Mikhail Gorbachev — "I came to power to save the country, not to destroy it."
I came to power to save the country, not to destroy it.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Mikhail Gorbachev
"We must break down the walls of mistrust. To build bridges of cooperation."
"We need a new way of thinking, a new vision of the world."
"The greatest danger is not the external enemy, but the internal one. Stagnation, bureaucracy, corruption."
"I am not afraid of making mistakes. Only those who do nothing make no mistakes."
"The market is a good servant but a bad master."
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.