Mikhail Gorbachev Bio

Mikhail Gorbachev was born into this world in the second of march in nineteen eighty-one at Privolnoye (near Stavropol) in Russia. When he was thirteen Gorbachev worked at a collective farm and later earned a degree in law at the University of Moscow. While he was there he joined the communist party and in the young communist’s league he became their secretary. In 1961 he was the first from his village to become a delegate of the communist party. After a series of deaths of those who held the office of general secretary, it became clear that Gorbachev should be the general secretary. Gorbachev wanted to introduce reform to the communist party but did not want drastic change, as he still wanted the U.S.S.R. to be communist. Therefore in 1988 he introduced Glasnost.  He ended the involvement of Soviet affairs with Afghanistan and also introduced freedom of the press to the communist state with Glasnost. Gorbachev called Glasnost, “socialism with a human face.”  He also withdrew soviet forces in Afghanistan and completed a full withdrawal within the next year. He nullified the Brezhnev Doctrine and allowed East Germany to deal with their internal affairs. In 1989 Gorbachev allowed the satellite states to create their own future and promised he would not intervene with it. He felt hat their gratitude toward this move would cause the satellite states to remain communist, but that did not happen.  Many of the dictatorships in the satellite states were overthrown, as they no longer received support from the Soviet Union.  He visited East Germany and many began shouting Gorby and wanted him to help them cross the Berlin Wall. In March of 1990, he was elected as the president of the Soviet Union. In 1991 he allowed free elections for the satellite states. However he would not back them up, allowed them to choose their own future, and would not intervene. He told the current leaders that they could do whatever they wanted but he would not provide support to them. This saddened a few leaders who ruled as dictators because without Soviet support they could not maintain their power. Erich Honaker lost his control shortly afterwards and Germany became united. Gorbachev also survived a coup but later when the Soviet Union became a republic he, stepped down from his position. Gorbachev was hailed as man of the decade by Time Magazine and in 1990 he received a Nobel Peace prize for his ideas.  Gorbachev was known for his new way of thinking with foreign affairs and even the prime minister of Britain, Margaret Thatcher, said, “I like Mr. Gorbachev, we can do business together.” After the Cold War he resigned as President and was succeeded by Boris Yeltsin.  Although he was not the president anymore he still remained active in Russian Politics and expressed concerns over Yeltsin’s reforms.  During 1996 he established the Social Democratic Party of Russia, which unified several Russian Social Democratic parties. Gorbachev attended Reagan’s death and represented Russia. He also still remains active in the world’s politics even today.