Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev (1931) - 5th General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, President of the USSR, Nobel Prize winner.

Biography of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeevich was born into an ordinary peasant family in the village of Privolnoye, Stavropol Territory. Until 1937, Gorbachev's grandfather did not join the collective farm, but was an individual farmer, in the same terrible year he was arrested. The accusation of the peasant in Trotskyism was complete nonsense, and a year later he was fired. But Mikhail absorbed his grandfather's stories about the Soviet regime from childhood, and hence his organic rejection of totalitarianism. However, he tried to somehow reconcile this with communist ideals and, like his father, he also became a communist, he joined the party as a young man. In general, his biography was a classic example of the political career of a simple worker. He worked in a rural way, from childhood, by the sweat of his brow. From the age of 13, he combined his studies at school with the work of a machine operator on a collective farm and MTS. At the age of 17 he was awarded the order as an advanced combine operator.

1953 Gorbachev becomes a member of the CPSU. In 1955 he graduated from the law faculty of Moscow University, after which he returned to Stavropol. Works as the first secretary of the Stavropol city committee of the Komsomol, later elected as the first secretary of the regional committee of the Komsomol.
- 1962 MS Gorbachev becomes the first secretary of the Stavropol City Committee of the CPSU.
- 1967 graduated in absentia from the Faculty of Economics of the Stavropol Agricultural Institute and after 3 years was elected First Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the CPSU, and in 1971 - a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
- since 1978 Gorbachev - Secretary of the Central Committee for Agriculture.
- 1980 he becomes a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
- March 11, 1984 M. Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the CPSU by 7 votes out of 10. Gorbachev was developing an ambitious program that was called "perestroika" to reform the Soviet system. The three principles in domestic politics proclaimed by Gorbachev were: glasnost - greater openness and accessibility of information, and democracy - greater participation of citizens in the political process; economic restructuring of the centralized and bureaucratic planned state economy. Gorbachev unfolds extensive activities in foreign policy, which is based on disarmament.
- after an unsuccessful summit meeting in Geneva in 1985 and a dramatic meeting in 1986 with the President of the United States in Reykjavik, the Treaty on the destruction of medium and short-range missiles was signed.
- the meetings of Gorbachev and R. Reagan in 1987 in Washington and 1988 in Moscow led to the establishment of relations between the USSR and the USA, in mutual understanding for the sake of peace. Gorbachev also made changes in Soviet policy on regional issues. The growth of Gorbachev's authority was also facilitated by the revelation of his will in the search for a peaceful settlement of conflicts in Angola, Cambodia, Nicaragua, and Afghanistan. He put military doctrines on the table and turned them into defensive ones.

Education of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev

A simple peasant boy had a great thirst for knowledge. Gorbachev has two higher educations. First, he graduated from the prestigious university of the USSR - Moscow State University. Lomonosov, Faculty of Law.

Later, already being a party worker, he graduated in absentia from the Stavropol Agricultural Institute with a degree in agronomist-economist. It is interesting that at Moscow State University Gorbachev, although he was a Komsomol activist (secretary of the Komsomol organization of the faculty), willingly communicated with many freethinkers, of whom there were many in those days of the Khrushchev "thaw". Among his acquaintances was, for example, one of the leaders of the future "Prague Spring" Zdenek Mlynarzh.

After receiving a law degree, Gorbachev worked for a short time in the prosecutor's office in the Stavropol Territory. Characteristically, already in these first years of his career, the young Gorbachev had no great illusions about the communist system.

Political views and early career of Mikhail Gorbachev

Perhaps he explained what he saw as a "distortion of the correct ideas" proclaimed by the party, the regime, but he saw the realities clearly.

Quite quickly, he was promoted to Komsomol and party work. In 1955-1962 he was the second, then the first secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the Komsomol. Then he moves to party work, where he goes through the steps from the head of the department to the first secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the CPSU. He became the head of a huge region at the age of 39!

Interestingly, in these 60s, his candidacy was considered twice for work in the state security bodies, first for the position of head of the KGB of the region, then in 1969 Andropov considered his candidacy for the post of deputy chairman of the KGB of the USSR. It is worth recalling this in order to understand how ambiguous the ideological searches for the future leader of perestroika were.

It was Andropov, the chairman of the KGB, who was one of those who initiated the transition of the young Gorbachev to Moscow, to the highest echelons of the party hierarchy. And the second was none other than Suslov, one of the ideologists of the political regime during the Brezhnev stagnation. Gorbachev considers both of them his godparents in big politics, and not only because they took care of him as a countryman, he still has a high opinion of both. Especially about Andropov, who, according to Gorbachev, honestly wanted changes in the Soviet Union for the better, of course, without going beyond the system.

So, since November 1978, Gorbachev has been in Moscow, he is the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. And already in October 1980 he was elected a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, that is, at the age of 49 he was included in the highest Areopagus of the leadership of the USSR.

