Mikhail Gorbachev — "The main thing is to trust the people. To give them freedom. To let them decide."
The main thing is to trust the people. To give them freedom. To let them decide.
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More from Mikhail Gorbachev
"The problems of the world can only be solved together."
"We must not be afraid of new ideas."
"The Soviet Union is not an empire. It is a union of free peoples."
"We need glasnost, we need perestroika, we need democracy."
"The world is on the verge of a new Cold War. We must stop this."
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.