Mikhail Gorbachev
Challenges Facing Democracy

 

Gorbachev was the leader of the former U.S.S.R. from 1985-91 and is credited by many in the West with ending the Cold War.  He streamlined and decentralized the oppressive Soviet Communist system he inherited and taught the world two new words: perestroika (governmental restructuring) and glasnost (political openness).  He signed two broad disarmament pacts and brought an end to Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.  Gorbachev was recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

After graduating from Moscow State University with a law degree, Gorbachev joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1952.  In 1971, he was elected to the Central Committee, Communist Party (CCCP), and from 1978-85 he served as secretary. From 1985-90, he was president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., and in 1990-91 he was president of the Soviet Union.  Time magazine named Gorbachev 1987 Man of the Year and 1980s Person of the Decade.  He was one of Time's 100 Most Important People of the Twentieth Century. This year, he shared a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Children's Album with President Clinton and Sophia Loren.

In 1992, Gorbachev became President of the Gorbachev Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational foundation, which articulates and addresses the challenges of the post Cold War world through the re-visioning of global priorities.  In 1993, he founded the environmental organization, Green Cross International, which is a three-pronged program with a mission to clean up military toxins, assist in the creation of global ecological law and foster a value shift on the environment.