Mikhail Gorbachev: Who was the last Soviet leader who wanted to change the USSR and ended up changing the world?

The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died this Tuesday at the age of 91, wanted to change USSR and ultimately changed the world by ending the half-century antagonism between East and West known as Cold War.

“If I want to change something, I have to accept this job. You can’t live like this any longer,” Gorbachev told his wife Raisa on March 10, 1985, the day before taking office as General Secretary. Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

Beginning of Gorbachev

Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931 in the southern region of the city of Stavropol in a Russian-Ukrainian peasant family that survived the famine of the 1930s, caused by the forced collectivization of land by order Stalin.

Despite the fact that two of his grandparents were subjected to repression, Gorbachev was able to get a law degree in a prestigious Moscow State University (1955), where he met his wife, raisa.

Ever since he joined the party in college Gorbachev He rose through the ranks until, in 1970, at the age of 40, he became head of the party in his native Stavropol.

His specialization in the field of agricultural economics allowed this “apparatchik” to make a dizzying career, and in 1978 Agriculture in the Central Committee The CPSU, its springboard for access to the General Secretariat.

Once appointed a member of the almighty politburo (1980) Gorbachev led the revival of the party, suffering from the obvious ailments of the gerontocracy, together with the head of the KGB, Yuri Andropovwho would be his political godfather.

Political growth in the USSR

When he was appointed general secretary, Andropov he already had his dolphin in mind as a replacement, although he had to wait for Konstantin Chernenko He died on March 10, 1985, after barely a year at the head of the party.

“You are not limited to agricultural affairs. You must devote yourself to all matters of domestic and foreign policy. At any moment it may happen that tomorrow all the responsibility will fall on you, ”he once remarked.

His age, who had just turned 54 years old, was undoubtedly a deciding factor in his appointment after the last three leaders of the USSR died within three years -Brezhnev, Andropov D Chernenko- which threatened the stability of the state.

Arrival from Gorbachev high hopes were placed in power, since the new Soviet leader was an extrovert, knew how to communicate with people and smiled with a smile, which his fellow citizens were not used to.

Running a rebuild

But Gorbachev was not limited to forms, since soon after coming to power he launched perestroika (political reform) and shortly after Glasnost (information transparency), which gave way to what has been called “communism with a human face”.

He used a new generation of technocrats who wanted to reform the communist system to make it more efficient, but the old Soviet nomenklatura continued to thwart him.

“The people want change. The time has come. They can no longer be put off,” Gorbachev told the historical “Mr. Nieta” at the time. Andrei Gromyko.

However, he continued the introduction of private property, although not abandoning the centralized economy; holding democratic elections; freedom of speech and belief; the creation of a new legislature and the release of political prisoners.

Outwardly, he improved relations with Westmarkedly reduced the defense budget, began negotiations with the United States on the reduction of nuclear weapons and ordered the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

The pact and the end of the USSR

In addition, he abandoned the doctrine of limited sovereignty over members Warsaw Pacta revolutionary process began, culminating in the fall of the Berlin Wall, the overthrow of communist regimes Eastern Europe followed by German reunification.

Political openness and thaw West won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, but he disappointed his Western supporters by sending troops to Latvia D Lithuania to suppress separatist movements.

Against the background of the unpopularity of the authorities due to the lack of essential goods, some Soviet republics took advantage of the loss of the CPSU monopoly on power to declare their independence from Moscow.

Confrontation with his former ally, Boris YeltsinRussia’s first president elected by popular vote opened an unbridgeable chasm that would eventually hasten the disappearance Soviet Union.

The last straw was a coup led by a group of Soviet leaders, a riot disarmed by the unstoppable Yeltsin, while Gorbachev he returned from imprisonment in the south of the country as a political corpse.

Months later Gorbachev confirmed death Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in a historic speech on December 25, 1991

“Gorby”, as he was called in the West, was accepted in the West as a rock star, but his compatriots never forgave him for the disappearance of the Soviet state, and until his death, many accused him of treason.

“We should have fought for the territorial integrity of our state more persistently, consistently and boldly, and not bury our heads in the sand with our asses up in the air,” he accused him. Vladimir Putincurrent president of Russia.

In reply, Gorbachev who criticized Putin for monopolizing power but defended annexation Crimea and criticized Western intervention in Ukraineassured that perestroika was an “incomplete revolution”.

(As reported by EFE)