{| border=1 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 class="toccolours" style="float: right; width: 240px; clear: both; margin: 0.5em 0 1em 1em; border-style: solid; border:1px solid #7f7f7f; border-right-width: 2px; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;" |+Mikhail Gorbachev |- | style="background:#efefef;" align="center" colspan="2" | |- |Term of Office: |1985-1991 |- |Predecessor: |Konstantin Chernenko, Vladimir Ivashko |- |Successor: |Vladimir Ivashko |- |Date of Birth: |March 2, 1931 |- |Place of Birth: |'' Privolnoye'', near Stavropol |- |Date of Death: |N/A |- |Place of Death: |N/A |- |Profession: |Politician |- |Political party: |''Communist Party of the U.S.S.R'' |} Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov (Gorbachev) (; pronunciation: ) (born March 2, 1931), was leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. His attempts at reform led to the end of the Cold War, but also inadvertently caused the end of the political supremacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. == Early life and political career == Mikhail Gorbachev was born into a peasant family in the village of Privolnoye near Stavropol. He studied law at Moscow University, where he met his future wife, Raisa Gorbachev. They were married in September 1953 and moved to Mr. Gorbachev's home region of Stavropol in southern Russia when he graduated in 1955. Gorbachev joined the CPSU in 1952 at the age of 21. In 1966, at age 35, he graduated from the Agricultural Institute as an agronomist-economist. His career moved forward rapidly, and in 1970, he was appointed First Secretary for Agriculture and the following year made a member of the Central Committee. In 1972, he headed a Soviet delegation to Belgium and two years later, in 1974, he was made a Representative to the Supreme Soviet, and Chairman of the Standing Commission on Youth Affairs. He was elevated to the Politburo in 1979. There, he received the patronage of Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB and also a native of Stavropol, and was promoted during Andropov's brief time as leader of the Party before his death in 1984. With responsibility over personnel, working together with Andropov, 20 percent of the top echelon of government ministers and regional governors were replaced, often with younger men. During this time Grigory Romanov, Nikolai Ryzhkov, and Yegor Ligachev were elevated, the latter two working closely with Gorbachev, Ryzhkov on economics, Ligachev on personnel. He was also close to Konstantin Chernenko, Andropov's successor, serving as second secretary. His positions within the new CPSU created more opportunities to travel abroad that would profoundly affect his political and social views in the future as leader of the country. In 1975, he led a delegation to West Germany, and in 1983 he headed a Soviet delegation to Canada to meet with Pierre Trudeau and members of the Canadian House of Commons and Canadian Senate. In 1985, he traveled to the United Kingdom, where he met with Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom Margaret Thatcher. == General Secretary of the CPSU == Upon the death of Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev, at age 54, was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party on March 11, 1985. He became the Party's first leader to have been born after the Russian Revolution of 1917. As de facto ruler of the Soviet Union, he tried to reform the stagnating Communist Party and the state economy by introducing ''glasnost'' ("openness"), ''perestroika'' ("restructuring"), and ''uskorenie'' ("acceleration", of economic development), which were launched at the 27th Congress of the CPSU in February 1986. === Reforms === Domestically, Gorbachev implemented economic reforms that he hoped would improve living standards and worker productivity as part of his ''perestroika'' program. However, many of his reforms were contrary to the beliefs of many in the Soviet government at the time. The Wikisource:Law on Cooperatives enacted in May 1987 was perhaps the most radical of the economic reforms during the early part of the Gorbachev era. For the first time since Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy, the law permitted private ownership of businesses in the services, manufacturing, and foreign-trade sectors. The law initially imposed high taxes and employment restrictions, but these were later revised to avoid discouraging private-sector activity. Under this provision, cooperative restaurants, shops, and manufacturers became part of the Soviet scene. Gorbachev's introduction of ''glasnost'' gave new freedoms to the people, such as a greater freedom of speech. This was a radical change, as control of speech and suppression of government criticism had previously been a central part of the Soviet system. The press became far less controlled, and thousands of political prisoners and many dissidents were released. In January 1987, Gorbachev called for democratization: the infusion of democratic elements such as multi-candidate elections into the Soviet political process. In June 1988, at the CPSU's Nineteenth Party Conference, Gorbachev launched radical reforms meant to reduce party control of the government apparatus. In December 1988, the Supreme Soviet approved the establishment of a Congress of People's Deputies, which constitutional amendments had established as the Soviet Union's new legislative body. In international affairs, Gorbachev sought to improve relations and trade with the West. On October 11 1986, Gorbachev and United States President Ronald Reagan met in Reykjavik, Iceland to discuss reducing intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe. This led to the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in 1987. In February 1988, Gorbachev announced the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan, which was completed the following year. Also during 1988, Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union would abandon the Brezhnev Doctrine, and allow the Eastern bloc nations to determine their