Facts about Gorbachev
The Law on Cooperatives, enacted in May 1988, was perhaps the most radical of the economic reforms during the early part of the Gorbachev era.
Gorbachev is considered one of the most important world political leaders of the second half of the twentieth century.
On March 15, 1990, Gorbachev was elected as the first president of the Soviet Union.
The first reform introduced under Gorbachev was the 1985 alcohol reform, designed to fight wide-spread alcoholism in the Soviet Union.
On November 26, 2001, Gorbachev founded the Social Democratic Party of Russia—which is a union between several Russian social democrat parties.
Gorbachev was born into a peasant family in the village of Privolnoye near Stavropol.
Nevertheless, polls indicate that a majority of Russians are pleased with the result of the individual aims of perestroika, Gorbachev's chief legislative legacy, and the resulting freedom that came about.
Given responsibility over personnel, under the tutelage of Andropov, Gorbachev replaced 20 percent of the top echelon of government ministers and regional governors, often with younger men.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov (Russian: ??????? ?????????? ????????, commonly anglicized as Gorbachev; born March 2, 1931) was leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until its demise in 1991.
The son of Russian agricultural mechanic Alexi Gorbachev and Maria Pantelyeva, he faced a tough childhood under the totalitarian leadership of Josef Stalin; his grandparents were deported for being richer farmers known as kulaks.
Gorbachev eventually resigned on December 25, 1991, and the USSR was officially dissolved, with Yeltsin becoming president of the Russian Federation.
The loosening of Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe effectively ended the Cold War, and for this, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 15, 1990.
In 2005, Gorbachev was awarded the Point Alpha Prize for his role in supporting German reunification.
In 1996, Gorbachev re-ran for president in Russia, but only received about one percent of the vote, most likely due to animosity following the economic privation during his administration and the Soviet Union's collapse.
On January 10, 1991, Gorbachev issued an ultimatum-like request to the Lithuanian Supreme Council, demanding the restoration of the validity of the constitution of the USSR in Lithuania and revoking all anti-constitutional laws.
The next day Gorbachev approved the attempt of the Soviet military to overthrow Lithuania's government.
Gorbachev is one of the most famous people in modern times with visible naevus flammeus.
In 1985, the American Medical Association further supported the conclusion of the FDA that aspartame was safe (Blachford 2002).
Hardliners in the Soviet leadership attempted a coup d'йtat in August 1991 to remove Gorbachev from power and prevent the signing of the new union treaty.
Gorbachev developed enduring friendships with several major Western political leaders of that era: U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Domestically, Gorbachev implemented economic reforms that he hoped would improve living standards and worker productivity as part of his perestroika program.
Gorbachev's introduction of glasnost gave new freedoms to the people, particularly freedom of speech, although these freedoms were not comparable to those found in western democracies.
Gorbachev's relaxation of censorship and attempts to create more political openness had the unintended effect of re-awakening long-suppressed nationalist and anti-Russian feelings in the Soviet republics.
In 1979, Gorbachev was promoted to the Politburo, the highest ruling body in the USSR.
Gorbachev was wildly popular in the West, largely because of the way he managed the dismantling of the Soviet empire, allowing the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain to fall without Soviet military interference.
Gorbachev had aimed to maintain the CPSU as a united party but move it in the direction of social democracy.
Upon the death of Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev, at age 54, was elected general secretary of the Communist Party on March 11, 1985.
On October 11, 1986, Gorbachev and Reagan met for the first time in Reykjavнk, Iceland to discuss reducing intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe.
Gorbachev, together with Boris Yeltsin, criticized Putin's actions as a step away from democracy.
Gorbachev's response to growing republic separatism was to draw up a new treaty of union which would have created a truly voluntary federation in an increasingly democratized Soviet Union.
During this time Grigory Romanov, Nikolai Ryzhkov, and Yegor Ligachev were elevated, the latter two working closely with Gorbachev, Ryzhkov on economics, Ligachev on personnel.
Gorbachev had unleashed reforms that would ultimately let loose the constituent socialist republics of the Soviet Union.
The so-called "Komsomol Generation" would prove to be Gorbachev's most receptive audience, and the nursery of many post-communist businessmen and politicians, particularly in the Baltic States.
Gorbachev was quickly promoted during Andropov's brief tenure as leader of the party (November 12, 1982–February 9, 1984).