BIOGRAPHY MIKHAIL GORBATCHEV – Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR, died at the age of 91, Tuesday August 30, 2022. The Soviet politician had not spoken out on the war in Ukraine. Explanations.
[Mis à jours le 30 août 2022 à 23h50] This Tuesday, August 30, 2022, Mikhail Gorbachev died at the age of 91, announced the Russian news agency Tass. “Today in the evening (Tuesday), after a long serious illness, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev died,” said the Central Clinical Hospital (TSKB) dependent on the Russian presidency. An illustrious Soviet leader, he had remained silent since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Thus, the last time that Mikhail Gorbachev spoke publicly was on December 24, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the end of the Soviet Union. He then castigated the “arrogance” and “triumphalism” of the United States. “It went to their heads, arrogance, self-satisfaction, they proclaimed themselves winners in the Cold War when we had together saved the world from confrontation”, he denounced in an interview with the RIA news agency.
However, we can get an idea of the position of the former Soviet leader regarding Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. Thus, his former interpreter, Pavel Palazhchenko, revealed the position of the former head of state in an interview with Fox News, the American television channel: “[Mikhaïl Gorbatchev] has always warned that things that could be very dangerous could happen between Russia and Ukraine. But he always did what he could to bring these two nations closer together rather than seeing the gap continue to grow that we now see widening. So for him, emotionally, it’s tragic.”
In addition, one of his friends confirmed that Mikhail Gorbachev was against Russian intervention in Ukraine: “I often speak with Mikhail. He strongly condemns Russia’s war against Ukraine from the beginning,” he said. to Blick the Hungarian television producer János Zolcer. “For him, this is a war between brothers. His father was Russian and his mother Ukrainian. Next to him there are thousands of other people with a similar family constellation. to him, the war would stop immediately,” he added.
When Mikhail Gorbachev supported the annexation of Crimea
If he did not take sides in favor of his country during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mikhail Gorbachev supported the annexation of Crimea by pro-Russian separatists. “I will stand firmly in defense of Russia and the defense of its president, Vladimir Putin,” he told Russian news agency Interfax. In addition, he said he was “absolutely convinced that Putin today defends the interests of Russia better than anyone. There is of course in his policy what to attract criticism. But I do not wish to do so and I don’t want anyone else to do it.” In 2015, the former statesman regretted Western sanctions against his homeland: “To put it bluntly, [l’Amérique] drags us into a new cold war. […] I am not in a position to declare with certainty that the cold war will not turn into a real war”, he had thus lamented with the Interfax agency.
Short biography of Mikhail Gorbachev – Born on March 2, 1931, Mikhail Gorbachev gradually rose through the political ranks of the country. A member of the Communist Party from 1952, he became the last President of the USSR from 1985 to 1991. Gorbachev committed himself to the end of the Cold War and launched a policy of liberalization of the country, known as “perestroika” and “glasnost“. His resignation from the presidency of the USSR on December 25, 1991 completes the break-up of the communist bloc. Mikhail Gorbachev died on August 30, 2022. The former Soviet leader was 91 years old.
Mikhail Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931 in Privolnoïe to kolkhoz parents who rallied to communism. He is the son of Sergei Gorbachev, veteran of the Second World War and Maria Panteleevna. His maternal grandfather, president of the kolkhoz, was arrested in 1937 and narrowly escaped the death penalty. This event left a deep mark on Mikhail.
Mikhail Gorbachev works alongside his father as a combine harvester driver. He was sent to Moscow to study law at Lomonossov University. During his studies, he met Raïssa Titarenko, his future wife. In 1950, Mikhail Gorbachev joined the Communist Party. He became the ruler of the city of Stavropol in 1962. Between 1964 and 1967, Gorbachev studied at the Stavropol Institute of Agronomy where he was noticed by Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB.
Gorbachev is a reformer who intends to rejuvenate the power of the USSR. From April 1985 to December 1991, he launched several economic and social reform programs in order to save the country from agricultural bankruptcy and an international crisis from which it was struggling to recover. By its policy of “Perostroika” (reconstruction) and “Glasnot” (transparency) which favor respectively the recognition of the role of the market and transparency in political affairs, he intends to restructure the economy of the USSR and anchor it more deeply in the economic realities of the market. But the territory does not seem ready for such changes and sinks into an economic crisis, then a political one, until its collapse in 1991.
