Soviet Union Leader Mikhail Gorbachev

Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended ‘Cold War’ without bloodshed, dies at 91

Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War (12 March 1947 – 26 December 1991) without bloodshed but failed to stop the collapse of the Soviet Union (26 December 1991), died Tuesday (August 30) at the age of 91, hospital officials in Moscow said. Russian media reported his death, citing the hospital, which was treating him, as saying that he died of a “serious and prolonged illness”, without providing further details.He was taken to the hospital after suffering from serious kidney disease.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Former President of the Soviet Union

Died: 30 August 2022, Tsentral’naya Klinicheskaya Bol’nitsa S Poliklinikoy, Moscow, Russia
Born: 2 March 1931, Privol’noe, Russia
Spouse: Raisa Gorbacheva (m. 1953–1999)
Organizations founded: Green Cross International, MORE
Grandchildren: Ksenia Virganskaya, Anastasia Virganskaya

Gorbachev, in power between 1985 and 1991, helped pull US-Soviet relations out of a deep freeze and was the last surviving leader of the Cold War. His life was one of the most influential of his time, and his reforms as Soviet leader transformed his nation and allowed Eastern Europe to be liberated from Soviet rule. In 1989, the Cold War between East and West ended and the Berlin Wall fell. In 1990, the Nobel Committee gave President Gorbachev the main credit for this by giving him the Nobel Peace Prize.

He played a very important role in ending the Cold War without bloodshed and for this reason he was honored with this award. In 1985 Gorbachev was elected the new leader of the Soviet Union. He sought to reform communism and introduced the concepts of “glasnost” (openness) and “perestroika” (change).

Society was liberalized, and Gorbachev sought détente(release from tension) with the United States to be able to transfer money from defense to civil society. He declared that he would not support communist rule in other countries if their people were against it. Thus, they started a chain reaction which led to the downfall of communism in Europe.

Gorbachev’s death comes six months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has intensified tensions between Moscow and the West. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed “deep condolences” over Gorbachev’s death, according to a report. A source close to the Gorbachev family told news agency TASS, Gorbachev will be buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow next to his late wife Raisa who died in 1999.