Gorbachev as a politician

After the death of Stalin in March 1953, several years of "palace coups" with the participation of his closest associates, Nikita Khrushchev established himself in Moscow. Almost a decade of his reign is, on the one hand, the debunking of the crimes of the totalitarian, on the other, a series of voluntaristic socio-economic experiments. Finally, the top leadership of the Communist Party enacted another quiet coup, dismissing Khrushchev in October 1964. Leonid Brezhnev was elected head of the Communist Party, and then the Union.

It was no accident that the 18 years of Brezhnev's rule were called "stagnation": indeed, after decades of upheavals, the repressions of the regime formally began to be gradually forgotten, all the more, de-Stalinization slowly faded away. In political terms, there was a complete conservation of the hardened communist system, with a new personality cult, Brezhnev's, but in a modernized version, as a cult of the party. "Juviliads" began - almost an annual celebration of various party and Soviet anniversaries: 50-60 - to name the party, the Komsomol, the army, the USSR.

On the international stage, from Cuba to Vietnam, from Germany to Africa, support for the communist and Soviet regimes continued - from insane cash injections to them, to direct military aggression.

The economy began to rely on the country's gigantic natural resources, especially oil and gas. Plus, some strange economic experiments were constantly going on, under the guise of "reforms". Of course, on a smaller scale than industrialization, collectivization or the development of virgin lands. But nevertheless, it was, they started either the “revival of the Nechornozem” (read - the salvation of the indigenous Russian regions brought to ruin), then the turn of the Siberian rivers into Central Asia, then melioration, then chemicalization. Finally, a high-profile polit-economic project-BAM. Who forgot - this is the Baikal-Amur Mainline. This epic was accompanied by an incredible propaganda noise. The construction of the BAM was calculated for 9 years (1974-1983), in fact, it stretched for decades.

Brezhnev's successor Yuri Andropov, who came to the chair of the Party Secretary General directly from the Lubyanka, from the post of chairman of the KGB of the USSR, was also seriously ill and died in February 1984. Already at that moment, Gorbachev could become General Secretary, head the Soviet Union, because he was the youngest, most energetic of the members of the Politburo and secretaries of the Central Committee. But it turns out that the turn of the Kremlin elders has not yet ended. It was necessary to wait out the reign of Konstantin Chernenko. Even under Brezhnev, this unremarkable party servant got into the trust of the weak leader, therefore he had support among the Kremlin elite. The fact that a person, physically and mentally, could not even lead a collective farm brigade, became, formally, the head of the largest country in the world, can only be explained by the very "role of the individual in history", in this case practically zero, when the rule of the environment. "The heyday of stagnation" has not yet ended, the elders were still delaying the agony of the Union.

But not only the General Secretaries departed. At the end of 1980, Alexei Kosygin, the head of government, a pragmatist, who sought to somehow, within the framework of the system, reform the clumsy socialist economy, died. In January 1982, the "grey eminence" of the party and its main ideologist Mikhail Suslov dies. In May 1983 - another member of the Politburo, Pelshe. In December 1984 - Minister of Defense Ustinov.

Chernenko died on April 10, 1985. And on the second day, an emergency Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU elected Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The queue of those wishing (or, perhaps, capable) to Olympus has dried up. Characteristically, Gorbachev was supported (in reality, because formally they voted unanimously) and some representatives of the old elite, primarily Andrei Gromyko.

Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary and President

From March 1985 - General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and from October 1989 to June 1990 - Chairman of the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

During an attempted coup in 1991, he was removed from power by Vice President Gennady Yanaev and isolated in Foros, after the restoration of legal power, he returned to his post, which he held until the collapse of the USSR in December 1991.

He was elected a delegate of the XXII (1961), XXIV (1971) and all subsequent (1976, 1981, 1986, 1990) congresses of the CPSU. From 1970 to 1990 he was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 8-12 convocations. Member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from 1985 to 1988; Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from October 1988 to May 1989.

Chairman of the Commission for Youth Affairs of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1979-1984); Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1984-1985);

People's Deputy of the USSR from the CPSU - March 1989 - March 1990; Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (formed by the Congress of People's Deputies) - May 1989 - March 1990; Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR 10-11 convocations.

March 15, 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev was elected President of the USSR. At the same time, until December 1991, he was Chairman of the USSR Defense Council, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, but his international reputation suffered due to the suppression of democratic uprisings in the Baltic republics. After the failed putsch in August 1991, the accelerated collapse of the USSR, Gorbachev's power weakened, and on December 25, 1991 he resigned.

On November 4, 1991, Viktor Ilyukhin, head of the Department for Supervision of the Execution of State Security Laws of the USSR General Prosecutor's Office, initiated a criminal case against M.S. on granting independence to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia; USSR Prosecutor General Nikolai Trubin closed the case, and two days later Ilyukhin was fired from the prosecutor's office.

