Mikhail Gorbachev — "The past is over. The future is now."
The past is over. The future is now.
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More from Mikhail Gorbachev
"Freedom is the right to choose, the right to err, the right to be oneself."
"We are building a new society, a society of humanism and democracy."
"I have always been a supporter of the Union. I wanted to reform it, not destroy it."
"We need to build bridges, not walls."
"I am not afraid of responsibility."
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.