Mikhail Gorbachev — "The Soviet Union needs democracy like the air it breathes."
The Soviet Union needs democracy like the air it breathes.
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More from Mikhail Gorbachev
"I'm not a pessimist. I'm an optimist."
"The Baltic states were annexed under Stalin. That’s a fact."
"The main task of politics is to serve the people."
"We need to learn from our mistakes."
"The greatest danger to the world is the arms race. We must stop it."
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.