Mikhail Gorbachev — "I did not come to power to destroy the Soviet Union."
I did not come to power to destroy the Soviet Union.
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More from Mikhail Gorbachev
"The alternative to perestroika is stagnation and decline. We have no other choice."
"I believe in the power of human reason."
"Perestroika is a revolution without shots."
"I'm a country boy. I like to get my hands dirty."
"I don't believe in God. I'm an atheist. But I believe in reason, and I believe in justice."
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.