own internal affairs. This proved to be the most far-reaching of Gorbachev's foreign policy reforms with his Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov jokingly calling his new doctrine the Sinatra Doctrine. Moscow's abandonment of the Brezhnev Doctrine led to a string of revolutions in Eastern Europe throughout 1989, in which communism collapsed. With the exception of Romania, the democratic revolutions against the pro-Soviet communist regimes were all peaceful ones. The loosening of Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe effectively ended the Cold War, and for this, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 15, 1990. === Division, coup and collapse === However, the democratization of the USSR and Eastern Europe tore away the power of the CPSU and Gorbachev himself. Gorbachev's relaxation of censorship and attempts to create more political openness had the unintended effect of re-awakening long-suppressed nationalist and anti-Russian feelings in the Republics of the Soviet Union. Calls for greater independence from Moscow's rule grew louder, especially in the Baltic Republics of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, which had been annexed into the Soviet Union by Stalin in 1940. Nationalist feeling also took hold in the Soviet republics of Georgia (country), Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Gorbachev had accidentally unleashed a force that would ultimately destroy the Soviet Union. Gorbachev's response to growing republic separatism was to draw up a new treaty of union which would have created a truly voluntary federation in an increasingly democratised USSR. The new treaty was strongly supported by the Central Asian republics, who needed the economic power and markets of the Soviet Union to prosper. However, the reformists led by Boris Yeltsin were increasingly convinced that a rapid transition to a market economy was required and were more than happy to contemplate the disintegration of the USSR if that was required to achieve their aims. In contrast to the reformers' lukewarm approach to the new treaty, the conservatives, still strong within the CPSU and military establishment, were completely opposed to anything which might lead to breakup of the Soviet motherland. On the eve of the treaty's signing the conservatives struck. Conservatives in the Soviet leadership launched the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 in 1991 in an attempt to remove Gorbachev from power and prevent the signing of the new union treaty. During this time, Gorbachev spent three days (August 19 to 21) under house arrest at a dacha in the Crimea before being freed and restored to power. However, upon his return, Gorbachev found that neither union nor Russian power structures heeded his commands as support had swung over to his nationalist rival, Yeltsin, who was now president of the Russian SFSR. Furthermore, Gorbachev was forced to fire large numbers of his Politburo and, in several cases, arrest them. Those arrested for high treason include the "Gang of Eight" that had led the coup. Gorbachev had aimed to maintain the CPSU as a united party but move it in the direction of social democracy. The inherent contradictions in this approach - praising Lenin, admiring Sweden's social model and seeking to maintain the annexation of the Baltic states by military force - were difficult enough. But when the CPSU was proscribed after the August coup, Gorbachev was left with no effective power base beyond the armed forces. In the end Yeltsin won them round too with promises of more money. *The entry entitled Collapse of the Soviet Union also discusses these events. Gorbachev was elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union on March 15, 1990. However, the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on December 8, 1991 resulted in the Soviet Union becoming defunct, and on December 25, Gorbachev resigned. Gorbachev is generally well regarded in the West for having ended the Cold War. However in Russia, his reputation is very low because he is perceived to have brought about the collapse of the country and is held responsible for the misery that followed. Nevertheless, polls indicate that a majority of Russians are pleased with the result of the individual aims of ''perestroika'', Gorbachev's chief legislative legacy. == Political activity after resignation == Gorbachev founded the Gorbachev Foundation in 1992. In 1993, he also founded Green Cross International, of which he was one of three major sponsors of the Earth Charter. He also became a member of the Club of Rome. In 1996, Gorbachev ran for re-election in Russia, but received only about 1 percent of the vote. In 1997, Gorbachev starred in a Pizza Hut commercial made for the USA to raise money for the Perestroika Archives. On November 26, 2001, Gorbachev also founded the Social Democratic Party of Russia—which is a union between several Russian social democrat parties. He resigned as party leader in May 2004 over a disagreement with the party's chairman over the direction taken in the December 2003 election campaign. In early 2004, Gorbachev moved to trademark his famous port wine stain birthmark, after a vodka company featured the mark on labels of one of their drinks to capitalize on its fame. The company now no longer uses the trademark. [http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/2/2/171247.shtml Gorbachev to Trademark his Forehead] In June 2004, Gorbachev represented Russia at the State funeral of Ronald Reagan. In September 2004, following Chechen terrorist attacks across Russia, President Vladimir Putin launched an initiative to replace the election of regional governors with a system whereby they would be directly appointed by the President and approved by regional legislatures. Gorbachev, together with Boris Yeltsin, criticized Putin's actions as a step away from democracy. In 2005, Gorbachev was awarded the Point Alpha Prize for promoting German reunification along with former Germany chancellor Helmut Kohl and former U.S. President George H.W. Bush.
