Michael Corbachev, the last Soviet president, dies aged 92
For some he was a great man, a brave and wise man, that ended the cold war, withdrew the Soviet troops from East Germany and helped the reunification of Germany, tried hard to democratise Russia and the Soviet Union.
For others, especially in his own country, he was a weak and naive leader that was fooled by the West, a failure whose policies led to the collapse of the mighty USSR and all other socialist regimes in Europe and the break up of the international communist movement, virtually a traitor.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last President of the the Soviet Union or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) before its dissolution, died on 30 August 2022 at the age of 92.
According to a hospital report, “”Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev died this evening after a severe and prolonged illness”.
In June, Gorbachev Foundation spokesman Vladimir Polyakov said that Mikhail Gorbachev was suffering from a kidney disease and was undergoing treatment, including hemodialysis.
In March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and five years later, in March 1990, he was elected President of the USSR — the first and last in the history of the Soviet Union.
According to the online Russian Pravda “Mikhail Gorbachev was a great man. He was not a perfect, but an outstanding man, a prominent politician”.
Pravda goes on: “We all make mistakes, and Gorbachev was no exception. While possessing such enormous power, Mikhail Gorbachev managed to stay true to himself. It was Gorbachev, who saved the world from a major war many years ago”.
Our photograph: The general impression at the time was that Margaret Thatcher liked Mikhail Corbachev. Once she was reported as having said: “I like Mr Gorbachev, we can do business together”. If I were him, I would have been very worried about that.
