Mikhail Gorbachev

* OverSimplified
* Real Life

> “Dude, so uncool.„
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>  – Mikhail Gorbachev, The Cold War (Part 2)
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**Mikhail Gorbachev** was a former Russian politician and the 8th and last leader of the Soviet Union.

## Biography

Mikhail Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye, Soviet Union (now the Russian Federation) on March 2, 1931. He joined the Komsomol (Young Communist League) in 1946 and drove a combine harvester at a state farm in Stavropol for the next four years. He proved a promising Komsomol member, and in 1952, he entered the law school of Moscow State University and became a member of the Communist Party. He graduated with a degree in law in 1955, and held a number of posts in the Komsomol and regular party organizations in Stavropol, rising to become the first secretary of the regional party committee in 1970. He was a general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 (the time the USSR dissolved). In the first early years of the 1980s, 3 Successful Soviet Leaders died of natural causes, this included Leonid Brezhnev, a Major Soviet leader who ruled from 1964 to 1982 after suffering from a heart attack. Eventually, Gorbachev was called in to take charge of the Soviet Union in 1985.

During his time as president, he was known to be the "Game Changer" of the Soviet Union: he had a different philosophy than most previous Soviet leaders. He knew that the reason why the Soviet economy was struggling was because the country didn't allow people to find satisfaction in their work, and those who spoke out freely would face severe consequences. Like Khrushchev, Gorbachev wanted the Soviet people to be happy. However, unlike Khrushchev, Gorbachev actually made the changes happen. He began by fixing the Soviet economy for more "Openness" (*Perestroika*) and "Transparency" (*Glasnost*), allowing people to enjoy Western Culture, criticize the government without being sent to a gulag, and allowing American Franchises to be set up in the Soviet Union, for Example a Pizza Hut. He then established a positive relationship with the West; for example, he started the INF Treaty (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces), which eliminated all intermediate missiles. Gorbachev also helped tear down the Iron Curtain.

It seemed like people were satisfied with the changes Gorbachev gave them since that have the right to demonstrate, however people weren't happy with the one-party system and demanded for an end to it. Gorbachev had to conceded and brought an end to the One-Party System. Elections started in the Soviet Union in 1990. Gorbachev's main political opponent, Boris Yeltsin, wants to declare himself the president of Russia (Which used to be called *Russia SFSR*). Conservatives, horrified at what Gorbachev was allowing, captured Gorbachev as a last ditch effort to save the Soviet Union and to set up their own government. But the coup failed, once Yeltsin freed Gorbachev with his supporters and a tank. However, while Gorbachev was still kidnapped, Yeltsin went behind Gorbachev's back to make a deal with Ukraine and Belarus to dissolve the Soviet Union, and to set up the Russian Federation, much to Gorbachev's dismay.

Since then, Gorbachev wrote many books about Russia (the most recent one was released in 2020), and died on August 30, 2022, after a long illness. On September 3, 2022, Gorbachev's body was buried next to his wife Raisa Gorbachev in Novodevichy cementary in Moscow.