Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev was born on, no doubt, a cold rainy (or snowy) day in Stavropol, Soviet Union.  Gorbachev entered this world on March 2, 1931.  Gorbachev was baptized in to the Russian Orthodox faith as a child, but this faith would not stick with him.  Gorbachev as a child loved the power of the political figures in the Soviet Union. Because of this he chose to try is hand at being a [lawyer], because to one must be able to understand the law to write the law.  Gorbachev entered Moscow University in 1952 and decided to study law.  Not only was he studding law, he was studding the ladies; this is where he picked up his wife [Raisa Maximovna].  This strong and smart woman helped to propel Mikhail to the top.  Mikhail and Raisa married in the September of 1953. 

Mikhail was very successful in law school and graduated in 1955.  Mikhail continued on in school and graduated from the Agricultural Institute as an agronomist-economist in 1970.  This lead to a [CPSU] appointment as First Secretary for Agriculture; a year later got him on the Central Committee.  Mikhail was a fast political climber, in 1974 he was appointed to the Supreme Soviet, very much similar to the United States Supreme Court.  In 1979, he moved up even more to the Politburo, the highest ranking political party in the Soviet Union.  There he became friends with the head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov.  Mikhail was very smart to befriend Andropov; Andropov was the leader of the CPSU and this helped Mikhail to be promoted very quickly. 

In 1985, Mikhail’s life would change.  Mikhail was promoted to the General Secretary of the Communist Party.  This position made him the ruler of the Soviet Union.  Mikhail knew that the Soviet Union was going nowhere fast, so he decided to make some drastic reforms.  Mikhail implemented the [Law Of Cooperatives], glasnost (which gave greater freedoms), and better foreign affairs. 

In 1986, Mikhail met with United States President Ronald Reagan to discuss the abandoning of making intermediate range nuclear weapons.  This led to the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in in 1987.  Mikhail also allowed the eastern bloc nations to pursure democracy freely if they wished; this was named the Sinatra Doctrine.  Though these dramatic events the Cold War was ended in 1990.  These act of peace between the United States and the Soviet Union led to Mikhail receiving the [Nobel Peace Prize] in 1990.

With Feedom comes chaos.  By giving citizen of the Soviet Union more freedoms, power was taken away from the CPSU and Mikhail.  In 1990, Gorbachev was elected as the first president of the Soviet Union.  During 1991 there was a uprising in which Gorbachev was acctually put on house arrest and taken out of power.  This was the first sign that Gorbachev was not the one to lead the Soviet Union into the next century.  He was restored to power in only 3 days, but he noticed that the Soviets’ favor had moved to Boris Yeltsin.  In December of 1991 Gorbachev steped down as President of the Soviet Union. 

To this day Gorbachev is very active in Russian politics.  He established the Social Democratic Party of Russia.  Gorbachev also spoke out about current President Putin’s action of taking away some of the democratic rights of Russians. 

Who can mention Mikhail Gorbachev without talking about the [birthmark] on his head! It is unusually large....