founding ofDemRossiya, the Russian pro-reform
coalition; a fewdays later, both Ukraine and Russia declared their
lawscompletely sovereign over Soviet laws. The 'war of lawshad
become an open battle, with the Supreme Soviet re-fusing to
recognise the actions of the two republics. Gor-bachev would
publish the draft of a new union treaty inNovember, which
envisioned a continued union calledthe Union of Sovereign Soviet
Republics, but, going into1991, Gorbachevs actions of were steadily
overpowered
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3.2 Presidency of the USSR 9
by secessionism.[11]
Berlin Wall, Thank you, Gorbi!", October 1990
January and February would see a new level of turmoilin the
Baltic republics. On 10 January 1991, Gorbachevissued an
ultimatum-like request addressing the Lithua-nian Supreme Council
demanding the restoration of thevalidity of the constitution of the
Soviet Union in Lithua-nia and revocation of all
anti-constitutional laws.[31] Inhis Memoirs, Gorbachev asserts that
on 12 January heconvened the Council of the Federation which agreed
topolitical measures to prevent bloodshed, including send-ing
representatives of the Council of the Federation on afact-finding
mission to Vilnius. However, before thedelegation arrived, the
local branches of the KGB andarmed forces had worked together to
seize the TV towerin Vilnius; Gorbachev asked the heads of the KGB
andmilitary if they had approved such action, and there is
noevidence that they, or Gorbachev, ever did. Gorbachevcites
documents found in the RSFSR Prokuratura afterthe August coup,
which only mentioned that some 'au-thorities" had sanctioned the
actions.[11]
The book Alpha the KGBs Top Secret Unit also suggeststhat a KGB
operation co-ordinated with the militarywas undertaken by the KGB
Alpha Group.[32] ArchieBrown, in The Gorbachev Factor, uses the
memoirs ofmany people around Gorbachev and in the upper eche-lons
of the Soviet political landscape, to implicate Gen-eral Valentin
Varennikov, a member of the August coupplotters, and General
Vladislav Achalov, another Augustcoup conspirator. These persons
were characterised as in-dividuals who were prepared to remove
Gorbachev fromhis presidential office unconstitutionally and were
morethan capable of using unauthorised violence against
na-tionalist separatists some months earlier. Brown crit-icises
Gorbachev for a conscious tilt in the directionof the conservative
forces he was trying to keep withinan increasingly fragile
coalition who would later betrayhim; he also criticises Gorbachev
for his tougher line andheightened rhetoric against the Lithuanians
in the dayspreceding the attack and for his slowness in
condemningthe killings but notes that Gorbachev did not approve
anyaction and was seeking political solutions.[33]
In continued violence, at least 14 civilians were killed andmore
than 600 injured from 1113 January 1991 in Vil-
nius, Lithuania. News of support for Lithuanians fromWestern
governments began to appear. The strong West-ern reaction and
actions of Russian democratic forces putthe Soviet president and
government into an awkward po-sition. Further problems surfaced in
Riga, Latvia, on 20and 21 January, where OMON (special Ministry of
theInterior troops) killed 4 people. Archie Brown suggeststhat
Gorbachevs response this time was better, condemn-ing the rogue
action, sending his condolences and suggest-ing that secession
could take place if it went through theprocedures outlined in the
Soviet constitution. Accord-ing to Gorbachevs aide, Shakhnazarov,
Gorbachev wasfinally beginning to accept the inevitability of
losing theBaltic republics, although he would try all political
meansto preserve the Union. Brown believes that this put himin
imminent danger of being overthrown by hard-linersopposing
secession.[33]
Gorbachev thus continued to draw up a new treaty ofunion which
would have created a truly voluntary feder-ation in an increasingly
democratised Soviet Union. Thenew treaty was strongly supported by
the Central Asianrepublics, who needed the economic power and
marketsof the Soviet Union to prosper. However, the more rad-ical
reformists, such as Russian SFSR President BorisYeltsin, were
increasingly convinced that a rapid transi-tion to a market economy
was required and were morethan happy to contemplate the
disintegration of the So-viet Union if that was required to achieve
their aims.Nevertheless, a referendum on the future of the
SovietUnion was held in March (with a referendum in Russiaon the
creation of a presidency), which returned an av-erage of 76.4% in
the nine republics where it was taken,with a turnout of 80% of the
adult population.[33] Esto-nia, Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia, Georgia
and Moldovadid not participate. Following this, an April meeting
atNovo-Ogarevo between Gorbachev and the heads of thenine republics
issued a statement on speeding up the cre-ation of a new Union
treaty.In May, a hardline newspaper published Architectamidst the
Ruins, an open letter criticizing Yakovlev (of-ten referred to as
the architect of perestroika") which wassigned by Gennady Zyuganov.
