Status: 08/30/2022 11:12 p.m
Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91. He was considered one of the fathers of German unity and a pioneer for the end of the Cold War.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last President of the Soviet Union, is dead. The 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner died in Moscow at the age of 91. “Tonight Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev died after a long and serious illness,” said the Central Clinical Hospital (ZKB) in the Russian capital.
As a politician, Gorbachev was valued worldwide. He was considered one of the fathers of German unity and a pioneer for the end of the Cold War. In the 1980s, under Gorbachev’s leadership, the Soviet Union signed groundbreaking treaties on nuclear disarmament and arms control with the United States.
In his home country, Gorbachev, as General Secretary of the Communist Party, initiated an unprecedented reform process with his policy of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). In 1990 Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize for his reforms. The political process led to massive upheavals in all republics of the Soviet state and ultimately to the collapse of the communist empire.
At the age of 54 General Secretary of the CPSU
Born in the village of Privolnoje in the Stavropol region, the son of a peasant family studied law in Moscow from 1950 to 1955. In addition, he completed a degree in agricultural engineering. From 1971 he was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, from 1980 he was a full member of the Politburo and thus entered the innermost circle of power in Moscow. In 1985, at the age of 54, Gorbachev took over the post at the head of the CPSU as General Secretary; In 1988, after the resignation of Andrei Gromyko (1909-1989), he also became President of the Soviet Union.
While his politics contributed significantly to the end of the so-called Cold War, a large part of the Russian population always saw him as the gravedigger of the Soviet Union. In 1991 he resigned as president before the state dissolved itself a little later. The new strongman in Moscow at the time was Russian President Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007).
Former President of the Soviet Union passed away
Ina Ruck, ARD Moscow, daily topics 10:15 p.m., August 30, 2022
Own political foundation in Moscow
Gorbachev wrote numerous books – later also about his disappointment with the Germans and the West. Specifically, he complained that new enemy images were being drawn against Russia. For health reasons, he did not travel to the celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in autumn 2019. He has had to be hospitalized repeatedly over the past few years.
Up until his death he had rendered outstanding services to his own political foundation in Moscow. The organization advocates democratic values and a rapprochement between Russia and the West. Gorbachev was also a co-owner of the newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”, which is critical of the Kremlin and repeatedly exposes abuses in Russia. In recent years, Gorbachev has repeatedly asked Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin not to further restrict the freedom of the media and elections.
The statesman is buried in Moscow at the New Maiden Cemetery for celebrities – next to his wife Raisa.