Mikhail Gorbachev
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31 august 2022
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It is reported that the first and last president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, has passed away.
He was 91 years old.
On the territory of the former USSR, there were different attitudes towards him, often bad. Worse than in the west.
Many Russians blamed him for the collapse of the USSR and everything that happened after that.
Some of the post-Soviet republics had their own claims against him. Lithuania wanted to hold him accountable for the events in Vilnius in 1991. Ukraine banned entry into its territory because of his position on Crimea.
I liked Mikhail Gorbachev. Basically, he was simply intuitively sympathetic, seemed to be a man of high internal culture, an outstanding personality in history. And in general, I believe that he had normal intentions when he began reforms in the USSR, how it all ended and why it happened is another question.
Screenshot from a 1991 video, Mikhail Gorbachev announces his resignation from the presidency of the USSR, when the Soviet Union had already de facto ceased to exist.
He was 91 years old.
On the territory of the former USSR, there were different attitudes towards him, often bad. Worse than in the west.
Many Russians blamed him for the collapse of the USSR and everything that happened after that.
Some of the post-Soviet republics had their own claims against him. Lithuania wanted to hold him accountable for the events in Vilnius in 1991. Ukraine banned entry into its territory because of his position on Crimea.
I liked Mikhail Gorbachev. Basically, he was simply intuitively sympathetic, seemed to be a man of high internal culture, an outstanding personality in history. And in general, I believe that he had normal intentions when he began reforms in the USSR, how it all ended and why it happened is another question.
Screenshot from a 1991 video, Mikhail Gorbachev announces his resignation from the presidency of the USSR, when the Soviet Union had already de facto ceased to exist.
