Mikhail Gorbachev — "History is a harsh mistress."
History is a harsh mistress.
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More from Mikhail Gorbachev
"I am not a pacifist. But I believe in peace. I believe in disarmament."
"The world needs a demilitarization of international relations."
"The main problem of Russia is corruption. It is eating away at the country."
"I'm not a pessimist. I'm an optimist."
"The Soviet Union was a great country. It achieved a lot."
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.