Mikhail Gorbachev RIP

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the former Soviet Union, has died aged 91.

Mr Gorbachev, who took over as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, is best known for opening up the USSR and for his rapprochement with the West.

The Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact through which it dominated Eastern Europe split apart between 1990 and 1991: a more hardline leader might have ordered repressive measures to stop it, but the most likely result would have been a bloodbath. 

Hardliners and Russian Nationalists at the time and subsequently have blamed Gorbachev and his reformist policies for demise of the USSR but, frankly, he deserves great credit for the fact that it happened relatively peacefully. If the coup against him had succeeded it would not have saved the USSR but ensured that it fell apart violently instead at a cost of tens of thousands of lives.


The hospital where Mr Gorbachev he died said he had been suffering from a long and serious illness.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his deepest condolences on Mr Gorbachev's death, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agency Interfax, according to Reuters.


Boris Johnson said:

"I'm saddened to hear of the death of Gorbachev. 

I always admired the courage & integrity he showed in bringing 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."


Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, wrote


"Mikhail Gorbachev was a trusted and respected leader. He played a crucial role to end the Cold War and bring down the Iron Curtain. It opened the way for a free Europe.

This legacy is one we will not forget. 

R.I.P Mikhail Gorbachev"


Mr Gorbachev became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and de facto leader of the country, at the age of 54.

He was at the time the youngest member of the ruling council known as the Politburo, and was seen as a breath of fresh air after several ageing leaders.

His policy of glasnost, or openness, allowed people to criticise the government in a way which had been previously unthinkable.

Internationally he reached arms control deals with the US and refused to intervene when eastern European nations rose up against their Communist rulers.

He is seen in the West as an architect of reform who created the conditions for the end of the Cold War.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 "for the leading role he played in the radical changes in East-West relations".

There is a lovely account by the BBC's Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg on the BBC site called "Remembering a warm-hearted and generous man" which says more about Mikhail Gorbachev the human being than anything else I have seen. You can read it in full here.


Rest in Peace. 

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