== Trivia == In 1987, Gorbachev acknowledged that his liberalizing policies of glasnost and perestroika owed a great deal to Alexander Dubcek's "socialism with a human face." When asked in 1987 what the difference was between the Prague Spring and his own reforms, Gorbachev replied, "Nineteen years." In 1989, on an official visit to China during the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, shortly before the imposition of martial law in Beijing, Gorbachev was asked for his opinion on the great wall of China: "It's a very beautiful work", he replied, "but there are already too many walls between people". A journalist asked him, "would you like the Berlin Wall to be taken down?" Gorbachev replied very seriously, "Why not?" === Religious affiliation === Baptized in the Russian Orthodox church as a child, Gorbachev is an atheist. Nevertheless, he maintains respect for the faiths of people of all religions, as evidenced by his leading role in the establishment of freedom of religion laws in the former Soviet Union. === Naevus flammeus === Gorbachev is the most famous person in modern times with visible naevus flammeus. The crimson birthmark on the top of his bald head was often the source of much satire among critics and cartoonists. == See also == *Soviet Union *Earth Charter *Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev, key Gorbachev advisor and ally. *Eduard Shevardnadze, senior Gorbachev minister and ally. *Naevus flammeus, the birthmark Gorbachev has on his forehead. == External links == *[http://www.mikhailgorbachev.org/ Mikhailgorbachev.org] *[http://www.gorby.ru/ Gorby.ru] The Gorbachev Foundation (in the West, Gorbachev was colloquially known as 'Gorby', in part because of a perception that he was less austerity than his predecessors). *[http://marxists.org/glossary/ The Encyclopedia of Marxism], from which parts of this article have been taken. *[http://www.greencrossinternational.net/ Green Cross International] official site *[http://sodin-mail.com/homepages/~natalia/nobel_russians/gorbachev/mikhail.htm Mikhail S. Gorbachev Biography, in Russian] *[http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1432787,00.html Out in the Cold] Guardian interview March 8, 2005 *[http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/gorbachev.html TIME 100 for 2004: Mikhail Gorbachev] *[http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/gorbachev/ CNN Cold War - Profile: Mikhail Gorbachev] from the 1998 series *[http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv6n1/gorbach.htm 'My Ambition was to Liquidate Communism'] interview with Gorbachev in Ankara *[http://www.project-syndicate.org/contributors/contributor_comm.php4?id=239 Mikhail Gorbachev's Project Syndicate op/eds] == Further reading == * Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev, Perennial Library, Harper & Row, 1988, trade paperback, 297 pages, ISBN 0-06-091528-5 * Memoirs, Mikhail Gorbachev, Doubleday, 1996, hardcover, 769 pages, ISBN 0-38-548019-9 * The Gorbachev Factor, Archie Brown, Oxford University Press, 1997, paperback, 444 pages, ISBN 0-19-288052-7 1931 births Cold War people Leaders of the Soviet Union Nobel Peace Prize winners Russian politicians Heads_of_State_of_the_Soviet_Union Communists
What is that spot on his forehead?! :I think someone spilled wine on his head! -------- "(this quote arised from his misunderstanding of Jesus: Clearly Moses was the first socialist proposing to give anybody according to his deed - 'eye for eye', delivery of slaves each 7 years, canceling the capital by forbidding interests for borrowed money. Jesus was the first communist, proposing to give anybody according to his needs - 'give to whoever asks you')" I removed this expression from under the Jesus quote. It's blatant POV and irrelevant. We don't need random editors arguing with a direct quote from a historical figure. -- User:Styrbjorn 22:32, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC) -------- The phrasing around G. taking out trademark protection on his birthmark is quite unclear. Also: I have read in a short biography that G. was what's called a "teetotaler" or something in english, he didn't drink alcohol. But I have also seen a russian documentary made after his wife's death that seems to indicate that he isn't that any longer? Other issues which may be of interest may be his close relationship to his wife, and the humanitarian organization they started (cancer research?) -------- Featured on Template:March 11 selected anniversaries (may be in HTML comment) ------- What about moving this article from Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev to Mikhail Gorbachev? Most articles link to the second title, few to the first one. -- User:Juan M. Gonzalez 22:39 Sep 9, 2002 (UTC) :Moved. --User:Maveric149 ::Thanks, mav. I had a nagging suspicion that just moving the text wasn't enough, but I couldn't remember why (it's the history, of course). --User:Ed Poor ---- Ivashko can not be considered as Gorbachev's successor as the leader of the Soviet Union. User:Andres 01:00, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC) ---- I don't see how you can put Yeltsin as Gorbachev's successor. Yeltsin become president of the Russian republic in 1990 before Yeltsin resigned. The Soviet Union encompassed more than Russia. This was not a simple name change. A larger entity dissolved and a lower entity became sovereign. --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 19:48, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) :First of all, your change is not just fixing a typo. If there are disagreements in basics, they must be settled in the talk page. : Now, you are saying "the SU dissolved". If it were so easy. There are international treaties, obligations, debts. In many aspects Russian Federation claimed to overtake. There is a historical continuity Imperial Russia -- Soviet Union -- Russian Federation. If you don't like the chain of rulers as it is displayed now, let's discuss something different, to display this chain of succession, rather than simply break it. User:Mikkalai 21:01, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) I never said that my change was fixing a typo. Russia declared its independence in June 12, 1990 and the USSR was not dissolved until a year later. There is no continuity. Are you claiming that Gorbachev ceased to be legitimate in June 1990? The navigation bar states "List of leaders of the Soviet Union". That's all we need to include. It's not a "List of leaders of Russia". The key word in your statement above is "many", not "all". It was not a direct succession and the two are not synonomous. To claim that is to be misleading. --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 21:30, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) : The key word is "don't be too formal" in my comments to edits. You are breaking the actual chain of history of the land under a formal pretext without giving any replacement. User:Mikkalai 22:07, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::As an encyclopedia, we must do our best to be factual. What's wrong with being formal? I don't see your point. This is not a direct chain of leaders. --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 22:26, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::: Wrong with being formal is that history is not mathematics, unfortunately. For example, I could disagree with inclusion in the list of leaders those temporary ones, from coups, since the were not formally recognized anywhere in the world (and by the people of the country as well). Why is your formalism so selective? User:Mikkalai 22:48, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) :Since when has formal recognition by other states determined whether a leader would be a leader, period? --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 23:01, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) With regard to Gorbachev and Yeltsin - we link from Kerensky to Lenin at one end so we should link from Gorbachev to Yeltsin at the other. User:PMelvilleAustin 12:33, Mar 3, 2004 (UTC) :Since that one was directly overthrown and replaced it's fine, but it should link to the state replacement, not the person. That navigation bar also links to "Leaders of Russia", not "Leaders of the Soviet Union".