Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91 | USA TODAY

Mikhail Gorbachev was in power from 1985 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, when he resigned.
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Mikhail Gorbachev, whose attempt to modernize communist control of the Soviet Union unleashed forces that brought down the superpower, has died, Russian news agencies reported Tuesday.

The Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow said Gorbachev died after "a long and grave illness.'' He was 91.

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9 comments

  1. He was the right man in the right place at the right time. I believe things would have been a lot worse if he had not been in charge of Russia

  2. People say the cold war ended when the Soviet Union “collapsed” but to say it that way is to ignore a crucial element, Gorbachev’s basic decency. The cold war ended because Russia finally had a decent man at the helm. Imagine a Stalin-esque leader in place of Gorbachev and facing the same economic woes of the late 1980s/early 1990s. Do you think a Stalin-esque leader would’ve done what Gorbachev did? That is, do you think a Stalin-esque leader would relinquish his own power as part of a larger effort to promote the welfare of the people? Of course not. History tells us that even a few famines won’t convince the typical Russian dictator he’s unfit to rule. My larger point here is that the Soviet Union “collapsed” because Gorbachev cared enough about the people to let Soviet communism, a failed experiment, come to an end.

  3. My condolences to the family of Mr Gorbachev, a great Russian with world vision, who ended the Cold War without bloodshed.
    He’s the opposite of Putin “The Invader” and Xi “The Terrible” who are condemned around the world for disturbing the peace.
    – The pair Gorbachev-Reagan will be remembered by humanity for a long time.

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