June 13, 1992, convened with the permission of the Constitutional Court of the RSFSR, the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU expelled MS Gorbachev from the party.

Gorbachev's role in "perestroika"

Perestroika began almost immediately, in 1985. Although the very term "perestroika" Gorbachev first used to define his policy only a year later.

Many media picked up the term "perestroika" and it quickly became a symbol of grandiose changes in the USSR, such changes finally led to the disappearance of this state from the world map.

What did all these changes mean? What was the goal of Gorbachev and the party-Soviet elite of the Soviet Union? What were the internal springs of the collapse of the USSR and to what extent did international factors contribute to this? All these questions are the subject of a colossal analysis of historians, politicians, economists, and civil society in general. And here, of course, it is impossible to give such a detailed analysis. Apparently, all this was intertwined in the complex. It is easier to take place with a banal, but reasonable phrase that everything has its age - a person, a tree, a bird, a state, including an empire. And to say that, probably, the time has come to die for the empire, taken by the Moscow rulers for several years, and for the communist experiment that continued for more than 70 years (for the first time in history) in the largest country in the world.

Among the many reasons for this radical change are:
- the chronic lag of the USSR from the West in the economy, which could not be compensated for by raw materials.
- scientific and technological progress, despite the considerable achievements here and the USSR (largely connected with the military-industrial complex), nevertheless left the country on the sidelines of world development.

The USSR simply could no longer withstand the arms race, competing with the West, because 25 percent of the Union's budget went to military spending.

One should also name such a rather curious circumstance as the planetary dissemination of information. The internet was just getting bigger. But satellite communications, heavy-duty radio and television transmitters no longer allowed keeping the USSR in an information blockade. Primitive jamming of radio voices no longer helped. To exaggerate, there was even such an opinion: they say that the West delivered an ultimatum to the leadership of the USSR with demands for democratic changes, otherwise the population of the Union would be “poured out” so much about the real inside of the communist empire, such propaganda against the Soviet regime would go (and was already going on)! This is, of course, a somewhat primitive version, but, like similar primitives, it is still not without reason.

Reforms of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev

During the period of Gorbachev's activity as head of state and head of the CPSU, serious changes took place in the country that affected the whole world, which were the result of the following events:
- Anti-alcohol campaign.
- The end of the Cold War.
- A large-scale attempt to reform the Soviet system ("Perestroika"). Introduction to the USSR of the policy of glasnost, freedom of speech and press.
- The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan (1989).
- Rejection of the state status of the communist ideology and the persecution of dissidents.
- The collapse of the USSR and the Warsaw bloc, the transition of most socialist countries to a market economy and capitalism.

Childhood:

Mikhail Gorbachev- statesman and public figure of the USSR and the Russian Federation. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev Born March 2, 1931 in a small peasant family in the village of Privolnoe, located in the Krasnogvardeisky district of the Stavropol Territory.

The future famous political figure and a major public figure, the last General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the only president of the USSR in history and, of course, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1990, he did not know wealth or luxury from childhood. The family spent the early years of childhood in the German occupation in Ukraine.

Education:

The collective farm, where the whole family worked, always needed additional labor, and therefore Mikhail Sergeevich had to constantly combine school and hard work. Difficult conditions did not become an obstacle to entering Moscow State University for the law faculty in 1950. Thinking about his own participation in the development of his region, a little later he graduated from the Agricultural Institute in the capital of the Stavropol Territory, choosing the path of an agronomist-economist.

Career:

The war became a great experience in the life of Mikhail Sergeevich. As a teenager, he became an assistant combine operator at the MTS, at the age of 17 he was already an order bearer of the Red Banner of Labor as a Stakhanovite. In his student years, he joined the Komsomol, where he was immediately noticed by his peers and the leadership.

In 1962, he was a party organizer and even became a delegate to the CPSU congress. In 1966 he was elected First Secretary of the city committee in the Stavropol Territory. Moscow was seriously thinking about what to transfer to the KGB in the late 1960s, but in the early 70s Gorbachev headed the Stavropol Territory Committee, and then also became the Chairman of the Defense Council and served as the Supreme Commander of the USSR.

Under the leadership of Gorbachev, numerous reforms became possible, in particular, many changes were made to the development and formation of a market economy, and a change in the political system. The restructuring of the state, which will later be called the collapse, was also the result of his vigorous activity. A variety of his decisions affected the domestic and foreign policy of the state.

In 1985, he led a large anti-alcohol campaign, in fact, introducing dry law on the territory of the USSR. The volumes of production of alcoholic products have seriously decreased, the number of vineyards has significantly decreased. Many researchers believe that this led to a decrease in the death rate and crime in the country.

