Mikhail Gorbachev — "I regret that I could not prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union."
I regret that I could not prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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More from Mikhail Gorbachev
"The world needs a new perestroika. A global perestroika."
"The United States has become arrogant and self-confident. This is dangerous."
"I have always believed in the power of dialogue."
"I am a man of the people. I come from the people."
"I still believe in the ideals of the 1917 revolution."
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.