MOSCOW: Mikhail Gorbachev changed the course of modern history by triggering the demise of the USSR and allowing Eastern Europe to free itself from Soviet rule, earning him accolades in the West but the scorn of many Russians. By championing reforms to achieve 'glasnost' (openness) and 'perestroika' (restr
MOSCOW: Mikhail Gorbachev changed the course of modern history by triggering the demise of the USSR and allowing Eastern Europe to free itself from Soviet rule, earning him accolades in the West but the scorn of many Russians.
In most instances, while he was in power, Gorbachev chose peace over confrontation, hastening a thaw in ties with the West through close relationships with Western leaders such as German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and US President Ronald Reagan.But the more he relaxed restrictions during his 1985 to 1991 rule, the more he was sidelined by the energetic Boris Yeltsin, then a fast-rising Communist official.
He took over the world's biggest state and second superpower in 1985 when he was elected general secretary of the Communist Party. In 1989, Eastern Europe countries threw out their Communist governments and the Berlin Wall was torn down. "But my conscience is clean," he wrote."I defended the Union until the end, acting through political means."
In 2011 Gorbachev slammed what he saw as Russia's"imitation" of democracy as he marked his 80th birthday.
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