Former Soviet-leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, dies at the age of 91

• Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev has passed away.
• Mr. Gorbachev was receiving care.
• It’s been called a “chronic and serious illness.”

Russian news outlets are reporting tonight that former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev has passed away at the age of 91.

At Central Clinical Hospital, Mr. Gorbachev was receiving care for what has been called a “chronic and serious illness.”

He had died, according to reports from Tass, RIA Novosti, and Interfax.

After peacefully bringing an end to the Cold War, Mr. Gorbachev was acclaimed as one of the most significant statesmen of the 20th century, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

He is credited with tearing down the so-called “Iron Curtain,” which had divided Europe since World War Two, by forming alliances with Western leaders. Margaret Thatcher praised him as the Soviet leader with whom she “could do business.”

But once he was appointed general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, many people blamed him for the breakdown of the totalitarian Soviet Union in 1991.

By announcing a number of reforms, he intended to resuscitate his nation’s economy and revitalise its political system.

But he watched helplessly as republic after republic declared independence during his closing months in office.
After his old allies turned on him on Christmas Day 1991, he resigned before the Russian government took over the next day.

In 2016, some 25 years after he left office, Mr. Gorbachev stated that despite fears of anarchy, he had not considered deploying extensive force to maintain the USSR, which once included 15 distinct countries.

The nation was completely stocked with weaponry. Additionally, it would have precipitated a civil war right away, he told the Associated Press.

He declared, just before leaving office: “I regard myself as a guy who started the reforms that were necessary for the country, for Europe, and for the globe.”

I am frequently asked if I would have begun from scratch if I had to do it all over again. Indeed, I do. And with even more tenacity and vigor,” he continued.
In his autobiography, he highlighted how it had grown frustrating for him to see tens of millions of people living in poverty in a nation with abundant natural resources.

He claimed that a bureaucratic command system had strangled our society.

It was “strained to the fullest, doomed to serve ideology and bear the heavy burden of the weapons race.”

The previous leader’s “courage and honesty” in bringing the Cold War to a “peaceful close,” according to Boris Johnson, were praised.

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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.

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) August 30, 2022

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