--User:JiangUser talk:Jiang :: what's wrong with navigation bars mixed? See List of British monarchs, with all these changes and intertwines of lands and rulers. Main goal in historiography is connectedness, otherwise it is impossible to trace through time. User:Mikkalai 22:48, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) You mean at James I of England? That was a direct succession and the crowns were merged. I don't see the issue or confusion there. It's been the same family since the Norman conquest. --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 23:01, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) == Silly things removed until serious confirmation == ... and explanations. ''Gorbachev won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, called "Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf/Beintus: Wolf Tracks", along with Bill Clinton and Sophia Loren.'' : OK. This one seems seems true, but the above text is total confusion. I have no desire to write it correctly. If someone wants, go ahead. User:Mikkalai 02:29, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC) ''In early 2004, Gorbachev created a copyright of his famous birthmark after a vodka company featured the mark on labels of one of their drinks in order to capitalize on its fame. The company now no longer uses the trademark as Gorbachev takes it very seriously.[http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/2/2/171247.shtml Gorbachev to Trademark his Forehead]'' : This text may also be true, but the exposition is unencyclopedic, good for a tabloid (what's the company? why did gorbachoff copyright? to get rich or to fight defamation? etc.) User:Mikkalai 02:29, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC) The excision comes across as an attempt to de-trivialise the Gorbachev article, always a worthy goal, but overdone here in my opinion. The Grammy Award alone would qualify Gorbachev for inclusion (see Wikipedia:Criteria for inclusion of biographies), and the Grammy articles would link here. The trademark issue will probably be mentioned in the trademark / intellectual property / celebrity articles at some stage as a famous example of protecting one's likeness, and is the only mention in the article of the famous birthmark - there is a photo but it could be thought to be from a burn late in life. I agree that the text should be improved, but please use pages such as Wikipedia:Cleanup, Wikipedia:Accuracy dispute or Wikipedia:Pages needing attention instead of deletion. My view is that the article currently needs more content, not less. -- User:Zigger 04:14, 2004 Mar 30 (UTC) :You seem to have ignored what I wrote. I don't care if you include Gorbachov's penis diameter. What I care, you must be diligent with facts. The authors seemed to put some red hot chily pepper rather than provide correct information. User:Mikkalai 08:19, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC) == Gorbachov vs Gorbachev == The correct transliteriations of the Russian name Горбачёв is Gorbachov;. The name is often spelled in Russian as Горбачeв (without double dot) hence the spelling of Gorbachev but this is a rude spelling error. We have to avoid the spelling errors. User:ABE 00:16, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC) :This is an English language encylopedia. It doesn't matter which translation is more accurate. In English, Gorbachev is the most common spelling, used by the English language media and elsewhere. --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 00:18, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC) :: According to the Transliteration of Russian into English, Gorbachyov is the proper transliteration. The source of confusion lies in omission of diacritic marks over ё, as explained in the Reforms of Russian orthography; even when written with without diacritic, it's still universally spelled as yo (hence the simplified CHOFF ending in the phonetic guideline). The similar confusion is applied to Khrushchev, who should have been properly transliterated as Khrushchyov and it's in fact the spelling used by every Russian. ::I think these variants be mentioned in the intro as primary with commonly accepted ones in parentheses, just like Joseph Stalin is correctly named by Russian Iosif on the first line. User:DmitryKo 12:08, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC) ---- == Berlin wall == There is a nice anecdote on the page from the French language wiki, which would be nice to incorporate if anyone can think where best to put it. Here is my translation of the French: :In 1989, on an official visit to China soon after the events of Tiananmen square, he was asked for his opinion on the great wall of China: "It's a very beautiful work", he replied, "but there are already too many walls between people". A journalist asked him, "would you like the Berlin wall to be taken down?" Gorbachev replied very seriously, "Why not?" User:Trainspotter 19:52, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC) I agree with a comment someone said about using a better picture. Could someone find a better one? == Glasnost: eastern europe tore away the USSR == It was not so much eastern europe... eastern europe was in itself manipulated easily, but the balitic region was the actual definitive *region* which had the momentum and history to actually break away. Remember in the baltics the germans were greeted as liberators against the soviets in WWII... capsulised in the movie "Hunt for the red october" goes the saying "but why would a russian want to defect?". "He's not Russian. He was born in lithuania". That pretty much sums it up. This isn't the united states of america we're talking about. It was never united, and never was, and never will be. period. : That's true. If the USSR would have been like the USA, Baltics would have lived in reservations that would be used as nuclear waste dumps. == Clarify == What i mean by that is eastern europe is much a generisation... there was a real difference in the warsaw pact between communist "satelite states" and those states actually IN the USSR... dissent towards the soviets varied greatly between them, on a scale of 0 to 100, objectively between 4 trillion 5 hundred billion 4 hundred and twenty seven million, 800 thousand , four hundred and seventy three to say on the same scale of 0-100, 3 in Georgia. Ukraine less, take into account that soviet union encouraged russian nationals to "Spread everywhere" to complete the russification of the USSR. == Raisa == Shouldn't Raisa's death in 1999 be mentioned? == Inadvertently dissolved Communist Party == The article states that Gorbachev inadvertently ended the supremecy of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. He had intentions to end Communism (as stated later on) so inadvertently is a bad word to describe the situation.
