Mikhail Gorbachev

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who played a central role in ending the Cold War, has died at the age of 91. Russian media reported his death.

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Mikhail Gorbachev won the Nobel Prize for helping end the nuclear arms race while presiding over the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev's rise to power, after Leonid Brezhnev's death in 1982 and the two leaders who briefly followed Brezhnev, roughly coincided with that of Reagan, who was first elected in 1980 with a political appeal based in part on hardline anti-communism. A year later, Gorbachev was out of power as the Soviet Union was disbanded and its Eastern European bloc freed, followed by the first free elections in more than 70 years won by his arch-enemy, Yeltsin. They ordered the Soviet Army to put down demonstrations in Moscow, but the soldiers refused at the urging of Yeltsin. Gorbachev almost single-handedly ended the Cold War and in the process brought freedom to over a dozen countries and hundreds of millions of people." The two leaders agreed to stop making nuclear weapons and eliminate some. When he ran for president in 1996, Gorbachev received less than 1% of the vote.

He embarked on a path of radical reform that propelled the communist country toward collapse.

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Mikhail Gorbachev was a man of remarkable vision. When he came to power, the Cold War had gone on for nearly 40 years and communism for even longer,

Gorbachev visited the White House in 2009, he and I spoke for a long time about our countries’ ongoing work to reduce U.S. The result was a safer world and greater freedom for millions of people. Few high-level Soviet officials had the courage to admit that things needed to change.

President Biden said the former Soviet leader had the "imagination to see that a different future was possible."

World leaders reacted to the death of Mikhail S. [said](https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1564727984719814662?s=20&t=f-kTUDB69w4ZtXxf-0gblg) on Twitter that “in a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, [Gorbachev’s] tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.” [wrote](https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202208/1274279.shtml) that “in a historical reflection, Gorbachev is naive and immature,” adding that he would be remembered as “a tragic figure who catered to the US and the West without principle.” [Hiroshima](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/26/japan-russia-nuclear-hiroshima/?itid=lk_inline_manual_21), said Gorbachev had “left behind great accomplishment as a world leader supporting the abolishment of nuclear weapons.” [said](https://twitter.com/CondoleezzaRice/status/1564726532370604032?s=20&t=tjpy5y4RK1_hKRLQd2q03g) on Twitter that Gorbachev’s life was “consequential because, without him and his courage, it would not have been possible to end the Cold War peacefully.” Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his “deepest condolences,” a spokesman told the Interfax news agency, adding that Putin will “send a telegram of condolences to his family and friends.”