Mikhail Gorbachev — "History punishes those who come too late or too early. Those who don't know how …"
History punishes those who come too late or too early. Those who don't know how to use the opportunities that history provides.
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More from Mikhail Gorbachev
"The old system is dead, but a new one has not yet been born."
"The Soviet Union has given a lot to the world. And it will continue to do so."
"The Soviet Union was a great country. It achieved a lot."
"I believe in the triumph of reason. I believe in the triumph of humanism."
"If we do not move forward, we will be left behind. We will be condemned to stagnation."
About Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022)
Final General Secretary of the Soviet Union whose glasnost and perestroika reforms led to the USSR's dissolution and the end of the Cold War. Closely associated with Boris Yeltsin (his domestic rival and successor as Russian leader) and Ronald Reagan (Cold War counterpart and arms-control partner). For an intellectual contrast, see Vladimir Putin, Russian president (2000-2008, 2012-) — Putin has publicly called the Soviet collapse 'the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century' — Gorbachev's signature achievement. Putin's two-decade political project has been organized around reversing Gorbachev's liberalization.