Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev Passes Away At 91

Soviet Union Leader Gorbachev’s Downfall Leads To The End Of Cold War

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who set out to revitalise the Soviet Union but ended up unleashing forces that led to the collapse of communism, the breakup of the state & the end of the Cold War, died late Tuesday. The last Soviet leader was 91. According to a statement from Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital, Gorbachev passed away after a protracted illness. A daughter and two grandkids remain to carry on Gorbachev's legacy. In a cemetery in Moscow, he will be laid to rest next to his wife.

Gorbachev’s Rise                                                     

In 1985, Mr. Gorbachev assumed the role of general secretary and de facto leader of the Soviet Communist Party. He was the youngest member of the Politburo at the time and was viewed as a breath of fresh air after several ageing leaders. He was 54 years old. At the age of 73, Konstantin Chernenko, who had served in office for less than a year, had gone suddenly. Few leaders have had such a profound impact on world affairs, but it was never Mr. Gorbachev's intention to make the Soviet Union's hold on eastern Europe more tenuous. Instead, he wanted to revitalise its culture. His perestroika programme aimed to bring some market-like reforms to the state-run system because the Soviet economy had been battling for years to catch up with the US. Internationally he reached arms control deals with the US, refused to intervene when eastern European nations revolted against their Communist rulers, and ended the bloody Soviet war in Afghanistan that had raged since 1979. His glasnost, or openness, policy also made it possible for citizens to criticise the government in ways that were previously unimaginable. However, it also stoked nationalist feelings in numerous areas of the nation, which ultimately threatened its stability and accelerated its demise. Gorbachev resigned from office and consented to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 after a botched coup attempt by communist hardliners ended in failure. The end of decades of East-West nuclear confrontation, and many Russians blamed him for the years of turmoil that ensued.

End of Cold War 

When there were high tensions between the Soviet Union and Western nations like the US and Britain, he is recognised in the West as a reform architect who helped to pave the way for the end of the Cold War in 1991. For "the crucial role he played in the historic developments in East-West relations," he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He was, however, on the periphery of politics in the new Russia that materialised after 1991, concentrating on charitable and educational endeavours. When there were high tensions between the Soviet Union and Western nations like the US and Britain, he is recognised in the West as a reform architect who helped to pave the way for the end of the Cold War in 1991. For "the crucial role he played in the historic developments in East-West relations," he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

Gorbachev’s Criticism on Putin

More recently, Gorbachev vacillated between mild praise and condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has come under fire for rolling back the democratic gains made under the Gorbachev and Yeltsin administrations. Gorbachev decried expanding restrictions on press freedom while acknowledging that Putin had made significant contributions to restoring stability and respectability to Russia during the turbulent decade that followed the fall of the Soviet Union. Additionally, Gorbachev denounced Putin for invading Ukraine. The current Kremlin leader has also destroyed Gorbachev's vision of Russia as a big force that could recede from imperialism.

Gorbachev’s Downfall

The seed of Gorbachev’s downfall was that essentially, he didn’t really understand the Soviet Union, Soviet society and how it worked. It is obvious how to put Russians' conflicted views toward Gorbachev in context. His legacy is viewed as years of turbulence, national humiliation, a decline in global influence, and finally, very little of lasting worth. The biggest tributes to Gorbachev will undoubtedly come from the West, where his legacy is defined by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the CPSU. In the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, state assets worth hundreds of billions of dollars were transferred to the West. One of (Gorbachev's) greatest tragedies is that none of the ideas he eventually came to accept, and support have been upheld by the Russian authorities of today.