In 1986, the famous speech was delivered, which marked the start of "perestroika" in the country. It was during this period that the AVTOVAZ company was established in Togliatti, which became one of the pillars of modern automotive production in Russia. It should be noted that perestroika changed the face of the economy, and also marked the start of a more loyal policy, when repression ceased to be a state tool. In the same period, A.D. also returned. Sakharov.

In 1989, hyperinflation and a rapid depreciation of the market began due to a not very correct system for implementing perestroika. In the same period, we can talk about the end of the Cold War and the reduction of pressure on the socialist camp throughout the world. Due to various reasons, the arms race also almost stopped. In the same year, the war with Afghanistan was stopped.

1990 was a tragic year for the history of the USSR and Russia. Soviet troops were brought into Baku, during clashes with the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, innocent people were killed. In August of the following year, the State Emergency Committee initiated his removal from power.

Personal life:

In his student years, Mikhail Sergeevich married Raisa Titarenko, whom he met at the university. She was a native Siberian, lived modestly in a hostel, where she met her future husband and father of her children. This woman was a wonderful first lady and supported the leader of the state in many ways. She died in 1999 due to an exacerbation of leukemia. They have a daughter, Irina, who was born in 1957.

Achievements of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev:

He became the leader of the country, who became one of the initiators of ending the Cold War.
Conducted a major anti-alcohol campaign in the USSR.
He reformed the state structure of the USSR and became the father of the ideas of "perestroika".
He began a policy of glasnost, giving everyone freedom of speech and the press.
Withdrew troops from Afghanistan, ending the endless war.
Became the initiator of a softer state policy towards dissidents.
Was the last leader of the USSR.

Important dates in the biography of Mikhail Gorbachev:

1931 - date of birth
1946 - receiving the position of assistant combine operator
1948 - receiving the Order of the Red Banner of Labor
1950–1955 - admission and study at Moscow State University
1952 - entry and work in the organization of the Komsomol
1953 - marriage to Raisa Maksimovna Titarenko
1957 - the birth of daughter Irina
1961 - attendance at the Congress of the CPSU as a delegate of the XXII Congress of the CPSU
1962 - entry into the position of party organizer of the regional committee of the CPSU
1966 - receiving the post of First Secretary of the City Party Committee for the Stavropol Territory
1967 - obtaining a diploma of an agronomist-economist at the Stavropol Agricultural Institute
1970 - receiving the post of First Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee and becoming a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
1974–1979 - assuming the position of Chairman of the Commission on Youth Affairs of the USSR
1979–1984 - receiving the post of Chairman of the Commission for Legislative Assumptions of the USSR
1984–1985 - receiving the post of Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the USSR
1985-1991 - entry into the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU
1985 - anti-alcohol campaign
1989 - completion of the military operation in Afghanistan and the beginning of hidden inflation
1990–1991 - receiving the post of President of the USSR
1990 - receiving the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize
1991 - forced resignation
1999 - the death of his wife Raisa Maksimovna

Interesting facts from the biography of Mikhail Gorbachev:

In 1978, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was promoted to the rank of colonel in the reserve by order of the Minister of Defense.
Many researchers believe that the end of the Cold War was, in fact, an act of capitulation of the USSR in this confrontation.
Gorbachev did not begin to indicate the reasons for his own resignation from the post of head of state, even in the last decree.
In 1992, in the city of Grozny, Revolution Avenue was renamed in honor of Mikhail Sergeevich, but later, due to the well-known tension between Chechnya and Russia, the change was reversed.
He is the only leader of the USSR who was born after 1917.
He received the MTV "Open Your Mind" award in 2009.

Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeevich (b. 1931), General Secretary of the CPSU(March 1985 - August 1991), President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics(March 1990 - December 1991).

Born on March 2, 1931 in the village of Privolnoye, Krasnogvardeisky District, Stavropol Territory, into a peasant family. In 1942, he was under German occupation for about six months. At the age of 16 (1947) he was awarded for high grain harvesting with his father on a combine. Order of the Red Banner of Labor. In 1950, after graduating from school with a silver medal, due to the high award, he was enrolled in the Faculty of Law without exams. Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov. He actively participated in the activities of the Komsomol organization of the university, in 1952 (at the age of 21) he joined the CPSU. After graduating from university in 1955, he was sent to Stavropol to the regional prosecutor's office. He worked as deputy head of the agitation and propaganda department of the Stavropol regional committee of the Komsomol, first secretary of the Stavropol city committee of the Komsomol, then second and first secretary of the regional committee of the Komsomol (1955–1962).

In 1962 Gorbachev went to work in party bodies. Khrushchev's reforms were going on in the country at that time. The organs of the party leadership were divided into industrial and rural. New management structures appeared - territorial production departments. The party career of M. S. Gorbachev began with the post of party organizer of the Stavropol Territorial Production Agricultural Administration (three rural districts). In 1967 he graduated in absentia Stavropol Agricultural Institute.

