Moscow: Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union who ended the Cold War, has died. He was 91 years old. He died on Tuesday while undergoing treatment at the Central Clinical Hospital of Russia. Russian news agencies reported the death, citing the hospital. He had been ill for a long time. Russian President Vladimir Putin mourned Gorbachev’s death. He will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife Raisa, who died of leukemia in 1999, the Tass news agency said.
Although Gorbachev ended the Cold War, he failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in “radical changes in East-West relations” for his role in dismantling the Iron Curtain that divided Europe after World War II, bringing about the reunification of Germany, disarmament agreements with the United States, and partnerships with Western powers.
He is best known as the architect of reforms that created the conditions for the end of the Cold War in 1991, a period of conflict between the Soviet Union and the West, including the US and Britain.
Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931 in Privoili, now part of Russia. Gorbachev served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 and became the President of the Soviet Union in 1990-1991. Gorbachev’s efforts to further democratize the country’s political system and further decentralize the economic structure led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Gorbachev ended the Soviet Union’s hegemony in Eastern Europe. Gorbavvev was born in a farming family. He joined Komsomol, a young communist organization, in 1946. He officially joined the Communist Party in 1952 when he began studying law at Moscow State University. He graduated in law in 1955 and held various positions in Komsomol. In 1970, Gorbachev became the first regional secretary of the Communist Party.
Gorbachev became a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party in 1971. Later in 1978, he was elected as the Agriculture Secretary of the party. He became a candidate member of the Politburo in 1979 and became a full-time member in 1980.
The role of Mikhail Suslov, a senior party ideologue, was very important behind Gorbachev’s political growth. Gorbachev was the most active member of the Politburo during the fifteen months (1982-84) when Yuri Antropov was Party General Secretary.
Gorbachev was very successful in ending the authoritarian ways of the Soviet Union and implementing more democratic ones. But many in the party itself were against his policies. Gorbachev and his family were placed under house arrest as part of a coup attempt.
On December 25, 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev had to resign from the presidency. He ran for the Russian presidency in 1996 and was defeated without getting even one percent of the vote.