Many also saw this publi-cation as the start of a campaign to oust
Gorbachev.Meanwhile, on 12 June 1991 Boris Yeltsin was
electedPresident of the Russian Federation by 57.3% of the
vote(with a turnout of 74%).[11]
Coup of August 1991 Main article: 1991 Soviet coupd'tat
attempt
In contrast to the reformers moderate approach to thenew treaty,
the hard-line apparatchiks, still strong withinthe CPSU and
military establishment, completely op-posed anything which might
lead to the break-up of theSoviet Union. On the eve of the treatys
signing, hardlineSoviet leaders, calling themselves the 'State
Committee
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10 4 POST-PRESIDENCY
on the State of Emergency', launched the August coupin 1991 in
an attempt to remove Gorbachev from powerand prevent the signing of
the new union treaty. Underthe pretense that Gorbachev was ill, his
vice president,Yanayev, took over as president. Gorbachev spent
threedays (19, 20, and 21 August) under house arrest at hisdacha in
the Crimea before being freed and restored topower. However, upon
his return, Gorbachev found thatneither union nor Russian power
structures heeded hiscommands as support had swung over to Yeltsin,
whosedefiance had led to the coups collapse.Furthermore, Gorbachev
was forced to fire large num-bers of his Politburo and, in several
cases, arrest them.Those arrested for high treason included the
"Gangof Eight" that had led the coup, including Kryuchkov,Yazov,
Pavlov and Yanayev. Pugo was found shot; andAkhromeyev, who had
offered his assistance but wasnever implicated, was found hanging
in his Kremlin of-fice. Most of these men had been former allies of
Gor-bachevs or promoted by him, which drew fresh criticism.
Final collapse For all intents and purposes, the coupdestroyed
Gorbachev politically. On 24 August, he ad-vised the Central
Committee to dissolve, resigned as Gen-eral Secretary and dissolved
all party units within thegovernment. Shortly afterward, the
Supreme Soviet sus-pended all Party activities on Soviet territory.
In effect,Communist rule in the Soviet Union had
endedthuseliminating the only unifying force left in the
country.Gorbachevs hopes of a new Union were further hit whenthe
Congress of Peoples Deputies dissolved itself on5 September. Though
Gorbachev and the representa-tives of eight republics (excluding
Azerbaijan, Geor-gia, Moldova, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and
Estonia)signed an agreement on forming a new economic com-munity on
18 October, events were overtaking him.[11]The Soviet Union
collapsed with dramatic speed duringthe latter part of 1991, as one
republic after another de-clared independence. By the autumn,
Gorbachev couldno longer influence events outside Moscow, and he
waschallenged even there by Yeltsin. Following the coup,Yeltsin
suspended all CPSU activities on Russian terri-tory and closed the
Central Committee building at StarayaSquare. He also ordered the
Russian flag raised alongsidethe Soviet flag at the Kremlin. In the
waning months of1991, Russia began taking over what remained of the
So-viet government, including the Kremlin.With the country in a
state of near collapse, Gorbachevsvision of a renewed union
effectively received a fatalblow by a Ukrainian referendum on 1
December, wherethe Ukrainian people overwhelmingly voted for
indepen-dence. Ukraine had been the second most powerful re-public
in the Soviet Union after Russia, and its secessionended any
realistic chance of the Soviet Union stayingunited even on a
limited scale. The presidents of Russia,Ukraine and Belarus met in
Belovezh Forest, near Brest,
Belarus, on 8 December and signed the Belavezha Ac-cords, which
declared the Soviet Union had ceased to ex-ist and formed the
Commonwealth of Independent Statesas its successor. Gorbachev
initially denounced this moveas illegal.[11]
However, on 12 December, the RSFSR Supreme Sovietratified the
Belevezha Accords and denounced the 1922Union Treaty. It was now
apparent that the momentumtowards dissolution could not be stopped.
