Soviet Union’s only president, Mikhail Gorbachev, dies at 92

Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and last president of the Soviet Union and the last general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, has died at the age of 92 after a long illness. Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed deep condolences at his death, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

The politician will reportedly be buried next to his wife Raisa at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

The death of the Soviet leader was also mourned on the Facebook page of Fides MEP Kinga Gál, who wrote that Gorbachev was the one who, in the early 1990s, understood that peace was above all else. As an example, because Europe and the world still need peace. “

Born on March 2, 1931 in the village of Privornoye, Gorbachev entered the law faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University. He met his wife there and became a Soviet Communist in 1952, when Stalin was still alive. After graduating from university, he returned to Stavropol, near his hometown, and began working at the Prosecutor’s Office.

Gorbachev then joined the Komsomol and became deputy head of Stavropol’s agitation and propaganda department. He later became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, then its secretary, and with Leonid Brezhnev’s approval, became a member of the Politburo, the inner circle of the Soviet leadership.

One of Mikhail Gorbachev’s first measures was a ban on alcohol, which deprived Russia of vodka, which is very popular, for five years. Meanwhile, the West applauded Soviet politicians for signing disarmament treaties, such as the 1987 INF on the dismantling of short- and medium-range nuclear missiles, and the 1991 Start I Agreement on mutual restrictions on the number of nuclear warheads. .

Gorbachev’s name also accompanies one of the most famous Soviet concepts: perestroika, which focused on the radical reorganization of economic and political life, and glasnost, which referred to propaganda and social control of politics. Associated.

A 1990 constitutional amendment made Gorbachev president of the Soviet Union, technically independent of the Politburo. However, in August 1991, he faced a coup and Boris Yeltsin saved him.

Gorbachev finally resigned on December 25, 1991 after Yeltsin signed the Belovezh Pact with the leaders of Belarus and Ukraine, marking the end of the Soviet Union. He then ran for president again in 1996, but received only 0.5% of the vote for him.

Gorbachev played a major role in the dismantling of the Soviet Union and regime change, and his presidency saw the end of the Cold War.

Although he is respected in the West for that, his legacy and image among Russians is complex, with many blaming the chaotic economic situation and declining living standards after his presidency. I’m blaming him.

Featured photo: Wikipedia