In December 1962, Gorbachev was appointed head of the department of organizational and party work of the Stavropol rural regional committee of the CPSU. Since September 1966, Gorbachev was the first secretary of the Stavropol City Party Committee, in August 1968 he was elected second, and in April 1970 - First Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the CPSU. In 1971 M. S. Gorbachev became member of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

In November 1978 Gorbachev became Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU for the agro-industrial complex, in 1979 - a candidate member, in 1980 - a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In March 1985, under the patronage of A. A. Gromyko, Gorbachev was elected at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

1985 became a milestone in the history of the state and the party. The era of “stagnation” has ended (this is how Yu. V. Andropov defined the “Brezhnev period”). The time has begun for changes, attempts to reform the party-state body. This period in the history of the country was called "Perestroika" and was associated with the idea of ​​"improving socialism". Gorbachev began with a large-scale anti-alcohol campaign. Alcohol prices were raised and its sale was limited, vineyards were mostly destroyed, which gave rise to a whole range of new problems - the consumption of moonshine and all kinds of surrogates increased sharply, the budget suffered significant losses. In May 1985, speaking at a party and economic activist in Leningrad, the Secretary General did not hide the fact that the country's economic growth rates had declined, and put forward the slogan "accelerate social and economic development". Gorbachev received support for his policy statements at XXVII Congress of the CPSU(1986) and at the June (1987) plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

In 1986-1987, hoping to awaken the initiative of the "masses", Gorbachev and his team headed for the development publicity and "democratization" of all aspects of public life. Glasnost in the Communist Party was traditionally understood not as freedom of speech, but as freedom of "constructive" (loyal) criticism and self-criticism. However, during the years of Perestroika, the idea of ​​glasnost through the efforts of progressive journalists and radical supporters of reforms, in particular, the secretary and member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a friend of Gorbachev, A. N. Yakovleva, was developed precisely in freedom of speech. XIX Party Conference of the CPSU(June 1988) adopted a resolution "About publicity". In March 1990 was adopted "Press Law", achieving a certain level of media independence from party control.

Since 1988, the process of creating initiative groups in support of perestroika, popular fronts, and other non-state and non-party public organizations has been in full swing. As soon as the processes of democratization began, and the control of the party decreased, numerous interethnic contradictions that had been hidden before were exposed, interethnic clashes took place in some regions of the USSR.

In March 1989, the first free events in the history of the USSR took place. elections of people's deputies, the results of which caused a shock in the party apparatus. In many regions, secretaries of party committees failed in the elections. Many scientists came to the deputy corps (like Sakharov, Sobchak, Starovoitova), who critically assessed the role of the CPSU in society. The Congress of People's Deputies in May of the same year demonstrated a tough confrontation between various trends both in society and in the parliamentary environment. At this congress, Gorbachev was elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR(previously was chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces).

Gorbachev's actions caused a wave of growing criticism. Some criticized him for slowness and inconsistency in the implementation of reforms, others for haste; everyone noted the inconsistency of his policy. So, laws were adopted on the development of cooperation and almost immediately - on the fight against "speculation"; laws on the democratization of enterprise management and, at the same time, on the strengthening of central planning; laws on the reform of the political system and free elections, and immediately on “strengthening the role of the party”, etc.

Attempts to reform were resisted by the party-Soviet system itself - the Leninist-Stalinist model of socialism. The power of the general secretary was not absolute and largely depended on the alignment of forces in the Politburo of the Central Committee. Least of all, Gorbachev's power was limited in international affairs. Supported by the Minister of Foreign Affairs E. A. Shevardnadze and A. N. Yakovlev, Gorbachev acted assertively and effectively. Since 1985 (after a 6 and a half year break due to the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan), meetings of the head of the USSR with the US presidents have been held annually. R. Reagan, and then G. Bush, presidents and prime ministers of other countries. In exchange for loans and humanitarian aid, the USSR made huge concessions in foreign policy, which was perceived in the West as weakness. In 1989, at the initiative of Gorbachev, withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, happened fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification. The signing by Gorbachev, after the rejection of the socialist path by the heads of state of Eastern Europe, in 1990 in Paris, together with the heads of state and government of other European countries, as well as the United States and Canada, of the “Charter for a New Europe” marked the end of the Cold War period of the late 1940s - late 1980s. However, in early 1992 B. N. Yeltsin and George W. Bush (senior) reiterated the end of the Cold War.

In domestic politics, especially in the economy, signs of a serious crisis were becoming more and more clear. After the law "About cooperation", which ensured the outflow of finance to cooperatives, there was an acute shortage of food and consumer goods, for the first time since 1946, card system. Since 1989, the process of disintegration of the political system of the Soviet Union has been in full swing. Inconsistent attempts to stop this process with the help of force (in Tbilisi, Baku, Vilnius, Riga) led to directly opposite results, strengthening centrifugal tendencies. Democratic leaders Interregional Deputy Group(B. N. Yeltsin, A. D. Sakharov and others) gathered thousands of rallies in their support. By the end of 1990, almost all union republics declared their state sovereignty (RSFSR - June 12, 1990), giving them economic independence and the priority of republican laws over union ones.