Shortly afterthe RSFSR ratified the Accords, Gorbachev hinted
thathe was considering stepping aside.[34] On 17 December,he
accepted the fait accompli and reluctantly agreed withYeltsin to
dissolve the Soviet Union.[11] Four days later,the leaders of 11 of
the 12 remaining republicsall ex-cept Georgia (the Baltic states
had already seceded inAugust)--signed the Alma-Ata Protocol which
formallyestablished the CIS. They also preemptively
acceptedGorbachevs resignation. When Gorbachev learned whathad
transpired, he told CBS that he would resign as soonas he saw that
the CIS was indeed a reality.[35]
On the night of 25 December, in a nationally tele-vised speech,
Gorbachev announced his resignation aspresidentas he put it, I
hereby discontinue my activi-ties at the post of President of the
Union of Soviet Social-ist Republics. He declared the office
extinct and handedover its functionsincluding control of the Soviet
nuclearcodesto Yeltsin. The Soviet Union was formally dis-solved
the following day. Two days after Gorbachev leftoffice, on 27
December, Yeltsin moved into Gorbachevsold office.[11]
Gorbachev had aimed to maintain the CPSU as a unitedparty but
move it in the direction of Scandinavian-stylesocial democracy.[36]
But when the CPSUwas proscribedafter the August coup, Gorbachev was
left with no ef-fective power base beyond the armed forces. In the
af-termath of the coup, his rival Yeltsin quickly worked
toconsolidate his hold on the Russian government as well asthe
remnants of the Soviet armed forces, paving the wayfor Gorbachevs
downfall.
4 Post-presidency
Following his resignation and the dissolution of the So-viet
Union, Gorbachev remained active in Russian pol-itics. During the
early years of the post-Soviet era, heexpressed criticism at the
reforms carried out by Rus-sian president Boris Yeltsin. When
Yeltsin called a ref-erendum for 25 April 1993 in an attempt to
achieve evengreater powers as president, Gorbachev did not vote
andinstead called for new presidential elections.[37]
Following a failed run for the presidency in 1996, Gor-bachev
established the Social Democratic Party of Rus-sia, a union between
several Russian social democraticparties. He resigned as party
leader in May 2004 follow-ing a disagreement with the partys
chairman over the di-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Committee_on_the_State_of_Emergencyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_coup_attempt_of_1991https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimeahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_Eight_(Soviet_Union)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_Eight_(Soviet_Union)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Kryuchkovhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitriy_Yazovhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_Pavlovhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Pugohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Akhromeyevhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Committeehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staraya_Squarehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staraya_Squarehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Russiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_independence_referendum,_1991https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belovezh_Foresthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brest,_Belarushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brest,_Belarushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belavezha_Accordshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belavezha_Accordshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Independent_Stateshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma-Ata_Protocolhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_modelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_presidential_election,_1996
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11
Gorbachev with Indian spiritual master Sri Chinmoy
rection taken in the 2003 election campaign. The partywas later
banned in 2007 by the Supreme Court of theRussian Federation due to
its failure to establish local of-fices with at least 500 members
in the majority of Rus-sian regions, which is required by Russian
law for a po-litical organization to be listed as a party.[38]
Later thatyear, Gorbachev founded a new political party, called
theUnion of Social Democrats.[4] In June 2004, he repre-sented
Russia at the funeral of Ronald Reagan.
Gorbachev, daughter Irina and his wifes sister Lyudmila at
thefuneral of Raisa, 1999
Gorbachev appeared in numerous media channels afterhis
resignation from office. In 1993, he appeared as him-self in the
WimWenders film Faraway, So Close!, the se-quel to Wings of Desire.
