Mikhail Gorbachev passed away on Tuesday at the age of 91, according to hospital officials in Moscow. Gorbachev avoided a bloody end to the Cold War but was unable to stop the fall of the Soviet Union.
The final Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, negotiated armaments reduction agreements with the United States and formed alliances with Western nations to bring about the fall of the Iron Curtain, which had divided Europe since World War Two, and the reunification of Germany.
According to news reports at the time, Putin stated in 2018 that he would try to prevent the Soviet Union’s demise. The incident was described as the “biggest geopolitical calamity” of the 20th century by Putin in 2005.
According to the foundation that the former Soviet leader established after leaving office, he will be interred in Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery close to his wife Raisa, who passed away in 1999, according to Tass news agency.
He resisted employing force as pro-democracy demonstrations spread through the Soviet bloc countries of communist Eastern Europe in 1989, in contrast to earlier Kremlin leaders who had dispatched tanks to put down uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
However, the protests stoked nationalism in the 15 Soviet republics, which led to a catastrophic dissolution of the Soviet Union during the following two years
Gorbachev forged a stronger relationship between the West and the Soviet Union than at any time since World War Two, ending decades of Cold War hostility and conflict. But in the final months of his life, he seen that legacy destroyed as Putin’s invasion of Ukraine brought Western sanctions tumbling down on Moscow and politicians in both Russia and the West started openly discussing a new Cold War.
According to news reports at the time, Putin stated in 2018 that, if he could, he would go back in time and prevent the fall of the Soviet Union.
Putin referred to it as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century in 2005. Gorbachev pushed the Soviet Union closer to the West than at any time since World War Two, ending decades of Cold War hostility and conflict.
