Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, dies at age 91
The death on Tuesday of Mikhail Gorbachev, the great reformer who ended the Cold War and saw to the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) marked the end of an era. While his legacy may be mixed, there can be no doubt that the late Gorbachev was one of the most defining political figures of the 20th century. Even the current Russian President, Vladimir Putin of whom he was very critical has grudgingly admitted that Gorbachev made “huge impact on the course of history.”
After over 70 years of communist rule in the late eighties, Gorbachev opted for greater democracy and a preference for freedom and openness that eventually led to a dramatic ideological shift in the world. Armed with the twin policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), Gorbachev found convenient historic allies in the then United States President Ronald Reagan and, to a lesser extent, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in his drive for political and economic reforms at home and increased cooperation abroad. When on 12th June 1987, the late Reagan stood at the Brandenburg gate separating the then East and West Germany with the Berlin Wall and declared, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall’, it was a historic clarion call that reverberated in Moscow and across the world. Soon afterwards, the wall came down under the pressure of multitudes of freedom loving humanity.
At the end, what used to be the USSR of 16 republics fell apart with Russia emerging as the sole survivor of a hitherto communist federation. The component republics opted for independence and sovereignty. The United Nations membership enlarged. The client states of Eastern Europe and parts of Africa and Latin America were let loose to seek freedom, democracy and free enterprise. A few resistant nations like North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela remained in a hardly recognizable communist bloc.
The birth of the new world order in which we now live owe largely to the courage and conviction of Gorbachev who assumed the leadership of the then Soviet Union at a time of grave challenges. The Soviet economy was tanking as living standards continued to nosedive. Beyond huge budget outlays on defence and armaments, the Soviet system had literally no competitive edge compared to its Western opposites. Rationing of essential goods and other necessities produced a citizenship that was richly fed with ideology but went to bed on empty stomach.
Faced with such enormous challenge, Gorbachev recognised that something had to give. But it was an act of unusual courage for a man who ascended the leadership ladder of the Soviet Union after decades of ideological purity and strict communist adherence to reverse the course of his nation’s history and embrace the creed of the ‘enemy’. That was Gorbachev’s singular heroic push. Derided at home for the choice he made but celebrated abroad, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He was succeeded by the rambunctious Boris Yeltsin. In later life and in retirement, he remained a critic of Putin’s autocratic flirtations.
To a large extent, Gorbachev spared the world the horrors of a nuclear holocaust by defusing the then clear imminence of a disaster. He freed his nation from ideological tyranny and allowed other nations that were hitherto tethered to the fringes of a dysfunctional system to chart their own course. In the process, along with other like-minded world leaders, Gorbachev beckoned on the nations of the world to embrace freedom, democracy and the promise of universal peace and prosperity. He has left the world a legacy of worthy challenges and his place in history is very much assured.
