Mikhail Gorbachev: the peacemaker who brought down the communist dictatorship and brought down the Berlin Wall

Mikhail Gorbachev. He was born to a poor farmer when Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ran the Great Purge. This was a period known across the world as a period of political repression and killings. Gorbachev grew up and changed this oppressive period and systems. For the Soviet Union as well as for the world. When Gorbachev did not become the leader of the Soviet Union, everything here was controlled by the government.

Like if you want to make chips, then the government will decide from where to get the potatoes? How to peel and fry these and how to sell these chips? All in all, people were very short of options. As a communist member, when Gorbachev traveled to many countries, his eyes were wide open to see the openness of the economy there. In those countries, the common man had many options, while the Soviets used to describe this openness as a rotten capitalist system then.

When Gorbachev took over Soviet power in 1985, he introduced perestroika to open up the economy. The second word he invented was glasnost. The generations to come will surely remember what they gave to the Soviets and the whole of Europe through them. Rather it does.

When Gorbachev took over Soviet power in 1985, a year later, he brought perestroika to open up the economy. Perestroika broadly meant reforming the economy and opening it up to market forces. The second word he invented was glasnost. It meant openness. Democracy. Religious expression and personal liberty. However, later this perestroika and glasnost became the reason for the separation of Gorbachev from power.

But what they gave to the Soviets and the whole of Europe through them will surely be remembered by the coming generation. Rather it does. Gorbachev’s desire for democracy, or openness, to end the communist dictatorship over the Soviet Union and Europe, paved the way for the end of the Cold War and the bringing down of the Berlin Wall.

Indian children and adults of the 1988-90 era will still remember well when people used to shout perestroika and glasnost in the streets of the towns, except in the cities. The word ‘Shikhar Varta’ was also heard by the people of that era a lot.

When US President Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev met, the newspapers used to print the summit in capital letters. It was during these summits that Gorbachev signed an agreement to reduce nuclear weapons with Reagan.

When US President Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev met, the newspapers used to print the summit in capital letters. It was during these summits that Gorbachev signed an agreement to reduce nuclear weapons with Reagan. Then for the first time in his speech on Red Square, Reagan said that the Soviet Union was no longer a rogue empire.

Then Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize. Democratic elections were held in the Soviet Union in 1990, and Gorbachev won, but his openness overshadowed him.

On the one hand the conservative wills of the conservative military forces were shaken and they went on a coup. However, the coup attempts were thwarted, but Gorbachev was extremely weak. On the other hand, the leaders who won democratically started demanding separate countries for themselves. First the Baltic republics were separated. Then Gorbachev’s rival Boris Yeltsin declared a separate Russia. Yeltsin later became the first President of Russia.

Gorbachev abdicated. And eventually the Soviet Union split into 15 countries. The Soviet Union and its fragments may know Gorbachev as it is today, but the world still considers him a peacemaker and will continue to believe him.