1931-, Soviet political leader, last president of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), member of the Politburo.
He became General secretary of the Communist party in 1985, he was elected president of the USSR in 1988 and to a new, more powerful presidency in 1989. Confronted with deteriorating economic conditions, Gorbachev introduced policies glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). Vastly improved relations with the West. Ended interference in East European nations. His final stroke was to move the USSR from Socialism to a sort of fledgling Democracy. In the end, one of the greatest leaders this century.
In 1987 he was declared Time Magazine Man of the Year. Then in 1989, he was declared Time Magazine's Person of the Decade.
In November 1989, The Velvet Revolution took place in Czechoslovakia. In December, he took part in the "Yalta Summit". You can read the results of this by going to Transcript of the Malta Summit: U.S. and U.S.S.R.
In 1990 he won the Nobel Prize in Peace for his role in ending the Cold War, Everything Quests: The Nobel Prize winners.
In July of 1991, he signed Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START I) along with George Bush, Sr.
On Christmas, 1991, he dissolved the USSR and gave Gorbachev's 'Address to the Soviet Citizens' and resigned as leader of the Russian Communist Party.
Source:
http://www.mikhailgorbachev.org/
Last Updated 01.15.03