In 1997, Gorbachev appearedwith his granddaughter Anastasia in an
internationallyscreened television commercial for Pizza Hut.[39]
TheU.S. corporations payment for the 60-second ad wentto Gorbachevs
non-profit Gorbachev Foundation.[40] In2007, French luxury brand
Louis Vuitton announced thatGorbachev would be shown in an ad
campaign, shotby Annie Leibovitz, for their signature luggage.[41]
InFebruary 2014, during the winter Olympic Games heldin Sochi,
Russia, 82-year-old Gorbachev made a rareappearance on The Daily
Show with Jon Stewart in asegment where he was tracked down and
interviewed
by comedic correspondent Jason Jones on location
fromMoscow.[42]
Following Boris Yeltsins death on 23 April 2007, Gor-bachev
released a eulogy for him, stating that Yeltsin wasto be commended
for assuming the difficult task of lead-ing the nation into the
post-Soviet era, and on whoseshoulders are both great deeds for the
country and seri-ous errors.[43]
On 16 June 2009, Gorbachev announced that he hadrecorded an
album of old Russian romantic ballads enti-tled Songs for Raisa to
raise money for a charity dedicatedto his late wife. On the album,
he sings the songs him-self accompanied by Russian musician Andrei
Makare-vich.[44]
Gorbachev (left) with former Canadian Prime Minister
BrianMulroney and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherat
the funeral of Ronald Reagan, 11 June 2004
Since his resignation, Gorbachev has remained involvedin world
affairs. He founded theGorbachev Foundation in1992, headquartered
in San Francisco. He later foundedGreenCross International, with
which hewas one of threemajor sponsors of the Earth Charter. He
also became amember of the Club of Rome and the Club of Madrid,an
independent non-profit organization composed of 81democratic former
presidents and Prime Ministers from57 different countries.In the
decade that followed the Cold War, Gorbachev op-posed both the
U.S.-led NATO bombing of Yugoslaviain 1999 and the U.S.-led Iraq
War in 2003. On 27 July2007, Gorbachev criticized U.S. foreign
policy: Whathas followed are unilateral actions, what has
followedare wars, what has followed is ignoring the UN
SecurityCouncil, ignoring international law and ignoring the willof
the people, even the American people, he said.[45]That same year,
he visited New Orleans, a city hard-hitby Hurricane Katrina, and
promised he would return in2011 to personally lead a local
revolution if the U.S. gov-ernment had not repaired the levees by
that time. He saidthat revolutionary action should be a last
resort.[46]
In May, 2008, The Telegraph (UK), published an arti-cle,
Gorbachev: US could start new Cold War, whichquotes Gorbachev
saying, The Americans promised that
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Chinmoyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_legislative_election,_2003https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_Russian_Federationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_Russian_Federationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_funeral_of_Ronald_Reaganhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Wendershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraway,_So_Close!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_of_Desirehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_Huthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorbachev_Foundationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Vuittonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Leibovitzhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Show_with_Jon_Stewarthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Makarevichhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Makarevichhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Mulroneyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Mulroneyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_State_funeral_of_Ronald_Reaganhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorbachev_Foundationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Cross_Internationalhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Charterhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_of_Romehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_of_Madridhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslaviahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Warhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_foreign_policyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleanshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina
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12 4 POST-PRESIDENCY
NATO wouldn't move beyond the boundaries of Ger-many after the
Cold War but now half of central andeastern Europe are members, so
what happened to theirpromises? It shows they cannot be
trusted.[47]
Concerning the 2008 South Ossetia war, started by aGeorgian
attack on Tskhinvali, the capital of pro-RussianSouth Ossetia,[48]
in a 12 August 2008 op-ed essay in TheWashington Post, Gorbachev
criticized the United Statessupport for Georgian President Mikheil
Saakashvili andfor moving to bring the Caucasus into the sphere of
itsnational interest.[49] He later said the following:
Russia did not want this crisis. The Rus-sian leadership is in a
strong enough positiondomestically; it did not need a little
victori-ous war. Russia was dragged into the frayby the
recklessness of the Georgian presi-dent, Mikheil Saakashvili...The
decision by theRussian president, Dmitri Medvedev, to nowcease
hostilities was the right move by a re-sponsible leader. The
Russian president actedcalmly, confidently and firmly...The
plannersof this campaign clearly wanted to make surethat, whatever
the outcome, Russia would beblamed for worsening the situation. The
Westthen mounted a propaganda attack against Rus-sia, with the
American news media leading theway.[50]
In September 2008, Gorbachev announced he wouldmake a comeback
to Russian politics along with a for-mer KGB officer, Alexander
Lebedev.[51] Their party isknown as the Independent Democratic
Party of Russia.He also is part owner of the opposition
newspaperNovayaGazeta.[52]
Gorbachev (right) being introduced to Barack Obama by JoeBiden,
20 March 2009
On 20 March 2009, Gorbachev met with United StatesPresident
Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Bidenin efforts to reset
strained relations between Russia andthe United States.On 27 March
2009, Gorbachev visited Eureka College,Illinois, which is the alma
mater of former U.S. Presi-
dent Ronald Reagan with whom he had negotiated his-toric nuclear
arms reduction treaties. Gorbachev touredthe Reagan Museum on
campus, met with students, andspoke at a convocation in the Reagan
Center; he then trav-eled to the nearby Peoria Civic Center in
Peoria, Illinois,as the keynote speaker at the combined George
Washing-ton/Ronald Reagan Day Dinner where college presidentJ.
