Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985 determined to save the Soviet system through radical reform, launching glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) — policies that unleashed forces he could not control and ultimately dissolved the empire he had sought to renovate. His refusal to use military force to suppress the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe, and his acceptance of German reunification, were the decisive acts that ended the Cold War; he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Whether he was the man who ended the Cold War or the man who inadvertently destroyed the Soviet Union — a distinction that matters greatly depending on one's perspective — remains the central question of his historical legacy.

• Lived: 1931 CE – 2022 CE
• Nationality: Soviet
• Roles: head_of_state, party_leader, reformer

Related

• The Cold War
• Gorbachev Comes to Power: Glasnost and Perestroika
• Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
• INF Treaty: Eliminating an Entire Class of Nuclear Weapons
• Revolutions of 1989: Eastern Europe's Annus Mirabilis
• Collapse of the Soviet Union