Mikhail Gorbachev — "I am not a reformer by choice. I am a reformer by necessity."
I am not a reformer by choice. I am a reformer by necessity.
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More from Mikhail Gorbachev
"The Soviet Union is not an empire. It is a union of free peoples."
"I'm not a revolutionary, but I'm a reformer."
"The Baltic states were annexed under Stalin. That’s a fact."
"I believe in the power of the people."
"I believe in the power of dialogue. We must talk to each other, even with our opponents."
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.