David Arnold named him an Honorary Reagan Fellowof Eureka
College.[53]
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall ofthe Berlin
Wall, Gorbachev accompanied former Pol-ish leader Lech Wasa and
German Chancellor AngelaMerkel at a celebration in Berlin on 9
November 2009.[54]
On 7 June 2010, Gorbachev gave an interview beforealmost an
annual pilgrimage to London for a summergala to raise money for the
Raisa Gorbachev Foundation,which funds cancer care for children.
The clinic in St.Petersburg can house 80 child patients.From the
interview: Her death, after several years ofill-health, left
Gorbachev bereft. He lives in Moscow,has not remarried and finds
solace with his daughter andgrand-daughters. He would not be coaxed
to talk aboutRaisa, except fleetingly in the context of the
charity.[55]
Gorbachev has defended the referendum that led toRussias
annexation of Crimea in March 2014: WhileCrimea had previously been
joined to Ukraine [in 1954]based on the Soviet laws, which means
[Communist]party laws, without asking the people, now the
peoplethemselves have decided to correct that mistake.[56]
On 10 October 2014, it was reported that Gorbachev wasin
hospital and in deteriorating health.[57] However, on16 October he
granted an interview with Russian statenewspaper Rossiyskaya
Gazeta, opining on the Ukrainecrisis and calling for a repeal of
the sanctions.[58]
On 9 November 2014, Gorbachev attended the Licht-grenze at the
Brandenburg Gate, Berlin to mark 25 yearssince the fall of the
Berlin Wall. On 9 November 2014,Gorbachev criticized the West for
its Russian policy.[59]
Speaking on the war in eastern Ukraine, Gorbachev saidin
December 2014 that Both sides in the Ukrainian con-flict are
breaching the ceasefire. Both sides are guilty ofusing especially
dangerous types of weapons and breach-ing human rights.[60]
4.1 Criticism of Vladimir Putin
Although he has credited Vladimir Putin for stabiliz-ing Russia
in the aftermath of the initial and turbulentyears of the
post-Soviet era, Gorbachev has become crit-ical of both Putin and
Dmitry Medvedev since at leastMarch 2011.[61] His main grievances
about the tandemare backsliding on democracy, corruption, and the
domi-nance of security officers. Gorbachev is also dissatisfiedby
the fact that he has not been allowed to register his
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_South_Ossetia_warhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tskhinvalihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Ossetiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Posthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Posthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikheil_Saakashvilihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Medvedevhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novaya_Gazetahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novaya_Gazetahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obamahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Bidenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Bidenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obamahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Bidenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Collegehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peoria,_Illinoishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_the_Berlin_Wallhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_the_Berlin_Wallhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_Wa%C5%82%C4%99sahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimeahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rossiyskaya_Gazetahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Gatehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbasshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Medvedev
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13
Inauguration of Vladimir Putin, 7 May 2000
social democratic party.[62]
When being interviewed by the BBC to reflect on the20th
anniversary of the August Coup, Gorbachev againannounced his
dissatisfaction with the policies and ruleof Putin. Speaking of the
status of democracy in theRussian Federation, he proclaimed: The
electoral sys-temwe hadwas nothing remarkable but they have
literallycastrated it. Gorbachev also stated that he believed
thatPutin should not have sought a third term as the
Russianpresident in 2012.[63]
In response to the 2011 Russian protests as a result ofUnited
Russia's controversial victory in the 2011 leg-islative election,
he called on the authorities to hold anew election, citing
electoral irregularities and ballot boxstuffing.[64]
In a political lecture delivered to the RIA-Novosti newsagency
in April 2013, Gorbachev decried Putins retreatfrom democracy,
noting that in Russia politics is increas-ingly turning into
imitation democracy with all powerin the hands of the executive
branch. Gorbachev ad-dressed Putin directly, stating that to go
further on thepath of tightening the screws, having laws that limit
therights and freedoms of people, attacking the news mediaand
organizations of civil society, is a destructive pathwith no
future.[65]
5 Call for global restructuring
Gorbachev calls for a kind of perestroika or restructuringof
societies around the world, starting in particular withthat of the
United States, because he is of the view thatthe late-2000s
financial crisis shows that the WashingtonConsensus economic model
is a failure that will sooner orlater have to be replaced.
