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Mikhail Gorbachev Soviet leader who ended the Cold War dies at 91

AsiaMikhail Gorbachev Soviet leader who ended the Cold War dies at 91

Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet leader, a man of peace, who changed the course of history by triggering the collapse of the Soviet Union, dies.

As a young and dynamic soviet leader who wanted to reform the communist regime along the lines of democratic principles by giving some freedom to citizens, Mikhail Gorbachev was one of the great figures of the 20th century ending the long Cold War between the Soviet Union and the USA.  He dies at the age of 91 in Moscow and was one of the last surviving Cold War leaders.

His death was announced on Tuesday by Russian news agencies, who said Gorbachev had died at a central hospital in Moscow “after a serious and long illness”.  In fact, Gorbachev spent the last years of his life in and out of the hospital with increasingly delicate health and observed self-quarantine during the pandemic as a precaution against the coronavirus.

Gorbachev, in power between 1985 and 1991, helped bring US-Soviet relations out of a deep freeze and was the last surviving Cold War leader.  His rule was one of the most influential of his duration, and his great reforms as Soviet leader changed his country and allowed Eastern Europe to free itself from Soviet rule.

He won praise from the West for his reforms.  and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 -for negotiating a historic nuclear arms pact with US leader Ronald Reagan, and his decision to withhold the Soviet army when the Berlin Wall fell a year earlier was seen as key to preserving Cold War peace.- but also earned him the contempt of many Russians who lamented the end of their country’s role as a global superpower.

He spent much of the past two decades on the political edges, urging the Kremlin and the White House to mend ties as tensions soared to Cold War levels after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched an offensive in Ukraine earlier this year.

While relations with President Vladimir Putin were turbulent at times, Putin nonetheless expressed his “deep sympathies” after Gorbachev’s death.

“In the morning (Putin) will send a telegram of condolences to his family and friends,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.

Gorbachev was regarded warmly in the West, where he was affectionately referred to as Gorby and was best known for defusing US-Soviet nuclear tensions in the 1980s as well as bringing Eastern Europe out from behind the Iron Curtain.

He was also applauded in the West for spearheading reforms to achieve transparency and greater public discussion that hastened the breakup of the Soviet empire.

UN chief Antonio Guterres praised Gorbachev as “a one-of-a-kind statesman who changed the course of history” and “did more than any other individual to bring about the peaceful end of the Cold War”.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he “always admired the courage and integrity” Gorbachev showed to bring the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion.

“In a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, his tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all,” he said in a Twitter post.

French President Emmanuel Macron praised him as a “man of peace whose choices opened up a path of liberty for Russians. His commitment to peace in Europe changed our shared history.”

For Putin and many Russians, the breakup of the Soviet Union was a tragedy, bringing with it a decade of mass poverty and a weakening of Russia’s stature on the global stage.

Many Russians still look back fondly on the Soviet period, and Putin leans on its achievements to buttress Russia’s claim to greatness and his own prestige.

As the USSR collapsed, Gorbachev was superseded by the younger Boris Yeltsin, who became post-Soviet Russia’s first president.

From then on, Gorbachev was relegated to the sidelines, devoting himself to educational and humanitarian projects.

He made a disastrous attempt to return to politics and ran for president in 1996 but received just 0.5 percent of the vote and towards the end of his life, he saw many of his major achievements rolled back by Putin.

An early supporter of Russia’s leading independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, founded in 1993, he donated part of his Nobel winnings to help it buy its first computers.

But the newspaper, like Russian independent media across the board, came under increasing pressure during Putin’s two-decade reign.

Novaya Gazeta, whose chief editor Dmitry Muratov last year won the Nobel Peace Prize, suspended publication in late March after Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine.

Gorbachev himself made no public statements about Russia’s military action in Ukraine, though his foundation called for “an early cessation of hostilities and immediate start of peace negotiations”.

Changes He Brought to Russia

Gorbachev ended the Cold War without bloodshed by bringing the Soviet Union closer to the West than at any point since World War II but fell to stop the doom of the Soviet Union itself. When pro-democracy demonstrations ran across the Soviet Union of communist Eastern Europe in 1989, Gorbachev refrained from using force. He launched radical reforms meant to reduce party control of the government apparatus.

He recognized the policy of Glasnost or freedom of speech which was severely curtailed during the earlier regime. Gorbachev also began a program of economic reform called Perestroika or Restructuring which was necessary as the Soviet economy was suffering from both hidden inflation and supply shortages. Cultural freedoms were granted to the press and the artistic community during his time.

Controversies

It is said Gorbachev tried to cover up the Chornobyl disaster and he was a leader during the savage crackdown in Lithuania in January 1991.

The great Soviet Union collapsed and gave the presidency to the USA as a world power and for this, many are not happy, especially with the wars that the USA conducted over the Middle East to subdue them.

He Will be Buried Next to His Wife

Gorbachev shared a close supportive relationship with his wife late Raisa, who often appeared with him in public and whose early death from cancer broke his heart.

A source close to the Gorbachev family told news agency TASS that he would be buried next to Raisa at Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery, the resting place of many other famous Russian figures, including Yeltsin.

Shashi Tharoor Recounts His Encounter with Mikhail Gorbachev Paying Tribute

Congress leader from India, Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday (August 31, 2022) recalled his encounter with Mikhail Gorbachev and paid his tribute to the Soviet leader who died on Tuesday at the age of 91.

Tharoor recalled Mikhail Gorbachev as a “charming” and “affable” person. The Congress leader recalled that he had the privilege of meeting Gorbachev twice, both times in Italy at small conferences. In his Twitter post, Tharoor said his last conversation with Mikhail Gorbachev was in Rimini at the Pio Manzu conference which the former Soviet leader chaired in 2009.

He said in a tweet, “Former Soviet President Mikhail #Gorbachev has died. He will be remembered by many as a pragmatic leader who transformed the Soviet Union & led it to democracy but by others as the man who caused its collapse w/his policies of perestroika (restructuring)& glasnost (openness). RIP,” said Tharoor in a tweet.

“I had the privilege of meeting Mikhail Gorbachev twice, both times in Italy at small conferences. He was pleasant, charming &affable, &had no airs. My last conversation w/him was in Rimini, where I spoke about India at the Pio Manzu conference he chaired in October 2009. RIP,” the Congress leader added.

 

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