Person

Mikhail Gorbachev

1931–2022 · 20th century

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–2022) was the last leader of the Soviet Union, general secretary of the Communist Party from 1985 and president from 1990 to 1991. His policies of glasnost, or openness, and perestroika, or restructuring, loosened censorship and central control, while abroad he ended the Cold War and allowed the fall of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe in 1989. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

Mikhail Gorbachev
Image: RIAN_archive_850809_General_Secretary_of_the_CPSU_CC_M._Gorbachev.jpg: Vladimir Vyatkin / Владимир Вяткин derivative ... · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 6 profiles

Russian SFSRGovernanceRepublic of LithuaniaDeclineRepublic of EstoniaDeclineRepublic of LatviaDeclineSoviet UnionSocioeconomy, Decline, SummarySouth YemenDecline

Mentioned in 2 state histories

Ukrainian SSRSoviet Union

Great speeches

Reagan: Tear Down This Wall12 June 1987

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Mikhail Gorbachev. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mikhail-gorbachev
MLA
“Mikhail Gorbachev.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mikhail-gorbachev. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Mikhail Gorbachev.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mikhail-gorbachev.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Mikhail Gorbachev’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mikhail-gorbachev (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