Mikhail Gorbachev, Who Ended The Cold War, Has Died

Mikhail Gorbachev, whose drive to transform the Soviet Union ended the Cold War but inadvertently helped cause his own country’s collapse, has died, according to Russian news agencies. He was 91. Agent Tass, RIA Novosti, and Interfax mentioned the Central Clinical Hospital, according to the Associated Press.

Gorbachev’s rule as the last Soviet prime minister from 1985 to 1991 was inextricably marked by two words: perestroika – literally “restructuring,” but referring to reform – and glasnost, or “openness,” a symbol of his intention to break the torpor caused by seven decades. authoritarian rule and quiet central planning. Hoping to return the Communist Party to its roots in Vladimir Lenin’s October Revolution of 1917, Gorbachev opened the Soviet political system to wider political participation, public scrutiny, and reexamined Josef Stalin’s legacy of imprisonment and mass murder, which led to many how many years national soul search.