Mikhail Gorbachev — "The Party is not a debating club. It is a fighting organization."
The Party is not a debating club. It is a fighting organization.
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More from Mikhail Gorbachev
"We cannot build socialism without democracy. This is a fundamental truth."
"I have spent my whole life living in a country that was always preparing for war. I don't want my children and grandchildren to live like that."
"I did not come to power to destroy the Soviet Union."
"I am not afraid of glasnost. I am not afraid of criticism. I am not afraid of democracy."
"I regret that I could not prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union."
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.