Gorbachev’s popularity is mostly recognized internationally. A man of peace, he helped end the Cold War. In December 1989, in Malta, Gorbachev and george bush declare the end of the cold war. The two presidents pledge to reduce their nuclear arsenal. He promotes the return of freedom of the press in his country and puts an end to the monopoly of the single party. Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for all of his positions in favor of lasting peace.
In 1980, Gorbachev entered politics where he succeeded Brezhnev. Five years later, he became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. On March 14, 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected President of the USSR by the Congress of People’s Deputies for a five-year term. The Soviet economy is collapsing and Gorbachev is getting no results from the “perestroika“. On August 19, 1991, while on vacation in Crimea, the president was the victim of an attempted coup led by conservative communists.
Gorbachev and Raissa Titarenko meet at Moscow University. The couple married in 1953 and moved to Stavropol where Raïssa continued her studies. In 1957, she gave birth to their only daughter, Irina. Raisa Gorbacheva is a major figure in the preservation of Russia’s heritage.
On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev announced his resignation from the post of President of the USSR during a final televised address. The next day, the USSR collapses and becomes the Russian Federation. In 1993, he founded Green Cross International, a non-governmental organization with an environmental goal. In 1996, he wrote his memoirs and posed as an opponent of the policy pursued by his successor Boris Yeltsin.
In 2001, Gorbachev founded the Social Democratic Party of Russia. In 2004, he resigned after a disagreement with the president of the Party. The following year, he received the honorary title ofarchon of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Gorbachev is involved in ecology and intervenes in environmental documentaries We will stay on Earth. In 2012, at the age of 81, he spoke at the opening of the sixth “World Water Forum”. He is very much in favor of the creation of an international tribunal to judge those who are guilty of ecological crimes.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev: key dates
- March 11, 1985: Gorbachev number 1 of the USSR
- At 55, Mikhail Gorbachev succeeds Konstantin Tchernenko, who died on March 10. The new General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union engages the USSR in a series of radical reforms in the name of “perestroika” (restructuring) and the “glasnost” (transparency). Gorbachev is the last communist leader of the USSR. He resigned in December 1991 after the collapse of the communist bloc.
- May 15, 1988: The Soviets leave Afghanistan.
- Mikhail Gorbachev orders the withdrawal of his troops from Afghanistan, held in check by the mujahideen supported by the United States. It’s the end of eight years of Soviet occupation. But a civil war between mujahideen of different ethnic groups breaks out. In 1996, the Taliban took Kabul and established an Islamist regime, led by Mullah Omar. These were overthrown after the American military intervention following the attacks of September 11, 2001.
- August 19, 1991: Failed coup against Gorbachev
- While USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev is on vacation in Crimea, a state of emergency is declared and a State Committee takes over all powers. The President of the Republic of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, then leaves the Russian Parliament and asks the crowd to oppose the coup d’etat, by preventing the arrival of the tanks. In December, Mikhail Gorbachev resigns, it is the end of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
- December 25, 1991: Resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev
- The President of the USSR and General Secretary of the Communist Party resigns in the early evening after soldiers raised the Russian flag in the colors of blue, white and red from the front communist revolution of 1917. The Soviet Union is no more. Boris Yeltsin elected president of the Russian Federation in June takes over the reins of the country. Since the signing of the Alma-Ata agreements and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on the 8th, the Soviet empire has been moribund. It was without a hitch that, at the age of 60, the last president of the USSR handed in his resignation to Congress. The territory of the former USSR now consists of fifteen independent states.
- June 26, 2005: Iter in Cadarache
- After long negotiations, the French site was finally chosen for the construction of the ITER experimental reactor. Created in 1985 at the instigation of Gorbachev, the project brings together the European Union, Russia, Japan, China, the United States and South Korea. The objective is to create energy no longer from nuclear fission, but from fusion. Highly productive and low-polluting, this technology is often compared to how the sun works. But the project is without guarantee of success and can only lead to industrial exploitation in several decades. It arouses many criticisms for this, among politicians and scientists alike.
- August 30, 2022: Death of Mikhail Gorbachev
On Tuesday August 30, 2022, the Russian news agency Tass announced the death of the former Soviet leader. “Today in the evening (Tuesday), after a long serious illness, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev died,” said the Central Clinical Hospital (TSKB) dependent on the Russian presidency. He was 91 years old.
- “Let’s go down the road of perestroika”
- “When I stop being indignant, I will have begun my old age”
- “The Chinese wall is a very beautiful work but there are already too many walls between men”
- “Life punishes those who arrive too late”
- “The USSR also has its hotheads who want to change socialism overnight”
- All the gorbachev quotes