Mikhail Gorbachev - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Overview

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...

in 1991. He was the only general secretary in the history of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

to have been born during the Communist rule.

Gorbachev was born in Stavropol Krai

Stavropol Krai

Stavropol Krai is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Stavropol. Population: -Geography:Stavropol Krai encompasses the central part of the Fore-Caucasus and most of the northern slopes of Caucasus Major...

into a peasant Ukrainian

Ukrainians

Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...

-Russian

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

family, and in his teens operated combine harvester

Combine harvester

The combine harvester, or simply combine, is a machine that harvests grain crops. The name derives from the fact that it combines three separate operations, reaping, threshing, and winnowing, into a single process. Among the crops harvested with a combine are wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn ,...

s on collective farms. He graduated from Moscow State University

Moscow State University

Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...

in 1955 with a degree in law.

Discussions

What prompted the move to make him leader of the Communist Party?

At what point what point was he a full fledged member of the Communist party?

Did the communist rule during his early days inspire him to join the Communist Movement?

When did Mikhail Gorbachev start working for the communist administration?

Was it Mikhail Gorbachev who started the USSR on the route to its split?

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Timeline

1985 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the Soviet Union's leader.

1985 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declares a moratorium on the deployment of middle-range missiles in Europe.

1985 Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.

1986 Cold War: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.

1986 Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from internal exile in Gorky.

1987 Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

1988 U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

1989 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.

1989 Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end.

1990 Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union.

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Quotations

Certain people in the United States are driving nails into this structure of our relationship, then cutting off the heads. So the Soviets must use their teeth to pull them out.

As quoted in TIME magazine (9 September 1985)

Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.

Speech to the 27th Party Congress, Moscow (25 February 1986)

If the Russian word "Perestroika|perestroika" has easily entered the international lexicon, this is due to more than just interest in what is going on in the Soviet Union. Now the whole world needs restructuring, i.e. progressive development, a fundamental change.

Perestroika: New Thinking For Our Country and the World (1987)

The Soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.

Speech (July 1988)

Dangers await only those who do not react to life.

Speech in East Berlin (7 October 1989), in German: Wer zu spaet kommt, den bestraft das Leben. This is often misquoted as "He who comes too late is punished by life."

I believe, as Vladimir Lenin|Lenin said, that this revolutionary chaos may yet crystallize into new forms of life.

As quoted in The Times [London] (18 May 1990)

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