AreaRead the video transcript expand here
With his reforms, he heralded the end of the Cold War - Mikhail Gorbachev is dead. The last ruler and President of the Soviet Union died in Moscow at the age of 91.
In the mid-1980s, Gorbachev proclaimed “glasnost” and “perestroika” in the Soviet Union, openness to Germans and transformation, i.e. more political and economic freedoms.
Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet General Secretary (1987)
»We need more entrepreneurship, more democracy, more organization and discipline, then we can bring »perestroika« (restructuring) into high gear.«
Also in 1987, Gorbachev signed a disarmament agreement for medium-range nuclear missiles together with US President Reagan – the Cold War came to an end.
Gorbachev is considered one of the fathers of the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification.
"Gorbi."
"Gorbi."
"Gorbi" became an icon in the West, and the birthmarked politician even appeared in a commercial for a US pizza chain.
Many Russians, on the other hand, are not Gorbachev fans, they still blame him for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
When pro-democracy protests broke out in the Eastern bloc in 1989, Gorbachev refrained from using violence and the Soviet republics gradually declared their independence.
Gorbachev himself was overthrown by Boris Yeltsin after the failed communist coup attempt in Moscow.
On December 25, he announced his resignation.
Vladimir Putin was supported by Gorbachev during his first two terms in office, and in 2011 Gorbachev criticized him in an interview with SPIEGEL:
“Putin wants to stay in power.
But not to finally solve our most urgent problems - education, medicine, poverty.
The people are not consulted, the parties are puppets of the regime.«
However, Gorbachev has always regarded Ukraine as a legitimate sphere of influence for Russia.
A few months after Russia's annexation of Crimea, he blamed the US for tensions between Russia and the West.
Mikhail Gorbachev, Interview with DER SPIEGEL (2015)
“America's got the feeling that they're all winners. As if they could have accomplished anything without us. We could only achieve that together. I often reminded myself of John F. Kennedy at lectures in America. He once said about the Soviet Union, about the Soviet people: You mustn't demonize them. They are just like us. But America cannot live without an enemy. The USA must show why they need a large military budget."
Michael Gorbachev changed the world at the time - today there is hardly anything left of the relaxation between the Eastern and Western powers.