In the summer of 1991, several options were prepared for signing new union treaty(Union of Sovereign Republics - SSG). Only agreed to sign it. 9 out of 15 union republics. In August 1991, there was an attempted coup by removing Gorbachev "for health reasons" and declaring a state of emergency in the USSR, nicknamed in the press as "August Coup". Union government members included in USSR State Emergency Committee thwarted the signing of an agreement that turned a single country into a confederation of sovereign republics. However, the conspirators did not show decisiveness and then surrendered to Gorbachev, who was resting in Foros. The failure of the State Emergency Committee gave a powerful impetus to the disintegration of the state that had begun. A number of states recognized the independence of some republics from the USSR, including other union republics. In September 1991 took place V Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR who announced "transition period" and dissolved itself, transferring power to a new body - State Council of the USSR, consisting of the heads of the eleven union republics, headed by the President of the USSR Gorbachev.

On September 6, the State Council of the USSR recognized the independence of the Baltic republics: Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which were already recognized by the UN on September 17.

On November 14, 1991, in Novoogarevo, the participants in the meeting of the USSR State Council agreed on the text of the latest version of the Union Treaty, which provided for the state structure of the Union of Sovereign States as a confederation, and made a statement on television that there would be a Union. However, the day before the scheduled signing, on December 8, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belarus), a meeting was held between the leaders of the three union republics - the founders of the USSR: the RSFSR (Russian Federation), Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR) and Belarus (BSSR), during which a document was signed on the demise of the USSR and creating an organization instead of a confederation: Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). December 25, 1991 Gorbachev made a televised address on the resignation of the President of the USSR "for reasons of principle" and handed over control of nuclear weapons to RSFSR President Yeltsin.

From 1992 to the present, M. S. Gorbachev has been President of the International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Science Research ( Gorbachev Foundation). Lives in Germany.

In 2011 celebrated his 80th birthday with pomp at the London Concert Hall albert hall. President of Russia D. A. Medvedev awarded Gorbachev with the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.

Events during Gorbachev's rule:

• 1985, March - at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected general secretary (Viktor Grishin was considered the main rival for this post, but the choice was made in favor of the younger Gorbachev).
• 1985 - publication of the "semi-dry" law, vodka on coupons.
• 1985, July-August - XII World Festival of Youth and Students
• 1986 - an accident at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Evacuation of the population from the "exclusion zone". Construction of the sarcophagus over the destroyed block.
• 1986 - Andrei Sakharov returns to Moscow.
• 1987, January - the announcement of "Perestroika".
• 1988 - celebration of the millennium of the baptism of Russia.
• 1988 - the law "On cooperation" in the USSR, which marked the beginning of modern entrepreneurship.
• November 9, 1989 - the Berlin Wall, which personified the "Iron Curtain", was destroyed.
• 1989, February - the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is completed.
• May 25, 1989 - The First Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR began.
• 1990 - the accession of the GDR (including East Berlin) and West Berlin to the FRG - the first advance of NATO to the east.
• 1990, March - the introduction of the post of President of the USSR, who was to be elected in elections for five years. As an exception, the first president of the USSR was elected by the third Congress of People's Deputies, he was the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR MS Gorbachev.
• 1990, June 12 - adoption of the declaration on the sovereignty of the RSFSR.
• 1991, August 19 - August putsch - an attempt by members of the State Emergency Committee to remove Mikhail Gorbachev "for health reasons" and thus preserve the USSR.
• 1991, August 22 - the failure of the putschists. Prohibition of republican communist parties by the majority of union republics.
• 1991, September - the new supreme body of power, the State Council of the USSR, headed by the President of the USSR Gorbachev, recognizes the independence of the Baltic Union Republics (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia).
• 1991, December - the heads of the three union republics: the RSFSR (Russian Federation), Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR) and the Republic of Belarus (BSSR) in Belovezhskaya Pushcha sign the "Agreement on the Creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States", which declares the termination of the existence of the USSR. On December 12, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR ratifies the agreement and denounces the treaty on the formation of the USSR in 1922.
• 1991 - December 25, M. S. Gorbachev resigns from the presidency of the USSR, by decree of the President of the RSFSR B. N. Yeltsin, the state of the RSFSR changed its name to "Russian Federation". However, it was enshrined in the constitution only in May 1992.
• 1991 - December 26, the upper house of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR legally liquidates the USSR.

