Mikhail Gorbachev — "Perestroika was not a betrayal of socialism. It was its salvation."
Perestroika was not a betrayal of socialism. It was its salvation.
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
"The people want change. And I will give them change."
"We need more democracy, more glasnost, more openness. This is the only way forward."
"The old system is dead. We must build a new one."
"We are moving towards a new world, a world of communism. We will never turn from this path."
"We need more glasnost, more openness, more democracy."
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.