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Person

Mikhail Gorbachev

Last leader of the Soviet Union: Communist Party General Secretary from 1985, President of the USSR 1990–1991.

7 links, 7 backed by primary records

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Dates
2 Mar 1931 – 30 Aug 2022
Also known as
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, Gorbachev
Over time
  1. Life 2 Mar 1931 – 30 Aug 2022
  2. leads Perestroika 1985–1991
  3. leads Glasnost 1985–1991
  4. head of Communist Party of the Soviet Union (General Secretary of the Communist Party) Mar 1985 – Aug 1991
  5. head of Soviet Union (President of the USSR) 1990 – 25 Dec 1991

Mikhail Gorbachev led the Soviet Union from March 1985 and launched Perestroika and Glasnost. After the failed August 1991 coup attempt he gave up the Communist Party leadership, and on 25 December 1991 he resigned as President of the USSR, the day before the Union formally ceased to exist.

He gave his own accounts of why it fell: in 1991 he blamed the coup and the decision to dismember the state, and in 2006 he called the Chernobyl disaster “perhaps the main cause”.

Connections 7

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Timeline 5 dates
  1. 2 Mar 1931 – 30 Aug 2022 Mikhail Gorbachev
  2. 1985–1991 Mikhail Gorbachev leads Perestroika
  3. 1985–1991 Mikhail Gorbachev leads Glasnost
  4. Mar 1985 – Aug 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev head of Communist Party of the Soviet Union
  5. 1990 – 25 Dec 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev head of Soviet Union
Proof 4 sources
  1. U.S.-Soviet Relations, 1981-1991 (Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations), U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Primary record
    The March 1985 appointment of Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union provided Reagan with a viable negotiating partner.
  2. The Collapse of the Soviet Union (Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations), U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Primary record
    He resigned his leadership as head of the Communist party shortly thereafter—separating the power of the party from that of the presidency of the Soviet Union.
    Earlier in the day, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned his post as president of the Soviet Union, leaving Boris Yeltsin as president of the newly independent Russian state.
    Planned by hard-line Communists, the coup diminished Gorbachev’s power and propelled Yeltsin and the democratic forces to the forefront of Soviet and Russian politics.
    On December 25, 1991, the Soviet hammer and sickle flag lowered for the last time over the Kremlin, thereafter replaced by the Russian tricolor.
    Gorbachev’s decision to loosen the Soviet yoke on the countries of Eastern Europe created an independent, democratic momentum that led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in November 1989
  3. Mikhail Gorbachev's Resignation Speech, World History Commons, George Mason University, 25 Dec 1991. Primary record
    Dear compatriots, fellow citizens, as a result of the newly formed situation, creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, I cease my activities in the post of the U.S.S.R. president.
    But even today I am convinced of the historic correctness of the democratic reforms which were started in the spring of 1985.
  4. Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, 1989 (Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations), U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Primary record
    Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (transparency) further legitimized popular calls for reform from within.
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