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Mikhail_Gorbachev:
Mikhail_Gorbachev
Mikhail_Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
{| border=1 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 class="toccolours" style="float: right; width: 240px; clear: both; margin: 0.5em 0 1em 1em; border-style: solid; border:1px solid #7f7f7f; border-right-width: 2px; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;" |+Mikhail Gorbachev |- | style="background:#efefef;" align="center" colspan="2" | |- |Term of Office: |1985-1991 |- |Predecessor: |Konstantin Chernenko, Vladimir Ivashko |- |Successor: |Vladimir Ivashko |- |Date of Birth: |March 2, 1931 |- |Place of Birth: |'' Privolnoye'', near Stavropol |- |Date of Death: |N/A |- |Place of Death: |N/A |- |Profession: |Politician |- |Political party: |''Communist Party of the U.S.S.R'' |} Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov (Gorbachev) (; pronunciation: ) (born March 2, 1931), was leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. His attempts at reform led to the end of the Cold War, but also inadvertently caused the end of the political supremacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. == Early life and political career == Mikhail Gorbachev was born into a peasant family in the village of Privolnoye near Stavropol. He studied law at Moscow University, where he met his future wife, Raisa Gorbachev. They were married in September 1953 and moved to Mr. Gorbachev's home region of Stavropol in southern Russia when he graduated in 1955. Gorbachev joined the CPSU in 1952 at the age of 21. In 1966, at age 35, he graduated from the Agricultural Institute as an agronomist-economist. His career moved forward rapidly, and in 1970, he was appointed First Secretary for Agriculture and the following year made a member of the Central Committee. In 1972, he headed a Soviet delegation to Belgium and two years later, in 1974, he was made a Representative to the Supreme Soviet, and Chairman of the Standing Commission on Youth Affairs. He was elevated to the Politburo in 1979. There, he received the patronage of Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB and also a native of Stavropol, and was promoted during Andropov's brief time as leader of the Party before his death in 1984. With responsibility over personnel, working together with Andropov, 20 percent of the top echelon of government ministers and regional governors were replaced, often with younger men. During this time Grigory Romanov, Nikolai Ryzhkov, and Yegor Ligachev were elevated, the latter two working closely with Gorbachev, Ryzhkov on economics, Ligachev on personnel. He was also close to Konstantin Chernenko, Andropov's successor, serving as second secretary. His positions within the new CPSU created more opportunities to travel abroad that would profoundly affect his political and social views in the future as leader of the country. In 1975, he led a delegation to West Germany, and in 1983 he headed a Soviet delegation to Canada to meet with Pierre Trudeau and members of the Canadian House of Commons and Canadian Senate. In 1985, he traveled to the United Kingdom, where he met with Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom Margaret Thatcher. == General Secretary of the CPSU == Upon the death of Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev, at age 54, was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party on March 11, 1985. He became the Party's first leader to have been born after the Russian Revolution of 1917. As de facto ruler of the Soviet Union, he tried to reform the stagnating Communist Party and the state economy by introducing ''glasnost'' ("openness"), ''perestroika'' ("restructuring"), and ''uskorenie'' ("acceleration", of economic development), which were launched at the 27th Congress of the CPSU in February 1986. === Reforms === Domestically, Gorbachev implemented economic reforms that he hoped would improve living standards and worker productivity as part of his ''perestroika'' program. However, many of his reforms were contrary to the beliefs of many in the Soviet government at the time. The Wikisource:Law on Cooperatives enacted in May 1987 was perhaps the most radical of the economic reforms during the early part of the Gorbachev era. For the first time since Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy, the law permitted private ownership of businesses in the services, manufacturing, and foreign-trade sectors. The law initially imposed high taxes and employment restrictions, but these were later revised to avoid discouraging private-sector activity. Under this provision, cooperative restaurants, shops, and manufacturers became part of the Soviet scene. Gorbachev's introduction of ''glasnost'' gave new freedoms to the people, such as a greater freedom of speech. This was a radical change, as control of speech and suppression of government criticism had previously been a central part of the Soviet system. The press became far less controlled, and thousands of political prisoners and many dissidents were released. In January 1987, Gorbachev called for democratization: the infusion of democratic elements such as multi-candidate elections into the Soviet political process. In June 1988, at the CPSU's Nineteenth Party Conference, Gorbachev launched radical reforms meant to reduce party control of the government apparatus. In December 1988, the Supreme Soviet approved the establishment of a Congress of People's Deputies, which constitutional amendments had established as the Soviet Union's new legislative body. In international affairs, Gorbachev sought to improve relations and trade with the West. On October 11 1986, Gorbachev and United States President Ronald Reagan met in Reykjavik, Iceland to discuss reducing intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe. This led to the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in 1987. In February 1988, Gorbachev announced the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan, which was completed the following year. Also during 1988, Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union would abandon