Mikhail Gorbachev, Last Leader of the Soviet Union, Dies at 91

Facts

• Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, died aged 91 on Tuesday. Although he set out to revive the faltering state, his term oversaw the collapse of communism and the Soviet Union, thereby bringing the Cold War to a close in the 1990s.
• His death was announced in a statement from Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital and was published by Russian media.
• Gorbachev, born into a family of peasants in Russia's southwest in 1931, went on to attend law school at Moscow State University in 1952 – the same year he joined the Communist Party. At 54, having been a rising star and the youngest member of the Politburo, he was elected to lead the party and country in 1985 following the death of his predecessor Konstantin Chernenko the previous year.
• After the failure of his modest reforms, Gorbachev introduced the policy of "glasnost" – honest confrontation with the Soviet Union's problems. The policy introduced steps including the relaxation of media freedoms and increased tolerance of criticism of the government and its dark Stalinist past. In the Soviet-bloc of eastern Europe, the move prompted a voicing of nationalist sentiment that ultimately fractured the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) into 15 different states.
• His resignation - and an end to the USSR - was triggered in 1991 as a result of an attempted coup by disgruntled party members, as well as his own ambivalence. Prior to the disintegration of the state, he presided over some remarkable moment's in the country's history, including a cultivation of US relations that led to the signing of an unprecedented 1987 agreement to deeply reduce American and Soviet nuclear arsenals, and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan after a nine-year occupation in 1980.
• Though he received many international accolades including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his efforts towards bringing an end to the Cold War, he was widely despised among his countrymen for the breakup of the country. In a 1992 interview with AP, Gorbachev said: "I am often asked, would I have started it all again if I had to repeat it? Yes, indeed. And with more persistence and determination."

Sources: Associated Press, Tass, FT, Britannica, and New York Times.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Politico. Gorbachev and his willingness to stand up for democracy and freedom were well received across the world. His achievements, humility, and the many awards and accolades he received for his statesmanship show his true character. It's shameful that after all of these years he remains disliked and discarded by the people of his homeland.
• Narrative B, as provided by The Atlantic. Gorbachev was not a supporter of the western democratic model, but of the Soviet Union. Although he wasn't simply a heartless apparatchik, policies like glasnost and perestroika - that western media are trying to argue were democratic reforms - were designed to improve the USSR by fostering better communication and kickstarting Soviet institutions. We can only be thankful Gorbachev didn't understand the true consequences his reforms would eventually have.