Mikhail Gorbachev is dead
Mikhail Gorbachev dies at the age of 91
Mikhail Gorbachev is dead. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and last head of state of the Soviet Union died in Moscow after a long illness. He had ended the Cold War and created the conditions for German reunification.
Mikhail Gorbachev was one of the last living pioneers of German unity. The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who fought for democratic freedoms in Russia to the last, has died at the age of 91.
Dhe Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Soviet head of state Mikhail Gorbachev is dead. He died in Moscow on Tuesday evening at the age of 91. “Tonight Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev died after a long and serious illness,” said the Central Clinical Hospital (ZKB) in the Russian capital. Russian state agencies had previously reported about it.
Interfax reported that Gorbachev was in the hospital for observation during the corona pandemic. However, he did not die of the corona virus, but of the consequences of old age and illness, it was said.
In 1990 Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize for his reforms
Source: pa/Weingartner
The world-renowned politician was considered one of the fathers of German unity and a pioneer for the end of the Cold War. East Germans in particular still revere “Gorbi”, as they call him, as a statesman who brought them freedom more than three decades ago.
In the 1980s, under Gorbachev’s leadership, the Soviet Union signed groundbreaking treaties on nuclear disarmament and arms control with the United States. In his home country, Gorbachev, as General Secretary of the Communist Party, initiated an unprecedented reform process with his policy of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). This brought unprecedented freedom to people in the totalitarian system.
In 1990 Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize for his courageous reforms. The political process led to massive upheavals in all republics of the Soviet state and ultimately to the collapse of the communist empire.
A large part of the Russian population always saw the former party and state leader as the gravedigger of the Soviet Union – and as a politician without an instinct for power. Gorbachev resigned as President of the Soviet Union in 1991, before the state dissolved itself shortly afterwards. The new strongman in Moscow at the time was Russian President Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007).
Chancellor Helmut Kohl (r) with the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (l) and his wife Raissa in 1990 during a working visit to Stavropol/Caucasus at a spaz…speed
Source: pa/dpa/Tass
The famous photo shows the traditional fraternal kiss between the Soviet head of state Gorbachev (l) and the head of the GDR Council of State, Erich Honecker (r), in 1989
Source: picture alliance / dpa
Up until his death, Gorbachev had rendered outstanding services to his own political foundation in Moscow. The organization advocates democratic values and a rapprochement between Russia and the West.
Co-owner of a newspaper critical of the Kremlin
Gorbachev wrote numerous books – most recently also about his disappointment with the Germans and the West. Specifically, he complained that new enemy images were being drawn against Russia. For health reasons, he did not travel to the celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in autumn 2019. He has had to be hospitalized repeatedly over the past few years.
The politician was a co-owner of the newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”, which is critical of the Kremlin and repeatedly uncovers abuses in Russia. In recent years, Gorbachev has repeatedly asked Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin not to further restrict the freedom of the media and elections.
The statesman is buried in Moscow at the New Maiden Cemetery for celebrities – next to his wife Raisa.