the Brezhnev Doctrine, and allow the Eastern bloc nations to determine their own internal affairs. This proved to be the most far-reaching of Gorbachev's foreign policy reforms with his Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov jokingly calling his new doctrine the Sinatra Doctrine. Moscow's abandonment of the Brezhnev Doctrine led to a string of revolutions in Eastern Europe throughout 1989, in which communism collapsed. With the exception of Romania, the democratic revolutions against the pro-Soviet communist regimes were all peaceful ones. The loosening of Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe effectively ended the Cold War, and for this, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 15, 1990. === Division, coup and collapse === However, the democratization of the USSR and Eastern Europe tore away the power of the CPSU and Gorbachev himself. Gorbachev's relaxation of censorship and attempts to create more political openness had the unintended effect of re-awakening long-suppressed nationalist and anti-Russian feelings in the Republics of the Soviet Union. Calls for greater independence from Moscow's rule grew louder, especially in the Baltic Republics of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, which had been annexed into the Soviet Union by Stalin in 1940. Nationalist feeling also took hold in the Soviet republics of Georgia (country), Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Gorbachev had accidentally unleashed a force that would ultimately destroy the Soviet Union. Gorbachev's response to growing republic separatism was to draw up a new treaty of union which would have created a truly voluntary federation in an increasingly democratised USSR. The new treaty was strongly supported by the Central Asian republics, who needed the economic power and markets of the Soviet Union to prosper. However, the reformists led by Boris Yeltsin were increasingly convinced that a rapid transition to a market economy was required and were more than happy to contemplate the disintegration of the USSR if that was required to achieve their aims. In contrast to the reformers' lukewarm approach to the new treaty, the conservatives, still strong within the CPSU and military establishment, were completely opposed to anything which might lead to breakup of the Soviet motherland. On the eve of the treaty's signing the conservatives struck. Conservatives in the Soviet leadership launched the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 in 1991 in an attempt to remove Gorbachev from power and prevent the signing of the new union treaty. During this time, Gorbachev spent three days (August 19 to 21) under house arrest at a dacha in the Crimea before being freed and restored to power. However, upon his return, Gorbachev found that neither union nor Russian power structures heeded his commands as support had swung over to his nationalist rival, Yeltsin, who was now president of the Russian SFSR. Furthermore, Gorbachev was forced to fire large numbers of his Politburo and, in several cases, arrest them. Those arrested for high treason include the "Gang of Eight" that had led the coup. Gorbachev had aimed to maintain the CPSU as a united party but move it in the direction of social democracy. The inherent contradictions in this approach - praising Lenin, admiring Sweden's social model and seeking to maintain the annexation of the Baltic states by military force - were difficult enough. But when the CPSU was proscribed after the August coup, Gorbachev was left with no effective power base beyond the armed forces. In the end Yeltsin won them round too with promises of more money. *The entry entitled Collapse of the Soviet Union also discusses these events. Gorbachev was elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union on March 15, 1990. However, the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on December 8, 1991 resulted in the Soviet Union becoming defunct, and on December 25, Gorbachev resigned. Gorbachev is generally well regarded in the West for having ended the Cold War. However in Russia, his reputation is very low because he is perceived to have brought about the collapse of the country and is held responsible for the misery that followed. Nevertheless, polls indicate that a majority of Russians are pleased with the result of the individual aims of ''perestroika'', Gorbachev's chief legislative legacy. == Political activity after resignation == Gorbachev founded the Gorbachev Foundation in 1992. In 1993, he also founded Green Cross International, of which he was one of three major sponsors of the Earth Charter. He also became a member of the Club of Rome. In 1996, Gorbachev ran for re-election in Russia, but received only about 1 percent of the vote. In 1997, Gorbachev starred in a Pizza Hut commercial made for the USA to raise money for the Perestroika Archives. On November 26, 2001, Gorbachev also founded the Social Democratic Party of Russia—which is a union between several Russian social democrat parties. He resigned as party leader in May 2004 over a disagreement with the party's chairman over the direction taken in the December 2003 election campaign. In early 2004, Gorbachev moved to trademark his famous port wine stain birthmark, after a vodka company featured the mark on labels of one of their drinks to capitalize on its fame. The company now no longer uses the trademark. [http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/2/2/171247.shtml Gorbachev to Trademark his Forehead] In June 2004, Gorbachev represented Russia at the State funeral of Ronald Reagan. In September 2004, following Chechen terrorist attacks across Russia, President Vladimir Putin launched an initiative to replace the election of regional governors with a system whereby they would be directly appointed by the President and approved by regional legislatures. Gorbachev, together with Boris Yeltsin, criticized Putin's actions as a step away from democracy. In 2005, Gorbachev was awarded the Point Alpha Prize for promoting German reunification along with former Germany chancellor Helmut Kohl and former U.S. President George H.W. Bush.