M.S. Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye (Stavropol Territory) March 2, 1931 in a peasant family. Already in his school years he worked as a combine operator. He graduated from school in 1950 with a silver medal and entered the law faculty of Moscow State University. Soon he headed the Komsomol organization of the faculty. At Moscow State University, he met Raisa Titarenko, who in 1953 would become Raisa Gorbacheva.

Already during his student days, Gorbachev became a member of the CPSU, and after graduation (in 1955) he received the post of secretary of the Stavropol City Komsomol Committee. Until 1967, he held various leadership positions in the regional committee of the Komsomol. In the same period, he graduated from the Stavropol Agricultural Institute in absentia with a degree in economics and agronomy.

His party career turned out to be successful, and the high yields in the Stavropol Territory created a good reputation for him. In an effort to introduce more rational methods of agricultural labor, Gorbachev published articles in the regional and central press. Since 1978, the biography of Mikhail Gorbachev has been closely connected with Moscow. By that time he was already a member of the CPSU. As secretary of the Central Committee, he dealt with the problems of the country's agriculture.

Initially, his chances of obtaining the highest power in the country were not significant. But a series of deaths of influential party leaders in the first half of the 80s seriously increased them. Already during Chernenko's rule, Gorbachev began an active struggle for power, relying on the support of young leaders of local communist organizations and secretaries of the Central Committee (Ryzhkov, Ligachev), as well as influential members of the Politburo (Gromyko).

Gorbachev came to power in 1985. Later, he held other high posts in the USSR. Gorbachev's rule was marked by serious political reforms designed to put an end to stagnation. However, many of Gorbachev's reforms turned out to be insufficiently thought out. The most famous were such actions of the country's leadership as the introduction of cost accounting, acceleration, money exchange.

If the population of the country treated most of the reforms with a certain understanding, then the famous "dry law" of Gorbachev caused a sharp rejection of almost all citizens of the Union. Unfortunately, the decree "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness" had an absolutely opposite effect. Most of the liquor stores were closed. However, the practice of home brewing has spread almost everywhere. There was also fake vodka. Prohibition was abolished in 1987 due to economic reasons. However, fake vodka remained.

It was marked by a weakening of censorship and at the same time a deterioration in the standard of living of Soviet citizens. This happened due to ill-conceived domestic policy. The interethnic conflicts in Georgia, Baku, Nagorno-Karabakh also contributed to the growth of tension in society. The Baltic republics already during this period headed for secession from the Union.

Gorbachev's foreign policy, the so-called "policy of new thinking", contributed to the detente of the difficult international situation and the termination. In 1989, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev took the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, and in 1990 he became the first and last president of the USSR.

In 1990, Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize for having done much to ease international tensions. However, the country at that time was already in a deep crisis.

As a result of 1991, organized by the former supporters of Gorbachev, the USSR ceased to exist. Gorbachev resigned after the signing of the Belovezhskaya Accords. Subsequently, he continued his social activities, headed the Green Cross and Gorbachev Foundation organizations.

On May 22, 2012, information appeared on the Internet that Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev had died. However, the news of Gorbachev's death turned out to be, to put it mildly, greatly exaggerated. They were personally refuted by Mikhail Sergeevich, who at that time was on a planned hospitalization. Information about Gorbachev's funeral, posted on the English-language Wikipedia page, was removed shortly after it appeared.

GRANDSON OF THE ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE

ON THIS TOPIC

Mikhail Gorbachev was born in the Stavropol Territory into a peasant family. Both of his grandfathers were ranked among the enemies of the people by the Soviet authorities and were repressed. Paternal grandfather, Andrei Moiseevich Gorbachev, was a private peasant. For failure to fulfill the sowing plan in 1934, he was sent into exile in the Irkutsk region.

Maternal grandfather, Pantelei Efimovich Gopkalo, came from the peasants of the Chernigov province, later moved to the Stavropol Territory. He became the chairman of the collective farm, in 1937 he was convicted on charges of Trotskyism. He was saved from execution by a change in the party line and the February 1938 plenum, dedicated to the fight against excesses.

Interestingly, after the resignation and collapse of the USSR, the grandson of the repressed peasants said that the stories of his maternal grandfather served as one of the factors that led him to reject the Soviet regime.

FIVE MINUTES TO THE CHEKIST AND SCIENTIFIC WORKER

The life and political career of the future secretary general could have turned out quite differently: Mikhail Gorbachev could easily head the State Security Committee. Twice his candidacy was considered for transfer to work in the KGB. In 1966, he was offered the post of head of the department of the Stavropol Territory, but his candidacy was rejected by the then head of the department, Vladimir Semichastny.

In 1969, Yuri Andropov (he became the head of the KGB after Semichastny) considered Gorbachev as a possible candidate for the post of his deputy. But even then, the career ladder took Mikhail Sergeevich away from the most omnipotent department in the Union.

