Former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev Dies at 91
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev has died at 91.
Born in 1931, Gorbachev was the eighth — and final — leader of the Soviet Union, holding the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991.
His rise to power in the Soviet Union “set in motion a series of revolutionary changes that transformed the map of Europe and ended the Cold War that had threatened the world with nuclear annihilation,” reported the New York Times at his passing.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTA student Marxism and Leninism, he had moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s.
"At home he promised and delivered greater openness as he set out to restructure his country’s society and faltering economy. It was not his intention to liquidate the Soviet empire, but within five years of coming to power he had presided over the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics," the Times continued.
Gorbachev was a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
His death was announced by Russia’s state news agencies, citing the city’s central clinical hospital.
The reports said he had died after an unspecified “long and grave illness,” said the Times.
“Few leaders in the 20th century, indeed in any century, have had such a profound effect on their time. In little more than six tumultuous years, Mr. Gorbachev lifted the Iron Curtain, decisively altering the political climate of the world," the Time continued.
Photo: Gorbachev in 1985. White House/Public Domain