== Trivia == In 1987, Gorbachev acknowledged that his liberalizing policies of glasnost and perestroika owed a great deal to Alexander Dubcek's "socialism with a human face." When asked in 1987 what the difference was between the Prague Spring and his own reforms, Gorbachev replied, "Nineteen years." In 1989, on an official visit to China during the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, shortly before the imposition of martial law in Beijing, Gorbachev was asked for his opinion on the great wall of China: "It's a very beautiful work", he replied, "but there are already too many walls between people". A journalist asked him, "would you like the Berlin Wall to be taken down?" Gorbachev replied very seriously, "Why not?" === Religious affiliation === Baptized in the Russian Orthodox church as a child, Gorbachev is an atheist. Nevertheless, he maintains respect for the faiths of people of all religions, as evidenced by his leading role in the establishment of freedom of religion laws in the former Soviet Union. === Naevus flammeus === Gorbachev is the most famous person in modern times with visible naevus flammeus. The crimson birthmark on the top of his bald head was often the source of much satire among critics and cartoonists. == See also == *Soviet Union *Earth Charter *Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev, key Gorbachev advisor and ally. *Eduard Shevardnadze, senior Gorbachev minister and ally. *Naevus flammeus, the birthmark Gorbachev has on his forehead. == External links == *[http://www.mikhailgorbachev.org/ Mikhailgorbachev.org] *[http://www.gorby.ru/ Gorby.ru] The Gorbachev Foundation (in the West, Gorbachev was colloquially known as 'Gorby', in part because of a perception that he was less austerity than his predecessors). *[http://marxists.org/glossary/ The Encyclopedia of Marxism], from which parts of this article have been taken. *[http://www.greencrossinternational.net/ Green Cross International] official site *[http://sodin-mail.com/homepages/~natalia/nobel_russians/gorbachev/mikhail.htm Mikhail S. Gorbachev Biography, in Russian] *[http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1432787,00.html Out in the Cold] Guardian interview March 8, 2005 *[http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/gorbachev.html TIME 100 for 2004: Mikhail Gorbachev] *[http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/gorbachev/ CNN Cold War - Profile: Mikhail Gorbachev] from the 1998 series *[http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv6n1/gorbach.htm 'My Ambition was to Liquidate Communism'] interview with Gorbachev in Ankara *[http://www.project-syndicate.org/contributors/contributor_comm.php4?id=239 Mikhail Gorbachev's Project Syndicate op/eds] == Further reading == * Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World, Mikhail Gorbachev, Perennial Library, Harper & Row, 1988, trade paperback, 297 pages, ISBN 0-06-091528-5 * Memoirs, Mikhail Gorbachev, Doubleday, 1996, hardcover, 769 pages, ISBN 0-38-548019-9 * The Gorbachev Factor, Archie Brown, Oxford University Press, 1997, paperback, 444 pages, ISBN 0-19-288052-7 1931 births Cold War people Leaders of the Soviet Union Nobel Peace Prize winners Russian politicians Heads_of_State_of_the_Soviet_Union Communists
Mikhail Gorbachev
What is that spot on his forehead?! :I think someone spilled wine on his head! -------- "(this quote arised from his misunderstanding of Jesus: Clearly Moses was the first socialist proposing to give anybody according to his deed - 'eye for eye', delivery of slaves each 7 years, canceling the capital by forbidding interests for borrowed money. Jesus was the first communist, proposing to give anybody according to his needs - 'give to whoever asks you')" I removed this expression from under the Jesus quote. It's blatant POV and irrelevant. We don't need random editors arguing with a direct quote from a historical figure. -- User:Styrbjorn 22:32, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC) -------- The phrasing around G. taking out trademark protection on his birthmark is quite unclear. Also: I have read in a short biography that G. was what's called a "teetotaler" or something in english, he didn't drink alcohol. But I have also seen a russian documentary made after his wife's death that seems to indicate that he isn't that any longer? Other issues which may be of interest may be his close relationship to his wife, and the humanitarian organization they started (cancer research?) -------- Featured on Template:March 11 selected anniversaries (may be in HTML comment) ------- What about moving this article from Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev to Mikhail Gorbachev? Most articles link to the second title, few to the first one. -- User:Juan M. Gonzalez 22:39 Sep 9, 2002 (UTC) :Moved. --User:Maveric149 ::Thanks, mav. I had a nagging suspicion that just moving the text wasn't enough, but I couldn't remember why (it's the history, of course). --User:Ed Poor ---- Ivashko can not be considered as Gorbachev's successor as the leader of the Soviet Union. User:Andres 01:00, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC) ---- I don't see how you can put Yeltsin as Gorbachev's successor. Yeltsin become president of the Russian republic in 1990 before Yeltsin resigned. The Soviet Union encompassed more than Russia. This was not a simple name change. A larger entity dissolved and a lower entity became sovereign. --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 19:48, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) :First of all, your change is not just fixing a typo. If there are disagreements in basics, they must be settled in the talk page. : Now, you are saying "the SU dissolved". If it were so easy. There are international treaties, obligations, debts. In many aspects Russian Federation claimed to overtake. There is a historical continuity Imperial Russia -- Soviet Union -- Russian Federation. If you don't like the chain of rulers as it is displayed now, let's discuss something different, to display this chain of succession, rather than simply break it. User:Mikkalai 21:01, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) I never said that my change was fixing a typo. Russia declared its independence in June 12, 1990 and the USSR was not dissolved until a year later. There is no continuity. Are you claiming that Gorbachev ceased to be legitimate in June 1990? The navigation bar states "List of leaders of the Soviet Union". That's all we need to include. It's not a "List of leaders of Russia". The key word in your statement above is "many", not "all". It was not a direct succession and the two are not synonomous. To claim that is to be misleading. --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 21:30, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) : The key word is "don't be too formal" in my comments to edits. You are breaking the actual chain of history of the land under a formal pretext without giving any replacement. User:Mikkalai 22:07, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::As an encyclopedia, we must do our best to be factual. What's wrong with being formal? I don't see your point. This is not a direct chain of leaders. --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 22:26, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::: Wrong with being formal is that history is not mathematics, unfortunately. For example, I could disagree with inclusion in the list of leaders those temporary ones, from coups, since the were not formally recognized anywhere in the world (and by the people of the country as well). Why is your formalism so selective? User:Mikkalai 22:48, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) :Since when has formal recognition by other states determined whether a leader would be a leader, period? --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 23:01, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) With regard to Gorbachev and Yeltsin - we link from Kerensky to Lenin at one end so we should link from Gorbachev to Yeltsin at the other. User:PMelvilleAustin 12:33, Mar 3, 2004 (UTC) :Since that one was directly overthrown and replaced it's fine, but it should link to the state replacement, not the person. That navigation bar also links to "Leaders of Russia", not "Leaders of the Soviet Union".