12 September, 2022: Russians paid their respects to the last Soviet leader. Who was Mikhail Gorbachov? A ReferencePepper
Thousands of Russians paid their final respects to the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. He died after a long period of illness.
Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union from 1985-1991, died aged 91. His body lay in state in the grand Hall of Columns in central Moscow in the tradition of previous Soviet leaders, including Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the farewell ceremony of Mikhail Gorbachev. Earlier, the Kremlin said that Putin would not attend the farewell due to his busy schedule.
Who was Mikhail Gorbachev
Born in 1931 in southern Russia as the son of peasants, the young Gorbachev grew up listening to the stories of repression by Stalin and his followers from his Grandfathers. Both his Grandfathers had suffered imprisonment by Stalinists (Stalinism: the method of rule, or policies, of Joseph Stalin, Soviet Communist Party and state leader from 1929 until his death in 1953).
Picture: Gorbachev and his Ukrainian maternal grandparents, late 1930s. Source: wikipedia
Gorbachev studied law at Moscow State University and soon embarked on a steady rise as a Communist Party official.
Once reaching the highest position as General Secretary of the Party in 1985, he initiated a reform program based two ideas - perestroika—the restructuring of the political and economic system
glasnost—the end of censorship and the introduction of freedom of speech and the press.
The economic reforms were not successful and combined with other economic problems like Oil price fall (Soviet Union's biggest export), an earthquake in Armenia and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, led to an economic downfall and adversely affected his popularity among his own countrymen.
- The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was reported as the result of a flawed reactor design which seem to be operated with inadequately trained personnel.
- The steam explosion and fire that followed released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the environment, with the deposition of radioactive materials in many parts of Europe.
Source: World Nuclear Association
But at the same time, his His foreign policy decisions - withdrawal from war in Afghanistan, liberating of the Soviet satellite states in East Central Europe and the nuclear arms reduction made him a popular political figure outside his country.
But merely good intentions re not always reciprocated well in International politics. His foreign policy was seen as sign of weakness by other powerful nations. And Soviet Union which was considered and feared as a Super Power, gradually started losing that status.
Post an unsuccessful coup attempt in August 1991, in December 1991, three leaders from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus met up to come up with a plan to abolish Gorbachev’s presidency. On Christmas Day, Gorbachev resigned, powerless, confined to running his Foundation for Social, Economic and Political Research.
He was affectionately known as “Gorby” in the West and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in ending the Cold War. He was then buried at Moscow's famous Novodevichy cemetery alongside his wife Raisa, who died in 1999. People walked past Mikhail Gorbachev's coffin and laid flowers during the farewell ceremony. His daughter Irina and her two daughters sat nearby.
Best known in the West for helping end the Cold War, reducing his country's nuclear weapons, and for unintentionally playing a part in the fall of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev's legacy still divides opinion inside and outside Russia. Outside Russia, he was widely respected. The UN Secretary General António Guterres said he had "changed the course of history", and US President Joe Biden called him a "rare leader".