Gorbachev died in hospital in Moscow after a long illness. The new General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union made his first official visit to what was then Leningrad in the spring of 1985. It quickly became clear that a new type of leader had come to power. Mikhail Gorbachev liked to stop the motorcade and go out and talk to people. The old and sick leaders before him had not done that. NEVER SEEN BEFORE: A new leader and a new style. Gorgachev enjoyed talking to ordinary people and hearing their opinion. – We will improve people’s living standards, promised the new leader. – Stay close to most people, and we won’t forget you, shouted one of the audience. – Then I can’t get any closer than I am now, Gorbachev countered. Wanted change, not revolution Gorbachev launched the concepts of perestroika and glasnost, renewal and openness. He had inherited an enormous country where most of the resources had gone to build up the military forces, while in the rest of society there was a great shortage of consumer goods. LACK OF MOST THINGS: People stood in long queues to buy milk in the last years of the Soviet Union’s existence. Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / Ap Gorbachev wanted to reform the entrenched communist system, make it more effective in meeting people’s needs. But it was never his intention to abolish communism. Chernobyl was revealing A year after Gorbachev came to power, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. THE ACTION LAMB: It took a long time for the catastrophic news from the explosion in the nuclear reactor in Chernobyl to reach the leadership in Moscow. No one wanted to deliver bad news, and the system showed how bad it was at handling crises. Photo: STR / AP The accident showed the whole world how ineffectively the communist system acted in connection with the disaster, and Gorbachev’s position was weakened. In the communist dictatorship, everyone was afraid to convey bad news to the management, it could have serious consequences for their own career. Therefore, it took far too long before the country’s supreme leader got a clear idea of what had happened. Money from defense to civilians For the Secretary-General, it was important to enter into disarmament agreements with the West, because it would free up resources that could be used for civilian purposes. REAL DISARMAMENT: Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan sign the agreement on intermediate-range missiles in Washington DC in 1987. Photo: Str Old / Reuters Gorbachev took several disarmament initiatives, and relations with the US and the West improved significantly during his rule. The first important agreement that Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan negotiated was the agreement to ban intermediate-range missiles. Demands for secession Greater freedom and openness meant that many of the countries that made up the Soviet Union began to demand secession and independence. THE FALL OF THE WALL: The citizens of communist East Germany climb over the wall between East and West in Berlin in November 1989. Photo: Stringer. / Reuters The Soviets’ grip on Eastern Europe was also weakened, and many wanted to get away from the communist umbrella as quickly as possible. When the wall between East and West Germany surprisingly fell in November 1989, it was clear that the Soviet leader would not use force to continue to maintain control over the countries. It very likely prevented a great many lives from being lost. Coup against the reformer But there were strong forces in the Soviet Communist Party who believed that the country’s leader went far too far in liberalizing the system. COUP MAKERS: They called themselves the Committee for the State of Emergency and were leading conservative members of the Communist Party. Photo: VITALY ARMAND / Afp In August 1991, Gorbachev was at a resort on the Black Sea when conservative members of the Communist Party attempted to seize power through a coup. They put the Secretary General under house arrest and sent tanks into the streets. The famous photo of Russian President Boris Yeltsin standing on a tank outside the parliament in Moscow demanding that the coup plotters release Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who was under house arrest at a Black Sea resort. Photo: Ap But the elected president of the Russian republic, Boris Yeltsin, stood on one of the tanks at the parliament and demanded that the Soviet leader be released. After three days it happened, and a rather diminished Gorbachev returned to the capital. Now it was Yeltsin who had taken the initiative, and during the autumn it became clear that the Soviet Union was about to disintegrate. AFTER THE COUP ATTEMPT: After three days under house arrest, Gorbachev and his family returned to Moscow from their resort on the Black Sea. His political life was never the same again. Photo: Ap On Christmas Day 1991, Gorbachev resigned as leader of the Soviet Union, a country that no longer existed. Popular abroad, not at home Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his work for disarmament and for the decision not to use armed force against the population of Eastern Europe. POPULAR IN SOME PLACES: Gorbachev in Oslo in connection with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Photo: Alexander Zemlianichencko / AP After 1991, he tried several times to form political parties, but the Russians were crystal clear that they did not want the former communist leader back in the policy. Gorbachev wrote several books and was a popular guest in Western European countries and in the United States. Mikhail Gorbachev and his daughter Irina at the Royal Albert Hall in London where the former Soviet leader was praised for his political efforts. Photo: TOBY MELVILLE / Reuters But many former Soviet citizens blamed him for the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and for all the chaotic and turbulent years of the 1990s. Criticized Putin In recent years, Gorbachev largely stayed in the background. But on his 85th birthday, he went quite far in criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin. NOT GOOD FRIENDS: One of the few pictures where Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin are together. Photo: HERIBERT PROEPPER / Ap – What is happening in the world is very disturbing, and the situation in Russia is very difficult. Everything is connected, said the former head of state. He claimed that the current Russian model does not work, either politically or economically. When the Soviet Union dissolved, Gorbachev counted on the West and the United States to help Russia get back on its feet, but he was disappointed. HAD OPINIONS: Mikhail Gorbachev during the launch of one of his books a few years ago. Photo: VASILY MAXIMOV / AFP – The West instead acted “triumphantly”, and this characterized the relationship between Russia and the West for all years, Gorbachev said. He believed that the world would have been a much safer place if the West had acted more wisely.
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Gorbachev is dead – he changed world history, but was never popular at home – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