Gorbachev himself recalled that before being elected the first secretary of the regional committee of the Stavropol Territory in 1970, he had attempts to go into science. He even wrote a dissertation, which later became a report at the plenum of the agrarian sector of Stavropol. Gorbachev never regretted that he chose then politics, not science.

ACCUSED OF TREASON

A few days before his voluntary resignation in December 1991, a criminal case was initiated against Gorbachev under the article "Treason to the Motherland." This decision was made at his own peril and risk by the senior assistant to the USSR Prosecutor General Viktor Ilyukhin. He considered that the president of the USSR committed exactly this act when he officially recognized the independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in September 1991.

True, a few days later, Prosecutor General Nikolai Trubin closed the case due to the fact that the decision to recognize the independence of the Baltic republics was made not by the president personally, but by the State Council. Two days later, Ilyukhin was fired from the prosecutor's office, and a week later the Soviet Union ordered to live long. Gorbachev was accused of a heinous crime for only a few days, while remaining at large.

I DIGGED A PIT FOR MYSELF

As is known, Mikhail Gorbachev was forced to resign from the presidency of the USSR after the agreements on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States were signed in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in December 1991. One of the initiators of this action was none other than the President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin.

But it was Gorbachev who back in 1985, after consulting with his closest associate, Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Yegor Ligachev, against the advice of Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov, decided to appoint Boris Yeltsin as First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU.

BROKEN THE WALL

Mikhail Gorbachev played an important role in the unification of Germany. It was thanks to him that the Berlin Wall and the border between the GDR and the FRG disappeared. But few people know that the President of the USSR was the first Soviet leader in history to make a state visit to Italy and the Vatican.

The high-level talks were held in Rome in November 1989, and they finally drew a line under the period of mistrust and strained relations associated with Italy's participation in the Nazi coalition.

Gorbachev was received by Pope John Paul II. This and the next meeting a year later had a tremendous impact on the attitude of the communist secretary general to Christian values. Already on January 7, 1991, Orthodox Christmas was declared a public holiday in the USSR - a day off. It was under Gorbachev that the Soviet Union and the Vatican first established diplomatic relations and exchanged embassies.

LOVE STORY

A lot has been said and written about the love of Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife. The early death of Raisa Maksimovna became a huge grief. An incurable disease did its job - the first lady passed away in 1999. She died of leukemia at the age of 67.

Years later, Gorbachev spoke about his love for his wife: it was a romantic and touching story. The wedding of young and penniless students was played in a dietary canteen, now you will not meet such people anymore. They lived in a hostel, modestly and not richly.

The first pregnancy of the young wife of the future Secretary General of the Party ended tragically. At the insistence of doctors, Raisa Maksimovna had to have an abortion. It's all about an attack of acute rheumatism, which happened to her shortly before pregnancy. The son of Seryozha, whom the young dreamed of, was never born. But a few years later, a replenishment nevertheless occurred in the Gorbachev family: a daughter, Irina, was born.

HISTORY OF DECEIVATION

One interesting story is connected with the name of Mikhail Gorbachev. In the late 80s, a young and enterprising young man came to Moscow from Stavropol. He introduced himself everywhere as the nephew of the Secretary General and even showed a photograph in which he was captured with Mikhail Sergeyevich.

It turned out that the musician, the founder of the group "Tender May" thus made his way to money. No matter how they called him - Ostap Bender of our days, the great strategist of show business ... It is possible that it was the story of kinship with Mikhail Gorbachev invented by the future producer and politician that helped him achieve heights in his career.

And about the photo with the Secretary General, Razin told the whole truth a few years later. It turns out that when Mikhail Gorbachev came to his homeland, young Andryusha asked his friends to take a picture of him with the Moscow guest. So out of all this history, only the photo turned out to be real.

WHERE IS THE GOLD PARTY?

It is known that after Gorbachev's rule, the rich country was left with a huge debt, during his time in power, the gold reserves of the USSR decreased tenfold, and external public debt increased almost threefold. In this regard, in the 90s, a version of huge theft in the country's economy and the involvement of the Secretary General of the CPSU in them appeared in the press. They say that Gorbachev and his faithful friends stole and secretly exported the party's gold - the USSR's reserves in currency and jewelry. In total - 11 billion dollars.

But no matter how hot this topic, mostly invented by journalists, was, it remained one of the legends. Neither the investigating authorities nor independent researchers managed to get on the trail of the party's gold, which allegedly is still stored in foreign banks. By the way, in 1992, the ex-president of the USSR was interrogated by the investigator of the Prosecutor General's Office in the case of the finances of the CPSU, but this did not bring any result. So the assumptions of journalists that Mikhail Gorbachev became fabulously rich after resigning do not stand up to scrutiny.

Today, the only officially confirmed income of the ex-president of the USSR is his old-age pension, namely 40 minimum wages - 702,440 rubles, which is certainly higher than the average wages and pensions in the country.