Mikhail Gorbachev — "I'm not a pessimist. I'm an optimist."
I'm not a pessimist. I'm an optimist.
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More from Mikhail Gorbachev
"The Baltic states were annexed under Stalin. That’s a fact."
"I am not a dictator. I am a democrat. I believe in the power of the people."
"The greatest danger to the world is the arms race. We must stop it."
"The most important thing is to avoid war. Everything else is secondary."
"My life has been full of struggle. And it will continue to be so."
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.