On August 30th of 2022 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, it is not known what he died from but the hospital he was at said of an illness. Mikhail Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye, Stavropol kray, Russia on March 2nd, 1931, and died in Moscow. He was raised by his peasant parents and worked on the farm, his village was occupied by the Nazis when he was younger, he has said this left a painful, permeant mark on his which determined his life choices. In 1946 he joined the Komsomol (Young Communist League) for 4 years he drove a combine on a state farm proving himself as a promising member. In 1952 he went to the Moscow State University to study law and becomes part of the Communist Party. He graduated with his law degree in 1955 and went on to hold many posts in Komsomol in Stavropol, then became the first secretary of the regional party committee in 1970.
Gorbachev became a member of the General Committee of The Communist Party in 1971 and was appointed party secretary of agriculture in 1978. In 1979 he became a candidate for the Politburo and was accepted in 1980. Gorbachev became one of the most active and visible members of the Politburo. Gorbachev became the general secretary of the Communist Party on March 11, 1985, at this time he was still the youngest member of the Politburo. His goal was to make the economy better he called for rapid modernization and more productivity, and to make the Soviet bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. This didn’t lead to good results, so in 1987 he initiated deeper reform under his new policy freedom of speech and expression were greatly expanded, freedom of the press was expanded, and the country’s legacy of Stalinism was rejected by the government. His policy perestroika (restructuring) introduced the secret ballot and put small free-market systems in the soviet economy although these encountered lots of resistance from officials.
When it came to foreign affairs, Gorbachev made better relations and trade with more developed countries. In 1987 he signed an agreement with Ronald Reagan for both countries to destroy their intermediate-range nuclear missiles. In 1988 he oversaw the withdrawal of soviet troops from Afghanistan. In October 1988 he was elected the chairmanship of the presidium of the Supreme Soviet, where he tried to reconstruct the legislative and executive branches of the government in order to release them from the CPSU. Under the changes to the constitution in December 1988 a new parliament called the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies was created, with some members elected through contested election. In May of 1989 they elected Gorbachev to be the chairman of the Supreme Soviet and thus became the president.
Throughout 1989 took every opportunity to voice his support for reformist in the eastern soviet-bloc countries. When communist regimes started collapsing later that year, he accepted it and did nothing to stop them. He withdrew troops from countries that no longer had communist governments, he agreed to reunite Germany and even approved them joining NATO. In 1990 he received the Nobel Prize for Peace because of his achievement in international relations. Gorbachev’s decentralization and democratization caused civil unrest and attempts to become independent, he used military force to suppress bloody interethnic strife in Central Asia while constitutional mechanisms were put in place for lawful secession. Gorbachev was very successful in dismantling the totalitarian soviet state and making a true democracy. He wanted a government with both communist and small capitalist aspects and the economy continued to crumble. As the public frustration raised and economy collapsed, Gorbachev aligned with the conservatives in late 1990. Hard-liners replaced reformers and had short coup where Gorbachev and his family were held under house arrest. Afterwards Gorbachev was still president, but his position was very weak. He quit the communist party, dissolved its central committee and stripped its control of the KGB. On Christmas day of 1991 he resigned, and the Soviet Union dissolved that same day.
In 1996, Gorbachev ran for president and got less than 1% of the vote. He remained in public life as a member of global and Russian think tanks. In 2006 he purchased half of the Novaya Gazeta an independent newspaper famous for challenging the Kremlin policies with a billionaire and former lawmaker Aleksandr Lebedev. In 2008 him and Lebedev announced the formation of a new political party, but it was never made. In 2016 he said he supported the annexation of Crimea even though he does not like Putin. And on August 30th,2022 he died in Moscow.
What is your opinion on Gorbachev, why?
What is your opinion of his policies, why?
Sources:
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/30/1120141650/former-soviet-leader-mikhail-gorbachev-has-died
Replies
So your topic is fine but it is all a summary of his life. While it is well written overall, there are no opininions of yours within it. There just isn't anything for students to write asbout and they just don't know enought about him to answer your questions.
I didnt really know who grobachev was or what he has done for America. I think he was really good at making ties and relations with other more developed counties. I agree with his polocy of making his economy better by modernizing and making it more productive. I dont agree with all of his communist things but he has made a lot of positive impacts in all Countries.
Yes I completly agree, he is has impacted most of the world.
Bump