According to Gorbachev, coun-tries that have rejected theWashington
Consensus and theInternational Monetary Fund approach to economic
de-velopment, such as Brazil and China, have done far
bettereconomically on the whole and achieved far fairer resultsfor
the average citizen than countries that have acceptedit.[66]
Gorbachev is also a member of the Club of Madrid,a group of more
than 80 former leaders of democraticcountries, which works to
strengthen democratic gover-nance and leadership.[67]
6 Honours and accolades
Former President of the United States Ronald Reagan
awardsGorbachev the first ever Ronald Reagan Freedom Award at
theReagan Library, 4 May 1992
6.1 Soviet Union and Russia decorations
Order of St. Andrew (2011), the highest state dec-oration of
Russia, awarded for work during USSRleadership
Order of Honour (2001)
Order of Lenin (1971, 1973, 1981)
Order of October Revolution (1978)
Order of the Badge of Honour (1966)
Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1947). He wasawarded when he
was only 16 and was one of theyoungest recipients of the award.
Medal For Labour Valour
Medal For Strengthening Military Cooperation
Medal In Commemoration of the 1500th Anniver-sary of Kiev
Jubilee Medal Forty Years of Victory in the GreatPatriotic War
1941-1945
6.2 Foreign decorations and awards
In 1987, Gorbachev was awarded the Indira GandhiPrize from
Government of India.
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14 7 ATTITUDE TO RELIGION
In 1989, Gorbachev was awarded the Otto HahnPeace Medal in Gold
of the United Nations Asso-ciation of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin for
his con-tributions to nuclear disarmament of the great pow-ers and
the creation of a fundamentally new politicalorder in Europe.
In 1990, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel PeacePrize for his
leading role in the peace process whichtoday characterizes
important parts of the interna-tional community.[68]
On 4 May 1992, Gorbachev was awarded thefirst ever Ronald Reagan
Freedom Award at theRonald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi
Valley,California.[69]
On 6 May 1992, Gorbachev was awarded the hon-orary degree of
Doctor of Laws from WestminsterCollege in Fulton, Missouri.[70]
In 1993 Gorbachev was awarded a Legum Doctor,honoris causa from
Carleton University in Ottawa,Canada. He was also given an honorary
degreefrom The University of Calgary in Calgary,
Alberta,Canada.[71] In the same year, he was conferred withthe
Freedom of the City of Aberdeen.
Gorbachev on 12 March 2013
Gorbachev was the 1994 recipient of theGrawemeyer Award for
ideas improving worldorder, awarded by the University of
Louisville,Kentucky.[72]
In 1995, Gorbachev received an Honorary Doc-torate from Durham
University, County Durham,England for his contribution to the cause
of po-litical tolerance and an end to Cold
War-styleconfrontation.[73][74]
For his historic role in the evolution of glasnost, andfor his
leadership in the disarmament negotiationswith the United States
during the Reagan admin-istration, Gorbachev was awarded the
Courage ofConscience award 20 October 1996.[75]
In 1998, Gorbachev received the Freedom Awardfrom the National
Civil Rights Museum inMemphis, Tennessee.[76]
In 2002, Gorbachev received an honorary degreeof a Doctor in
Laws (LL.D.) in recognition of hispolitical service and
contribution to peace fromTrinity College, Dublin, Ireland.[77]
Gorbachev, together with Bill Clinton and SophiaLoren, were
awarded the 2004 Grammy Award forBest Spoken Word Album for
Children for theirrecording of Sergei Prokofievs Peter and the
Wolf.
