He opened the iron curtain
Mikhail Gorbachev († 91) is dead!
Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91. The last head of state of the Soviet Union was hospitalized due to ill health.
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Last Head of State of the Soviet Union: Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022).
The last Soviet leader is dead! Mikhail Gorbachev died on Tuesday at the age of 91. The Russian news agency TASS reported this about the Central Clinic in Moscow, where Gorbachev was recently. “Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev died this evening after a long and serious illness,” read a news release. The hospital is the main medical facility of the Russian Presidential Administration. He was reportedly suffering from kidney disease.
Gorbachev was General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from March 1985 to August 1991 and President of the Soviet Union from March 1990 to December 1991. Corby – as he was known – ushered in the end of the Cold War by opening the Iron Curtain with his policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. The political process led to mass uprisings in all the republics of the Soviet state and eventually led to the fall of the communist empire.
Less popular in Russia than in the West
A large part of the Russian population has always seen the former head of party and state as a gravedigger of the Soviet Union – a politician with no instinct for power. In 1991, Gorbachev resigned as President of the Soviet Union. The new strongman in Moscow at the time was Russian President Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007).
Until his death, Gorbachev gave great service to his own political base in Moscow. The organization advocates democratic values and a rapprochement between Russia and the West.
Gorbachev wrote many books. More recently, among other things, about his disillusionment with the Germans and the West. In particular, he complained that a new enemy image of Russia was emerging. For health reasons, he did not attend the celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in the fall of 2019. He has been hospitalized several times over the past few years.
The politician was co-owner of the “Novaya Gazeta” newspaper, which is critical of the Kremlin and repeatedly exposes abuses in Russia. In recent years, Gorbachev has repeatedly asked Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin not to further restrict freedom of the media and elections.
The politician was buried in the New Maiden cemetery for celebrities in Moscow – next to his wife Raisa.
“Wannabe pop culture fanatic. Zombie advocate. Entrepreneur. Internet evangelist. Alcohol fanatic. Typical travel buff.”
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