Mikhail Gorbachev was the eighth and the last leader of the former Soviet Union. From 1988 until the dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991, he reigned as the supreme leader of the former world power. He played a pivotal role in the termination of the Cold War through his policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). These policies dissolved the powers of the Communist party for reorientation of Soviet strategic aims. However, the same policies inadvertently led to an upsurge of regional nationalist and anti-communist movements which eventually resulted in the dismemberment of the Soviet Union. Despite his failure to save the USSR, Gorbachev maintains that his policies were necessary to evoke reforms in the state. This Nobel Peace laureate was decorated with several accolades by Soviet Union as well as recognitions from abroad namely Indira Gandhi Prize, Otto Hahn Peace Medal, Ronald Reagan Freedom Award, Order of Honour, Order of the Badge of Honour and many more. Being a global statesman, Gorbachev expressed and shared his views on politics, society, economy, peace etc through his writings, articles, speeches and observations. Read through these quotes by Gorbachev.
The most puzzling development in politics during the last decade is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe.
Mikhail Gorbachev
I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the cosmos. So nature is my god. To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals. Being at one with nature.
We had 10 years after the Cold War to build a new world order and yet we squandered them. The United States cannot tolerate anyone acting independently. Every US president has to have a war.
Mikhail Gorbachev
One day we took each other by the hand and went for a walk in the evening. And we walked like that for our whole life.
Americans have a severe disease — worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.
Mikhail Gorbachev
History teaches us, however, that when the times are ripe for change and the government refuses or is unable to change, either society starts to decay or a revolution begins.
The market came with the dawn of civilization and it is not an invention of capitalism. ... If it leads to improving the well-being of the people there is no contradiction with socialism.
Mikhail Gorbachev
The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries. It is an invention of civilization.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Certain people in the United States are driving nails into this structure of our relationship, then cutting off the heads. So the Soviets must use their teeth to pull them out.
The ecological crisis, in short, is the population crisis. Cut the population by 90% and there aren't enough people left to do a great deal of ecological damage.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Ex-Presidents of the United States get state subsidies. Not so in Russia. You get no government support.
Surely, God on high has not refused to give us enough wisdom to find ways to bring us an improvement in relations between the two great nations on earth.
I don't think Russia is setting this as a goal; I don't think this should be Russia's goal. I think even the United States doesn't need to be a superpower. China doesn't need to be a superpower. It's a different world.
There should be competition and exchanges between different countries, but there are certainly certain universal values, and that is freedom and democracy.
Mikhail Gorbachev
You cannot put Russia down on its knees and hold it there because Russia will ultimately pull out.
I think we need more young people; we need to elect young people to government. We need to give them a chance, in the media, in politics, in democracy.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Starting reforms in the Soviet Union was only possible from above, only from above. Any attempt to go from below was suppressed, suppressed in a most resolute way.
Mikhail Gorbachev
The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.
Mikhail Gorbachev
America must be the teacher of democracy, not the advertiser of the consumer society. It is unrealistic for the rest of the world to reach the American living standard.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Sometimes when you stand face to face with someone, you cannot see his face.
Mikhail Gorbachev
My life's work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.
Every country should conduct its own reforms, should develop its own model, taking into account the experience of other countries, whether close neighbours or far away countries.
I couldn't wait to get to the most powerful position, because I thought then I would be able to fix problems that only the leader can fix. But when I got there, I realized we needed revolutionary change.
It would be naive to think that the problems plaguing mankind today can be solved with means and methods which were applied or seemed to work in the past.
Sometimes it's difficult to accept, to recognise one's own mistakes, but one must do it. I was guilty of overconfidence and arrogance, and I was punished for that.
Mikhail Gorbachev
A society should never become like a pond with stagnant water, without movement. That's the most important thing.
Mikhail Gorbachev
If current technological processes continue without change, the environment will change, and we, the human species, will either have to mutate or even die, to disappear, as many species have disappeared.
What about Jesus Christ? I say that he was a precursor of idealists; a precursor of socialists.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Democracy must learn to defend itself.
Mikhail Gorbachev
The market came with the dawn of civilization and it is not an invention of capitalism. If it leads to improving the well-being of the people there is no contradiction with socialism.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.
Political leaders still think things can be done through force, but that cannot solve terrorism. Backwardness is the breeding ground of terror, and that is what we have to fight.
Mikhail Gorbachev
I am a Communist, a convinced Communist! For some that may be a fantasy. But to me it is my main goal.
The world will not accept dictatorship or domination.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Without perestroika, the cold war simply would not have ended. But the world could not continue developing as it had, with the stark menace of nuclear war ever present.
Mikhail Gorbachev
We could only solve our problems by cooperating with other countries. It would have been paradoxical not to cooperate. And therefore we needed to put an end to the Iron Curtain, to change the nature of international relations, to rid them of ideological confrontation, and particularly to end the arms race.
Sometimes people ask me why I began perestroika. Were the causes basically domestic or foreign? The domestic reasons were undoubtedly the main ones, but the danger of nuclear war was so serious that it was a no less significant factor.
Imagine a country that flies into space, launches Sputniks, creates such a defense system, and it can't resolve the problem of women's pantyhose. There's no toothpaste, no soap powder, not the basic necessities of life. It was incredible and humiliating to work in such a government.
On the day I became Soviet leader, in March 1985, I had a special meeting with the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries and told them: 'You are independent, and we are independent. You are responsible for your policies, we are responsible for ours. We will not intervene in your affairs, I promise you.'
Mikhail Gorbachev
I grew up in a family of peasants, and it was there that I saw the way that, for example, our wheat fields suffered as a result of dust storms, water erosion and wind erosion; I saw the effect of that on life - on human life.
