Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of an era
Mikhail Gorbachev died in Moscow on 30 August 2022. With his leadership, he marked the end of the Cold War and played a central role in profound transformations that reshaped Russia and the global geopolitical order.
Short Biography
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, also known as Gorbachev or “Gorby,” was born in Privolnoye on 2 March 1931, into a poor peasant family of Russian and Ukrainian origin. He was a Soviet politician and later, after 1991, a political figure of post-Soviet Russia, as well as the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
In 1952, Gorbachev joined the Communist Party and began studying at Moscow State University, where he graduated in law in 1955. In 1953, he met and married his fellow student Raisa Maksimovna Titarenko (later Raisa Gorbacheva), who remained a key figure in his personal and public life.
His political leadership brought an end to the Cold War and introduced two major reforms that profoundly changed not only the Soviet Union but also global politics and geography.
Perestrojka
The term perestroika means “reconstruction” or “restructuring” and refers to a series of reforms introduced in the mid-1980s aimed at modernizing the Soviet economic and political system.
Its main goals included:
- reform and partial liberalization of the economy;
- greater freedom of information;
- reduction of military and political control over Eastern Europe;
- agreements with the United States on nuclear arms reduction.
On the international stage, perestroika improved relations with the United States and Western Europe. The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan also marked the end of a long period of global tension.
Relations between the state and religious institutions also changed, with meetings between Gorbachev and leaders of the Orthodox Church and other confessions, the return of religious properties, and the reopening of places of worship.
Glasnost’
The term Glasnost’ means “public domain” or “transparency” and was a reform introduced by Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s, based, on the transparency of social-political relations and decisions and freedom of expression. The main points of this reform were:
- opening of historical archives,
- publication of hitherto banned books,
- decrease of censorship
In 1986 Gorbachev, pressing for greater liberalization rehabilitated the major Soviet dissident, Andrei Sakharov.
Major geopolitical changes
The two reforms mentioned above led to major geopolitical shifts, including the end of the Cold War.
The Cold War
The post–World War II period was marked by a conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, fought not through direct military confrontation but through political and economic rivalry.
Germany was divided and occupied by British, American, French, and Soviet forces, and part of its territory was transferred to Poland. In 1949, the United States and several European countries, including Italy, France, and the United Kingdom, formed a defensive alliance known as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The Soviet government, fearing US expansion in Europe, responded with the Warsaw Pact, which brought Eastern European countries under Soviet influence and established communist governments in those states. This marked the beginning of the Cold War.
During the 1980s, several protests and movements emerged, particularly in Poland, especially after the election of Karol Wojtyła as Pope in 1978, later known as John Paul II. A historic moment was the handshake between John Paul II and the Soviet leader during a state visit to the Vatican in December 1989, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The end of the Cold War is commonly associated with the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989.
The reunification of Germany
German reunification took place on 3 October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) was incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany).
Five new federal states (Länder) were created:
- Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
- Brandenburg
- Saxony
- Saxony-Anhalt
- Thuringia
A decisive event for reunification was the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989.
Rtl video on German reunification and the fall of the Berlin Wall (in German)
Baltic independence
The Baltic states, incorporated into the USSR in 1940, began their path toward independence in the late 1980s:
- Lithuania declared independence on 11 March 1990;
- Estonia on 30 March 1990;
- Latvia on 4 May 1990.
In September 1991, the Soviet Union officially recognized their independence.
End of the Soviet Union
The end of the rigid policy of internal repression, and the economic recession brought out the contrasts, racial hatreds and independence drives of the many peoples of the Soviet state
Gorbachev attempted to transform the Soviet Union into a less centralized state by dissolving Comecon (Council of Mutual Economic Assistance of Socialist States) and on July 1 the Warsaw Pact (Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance among the Socialist States of the Eastern Bloc), thus loosening the ties of the hitherto satellite foreign countries.
On August 20, 1991, Russia was ready to sign the New Union Treaty, which contemplated the transformation of the Soviet Union into a federation of independent republics with a common president, but a coup was staged. Thousands of people in Moscow took to the streets to defend the Parliament and after three days, on August 21, the coup collapsed in on itself and the organizers were arrested.
Gorbachev became president of the Soviet Union again, but his position in the country was now compromised.
With the referendum in Ukraine on December 1, 1991, in which 90 percent of voters opted for independence, the leaders of the three Slavic republics (Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus) agreed to meet for a discussion of possible forms of relations, and on December 8, 1991, the agreement was signed .
On December 8, 1991, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus met in Belavežskaja pušča to sign the Belaveža Agreement, which declared the Soviet Union dissolved.
On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union and declared the office abolished, conferring all his powers Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin. On the same day, the Soviet flag over the Kremlin was replaced with the Russian tricolor.
Video of Gorbachev’s resignation broadcast by the BBC (in English)
Orders, decorations, honors and criticism
Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Order of the Red Labor Flag, three Orders of Lenin and many other Soviet and international honors and awards, as well as numerous honorary degrees from universities around the world. In 1990 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The figure of Gorbachev is viewed positively in the West, which sees the fall of communism as a victory of common sense, democracy and common human values ,while in Russia he is viewed less favorably because of the dissolution of the Soviet state and the end of superpower status but also the years of political chaos and deep economic crisis that followed.
His passing
His homeland did not give too much prominence to his departure that took place in Moscow at the age of 91.The body will be displayed in the capital at the House of Trade Unions as was done for Lenin and Stalin. Neither Russia’s current President Vladimir Putin (officially unable due to other commitments) nor any other foreign heads of state will be present at the state funeral (initially it seemed they would not even be held) to be held on Saturday, September 3, 2022. The President of the Russian Federation expressed his condolences by stating that “Mikhail Gorbachev understood that reforms were necessary and was committed to finding solutions to the problems that the Soviet Union faced in the 1980s and had a huge impact on the course of world history.”
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According to his wishes, he was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, beside his wife Raisa, who died in 1999. He is survived by one daughter and two grandchildren.