In 2005, Gorbachev was awarded the Point AlphaPrize for his role
in supporting German reunifica-tion. He also received an honorary
doctorate fromthe University of Mnster.,[78]
In 2011, Gorbachev was awarded a honoris causadoctorate from
University of Lige in Lige,Belgium.[79]
7 Attitude to religion
At the end of a November 1996 interview on C-SPAN'sBooknotes,
Gorbachev described his plans for futurebooks. He made the
following reference to God: I don'tknow how many years God will be
giving me, [or] whatHis plans are.
Gorbachev at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, 16 June 1992
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Hahn_Peace_Medalhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Hahn_Peace_Medalhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Peace_Prizehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Peace_Prizehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Freedom_Awardhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Presidential_Libraryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simi_Valleyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_College_(Missouri)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_College_(Missouri)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton,_Missourihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carleton_Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Calgaryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgaryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_City_of_Aberdeenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grawemeyer_Awardhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Louisvillehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasnosthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Ronald_Reaganhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Ronald_Reaganhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Civil_Rights_Museumhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis,_Tennesseehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_College,_Dublinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clintonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Lorenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Lorenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Awardhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Best_Spoken_Word_Album_for_Childrenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Prokofievhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_the_Wolfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reunificationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reunificationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Li%C3%A8gehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li%C3%A8gehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-SPANhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Wallhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem
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15
In 2005, he said that Pope John Paul II's devotion to
hisfollowers is a remarkable example to all of us follow-ing the
pontiffs death. What can I sayit must havebeen the will of God. He
acted really courageously.[80]In a 1989 meeting, he had told him:
We appreciate yourmission on this high pulpit, we are convinced
that it willleave a great mark on history.[81]
Gorbachev was the recipient of the Athenagoras Hu-manitarian
Award of the Order of St. Andrew Archonsof the Ecumenical
Patriarchate of Constantinople on 20November 2005.[82]
In 2013, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported a1992 meeting
between Gorbachev and Otis Gatewood, aChristian minister sent with
a relief effort for orphans andelderly people in Russia by Churches
of Christ in Texas.In themeeting, Gorbachev reportedly claimed that
he wasindeed a Christian and had been baptized by his grand-father
in the Volga River many years before.[83]
On 19 March 2008, during a surprise visit to pray at thetomb of
Saint Francis in Assisi, Italy, Gorbachev made anannouncement which
has been interpreted to the effectthat he was a Christian.
Gorbachev stated: St Francisis, for me, the alter Christus, another
Christ. His storyfascinates me and has played a fundamental role in
mylife. He added: It was through St Francis that I arrivedat the
Church, so it was important that I came to visit histomb.[84]
However, a few days later, he reportedly toldthe Russian news
agency Interfax: Over the last few dayssome media have been
disseminating fantasiesI can'tuse any other wordabout my secret
Catholicism, [...]To sum up and avoid any misunderstandings, let me
saythat I have been and remain an atheist".[85]
8 Port-wine birthmark
The prominent crimson port-wine stain birthmark onGorbachevs
forehead was the source of much attentionfrom critics and
cartoonists. Though some suggested thathe might have the mark
surgically removed, Gorbachevopted not to, as once he was publicly
known to have themark, he believed it would be perceived as his
being moreconcernedwith his appearance than othermore
importantissues.[86]
9 See also
April 9 Tragedy Soviet crackdown on Georgianprotests in 1989
Black January Soviet crackdown on Azeri protestsin 1990
Index of Soviet Union-related articles
List of peace activists
SergeiM. Plekhanov former Gorbachev advisor onthe United States
and Canada
10 References[1] Gorbachev. Random House Websters Unabridged
Dic-
tionary.
[2] Gray, Sadie (30 September 2008). Gorbachev launchespolitical
party with Russian billionaire. The Guardian(UK). Retrieved 1
October 2008.
[3] Mikhail Gorbachev will found new political
party.mosnews.com. 13 May 2009. Retrieved 13 June 2009.
[4] Gorbachev sets up Russia movement. BBC News. 20October 2007.
Retrieved 20 October 2007.
[5] Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, Daisaku Ikeda (2005)."Moral
lessons of twentieth century: Gorbachev and Ikedaon Buddhism and
Communism". I.B.Tauris. p. 11. ISBN1-85043-976-1
[6] Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev (2006). "Manifesto forthe
Earth: action now for peace, global justice and a sus-tainable
future". CLAIRVIEW BOOKS. p.10. ISBN 1-905570-02-3
[7] Mikhail Gorbachev (2000). Gorbachev: On My Countryand the
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