--User:JiangUser talk:Jiang :: what's wrong with navigation bars mixed? See List of British monarchs, with all these changes and intertwines of lands and rulers. Main goal in historiography is connectedness, otherwise it is impossible to trace through time. User:Mikkalai 22:48, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) You mean at James I of England? That was a direct succession and the crowns were merged. I don't see the issue or confusion there. It's been the same family since the Norman conquest. --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 23:01, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) == Silly things removed until serious confirmation == ... and explanations. ''Gorbachev won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, called "Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf/Beintus: Wolf Tracks", along with Bill Clinton and Sophia Loren.'' : OK. This one seems seems true, but the above text is total confusion. I have no desire to write it correctly. If someone wants, go ahead. User:Mikkalai 02:29, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC) ''In early 2004, Gorbachev created a copyright of his famous birthmark after a vodka company featured the mark on labels of one of their drinks in order to capitalize on its fame. The company now no longer uses the trademark as Gorbachev takes it very seriously.[http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/2/2/171247.shtml Gorbachev to Trademark his Forehead]'' : This text may also be true, but the exposition is unencyclopedic, good for a tabloid (what's the company? why did gorbachoff copyright? to get rich or to fight defamation? etc.) User:Mikkalai 02:29, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC) The excision comes across as an attempt to de-trivialise the Gorbachev article, always a worthy goal, but overdone here in my opinion. The Grammy Award alone would qualify Gorbachev for inclusion (see Wikipedia:Criteria for inclusion of biographies), and the Grammy articles would link here. The trademark issue will probably be mentioned in the trademark / intellectual property / celebrity articles at some stage as a famous example of protecting one's likeness, and is the only mention in the article of the famous birthmark - there is a photo but it could be thought to be from a burn late in life. I agree that the text should be improved, but please use pages such as Wikipedia:Cleanup, Wikipedia:Accuracy dispute or Wikipedia:Pages needing attention instead of deletion. My view is that the article currently needs more content, not less. -- User:Zigger 04:14, 2004 Mar 30 (UTC) :You seem to have ignored what I wrote. I don't care if you include Gorbachov's penis diameter. What I care, you must be diligent with facts. The authors seemed to put some red hot chily pepper rather than provide correct information. User:Mikkalai 08:19, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC) == Gorbachov vs Gorbachev == The correct transliteriations of the Russian name Горбачёв is Gorbachov;. The name is often spelled in Russian as Горбачeв (without double dot) hence the spelling of Gorbachev but this is a rude spelling error. We have to avoid the spelling errors. User:ABE 00:16, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC) :This is an English language encylopedia. It doesn't matter which translation is more accurate. In English, Gorbachev is the most common spelling, used by the English language media and elsewhere. --User:JiangUser talk:Jiang 00:18, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC) :: According to the Transliteration of Russian into English, Gorbachyov is the proper transliteration. The source of confusion lies in omission of diacritic marks over ё, as explained in the Reforms of Russian orthography; even when written with without diacritic, it's still universally spelled as yo (hence the simplified CHOFF ending in the phonetic guideline). The similar confusion is applied to Khrushchev, who should have been properly transliterated as Khrushchyov and it's in fact the spelling used by every Russian. ::I think these variants be mentioned in the intro as primary with commonly accepted ones in parentheses, just like Joseph Stalin is correctly named by Russian Iosif on the first line. User:DmitryKo 12:08, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC) ---- == Berlin wall == There is a nice anecdote on the page from the French language wiki, which would be nice to incorporate if anyone can think where best to put it. Here is my translation of the French: :In 1989, on an official visit to China soon after the events of Tiananmen square, he was asked for his opinion on the great wall of China: "It's a very beautiful work", he replied, "but there are already too many walls between people". A journalist asked him, "would you like the Berlin wall to be taken down?" Gorbachev replied very seriously, "Why not?" User:Trainspotter 19:52, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC) I agree with a comment someone said about using a better picture. Could someone find a better one? == Glasnost: eastern europe tore away the USSR == It was not so much eastern europe... eastern europe was in itself manipulated easily, but the balitic region was the actual definitive *region* which had the momentum and history to actually break away. Remember in the baltics the germans were greeted as liberators against the soviets in WWII... capsulised in the movie "Hunt for the red october" goes the saying "but why would a russian want to defect?". "He's not Russian. He was born in lithuania". That pretty much sums it up. This isn't the united states of america we're talking about. It was never united, and never was, and never will be. period. : That's true. If the USSR would have been like the USA, Baltics would have lived in reservations that would be used as nuclear waste dumps. == Clarify == What i mean by that is eastern europe is much a generisation... there was a real difference in the warsaw pact between communist "satelite states" and those states actually IN the USSR... dissent towards the soviets varied greatly between them, on a scale of 0 to 100, objectively between 4 trillion 5 hundred billion 4 hundred and twenty seven million, 800 thousand , four hundred and seventy three to say on the same scale of 0-100, 3 in Georgia. Ukraine less, take into account that soviet union encouraged russian nationals to "Spread everywhere" to complete the russification of the USSR. == Raisa == Shouldn't Raisa's death in 1999 be mentioned? == Inadvertently dissolved Communist Party == The article states that Gorbachev inadvertently ended the supremecy of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. He had intentions to end Communism (as stated later on) so inadvertently is a bad word to describe the situation.
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