Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev ruled. When Gorbachev became president of the USSR: date of election, time of rule, achievements and failures, resignation, receiving the Nobel Prize

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 education. He first graduated prestigious university 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, at the head of largest country 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, Aleksey Kosygin, the head of the government, a pragmatist, who sought to somehow, within the framework of the system, reformed the clumsy socialist economy. 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 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, in general civil society. 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.
- Ending 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.

Born March 2, 1931 in the village. Privolnoye, Krasnogvardeisky District, Stavropol Territory, in a peasant family. Father - Gorbachev Sergey Andreevich. Mother - Gorbacheva (nee Gopkalo) Maria Panteleevna. Wife - Gorbacheva (nee Titarenko) Raisa Maksimovna.

Daughter - Irina Mikhailovna, works in Moscow. Granddaughters - Ksenia and Anastasia.

Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov (1955) and the Faculty of Economics of the Stavropol Agricultural Institute (in absentia, 1967) as an agronomist-economist.

From the age of 13, he periodically combined his studies at school with work at the MTS and on the collective farm. From the age of 15 he worked as an assistant combine operator of a machine and tractor station. In 1952 he was admitted to the CPSU. From 1955 to 1991 - in the Komsomol and party work: 1955-1962. - Deputy Head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the Komsomol; first secretary of the Stavropol city committee of the Komsomol, second, then first secretary of the Stavropol regional committee of the Komsomol.

From March 1962 - party organizer of the regional committee of the CPSU of the Stavropol Territorial Production Collective Farm and State Farm Administration. Since 1963 - head of the department of party organs of the Stavropol rural regional committee of the CPSU, head of the department of party organs of the Stavropol regional committee of the CPSU. In September 1966 he was elected First Secretary of the Stavropol City Party Committee. Since August 1968 - the second, and since April 1970 - the first secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the CPSU.

In 1971-1991. - Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In November 1978 he was elected Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. From 1979 to 1980 - candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, from October 1980 to August 1991 - member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, from December 1989 to June 1990 - Chairman of the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU, from March 1985 to August 1991 - General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In connection with the August coup in 1991, he resigned.

He was elected a delegate to the XXII (1961), XXIV (1971) and all subsequent (1976, 1981, 1986, 1990) Congresses of the CPSU. In 1970-1989 - Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 8-11 convocations. Member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR - 1985-1988; Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR - 1988 (October) -1989 (May). Chairman of the Commission for Youth Affairs of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1974-1979); Chairman of the Commission for Legislative Proposals 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 - 1989 (March) -1990 (March); Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (formed by the Congress of People's Deputies) - 1989 (May) -1990 (March); Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR 10-11 convocations.

March 15, 1990 MS 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.

Best of the day

On December 25, 1991, MS Gorbachev spoke out against the dismemberment of the country and resigned as head of state. From January 1992 to the present - President of the International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (Gorbachev Foundation). Simultaneously since March 1993 - President of the International Green Cross.

An outstanding statesman and political figure, MS Gorbachev laid the foundation for perestroika, the reform of Soviet society and the improvement of the international situation. In recognition of his leading role in the peace process, which today characterizes an important part of the life of the international community, on October 15, 1990, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

He has also received many other prestigious foreign awards and prizes: the Indira Gandhi Prize for 1987 (presented on November 19, 1988, India), the Golden Dove for Peace Award for contribution to the cause of peace and disarmament (pacifist organization Italian Documentation Center for Disarmament and the National League of Cooperatives, Rome, November 1989), Peace Prize. Albert Einstein for his great contribution to the struggle for peace and understanding between peoples (Washington, June 1990), Honorary Prize "Historical Figure" of the influential religious organization of the United States - "Conscience Appeal Foundation" (Washington, June 1990), International Peace Prize Martin Luther King Jr. "For a World Without Violence 1991" for his outstanding role in the struggle for world peace and human rights (Washington, June 1990), Fiuggi International Prize (Fiuggi Foundation, operating in Italy ) as "a person whose activities in the political and public fields can serve as an exceptional example of the struggle for the assertion of human rights" (Italy, 1990), Benjamin M. Cardoso Prize for Democracy (Yeshiva University, New York, USA, 1992 d.), Sir Winston Churchill Prize in recognition of his contribution to peace in the Middle East (Great Britain, 1993), La Pleiade Prize (Piacenza, Italy, 1993), International Journalism and Literary Prize (Modena, Italy, 1993), Asso Hero of the Year Award citation of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in the province of Bologna (Italy, 1993), International Prize "Golden Pegasus" (Tuscany, Italy, 1994), Prize of the University of Genoa (Italy, 1995), King David Prize (USA, 1997 .), Baker Institute's Enron Award for Distinguished Public Service (Houston, USA, 1997), Politika Weekly Milestone Award (Poland, 1997), Budapest Club Award (Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1997), Comet Prize (Germany, 1998), Women's International Zionist Organization Prize (Miami, USA, 1998), National Freedom Award for the fight against oppression (Memphis, USA, 1998).

M.S. Gorbachev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Badge of Honor, medals, as well as numerous foreign awards, including: the Gold Commemorative Medal of Belgrade (Yugoslavia, March 1988), the Silver Medal Seimas of the PPR for outstanding contribution to the development and strengthening of international cooperation, friendship and interaction between the PPR and the USSR (Poland, July 1988), Commemorative medal of the Sorbonne (Paris, July 1989), Commemorative medal of the municipality of Rome (November 1989), Commemorative medal of the Vatican (December 1, 1989), "Franklin Delano Roosevelt Medal of Freedom" (Washington, June 1990), "Star of the Hero" of Ben-Gurion University (Israel, 1992), Gold Medal of the Athens National technical university"Prometheus" (Greece, 1993), Gold Medal of Thessaloniki (Greece, 1993), International Award to the Statesman of the "Philadelphia Council on World Affairs" (USA, 1993), Gold Badge of the University of Oviedo (Spain, 1994 d.), Order of the Association of Latin American Unity in Korea "Grand Cross of Simon Bolivar for Unity and Freedom" (Republic of Korea, 1994), Order of the Grand Cross of St. Agatha (San Marino, 1994), Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty ( Portugal, 1995), "Gates of Freedom" commemorative award in honor of the 10th anniversary of the granting to the Jews former USSR opportunities to emigrate freely (Israel Bonds, New York, 1998).

M.S. Gorbachev has the titles of Honorary Doctor humanities University of Virginia (USA, 1993) and Honorary Doctorate in Leadership from the Jepson School of Leadership (Richmond, USA, 1993), honorary degrees: Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain, Madrid, October 1990), Complutense University (Spain, Madrid , October 1990), University of Buenos Aires (Argentina, 1992), Cuyo University (Mendoza, Argentina 1992), C. Mendez University (Brazil, 1992), University of Chile (Chile, 1992), Anahuac University (Mexico, 1992) .), Bar-Ilyan University (Israel, 1992), Ben-Gurion University (Israel, 1992), Emory University (Atlanta, USA, 1992), Pandion University (Piraeus, Greece, 1993), Institute international law and International Relations at the Aristotle University (Thessaloniki, Greece, 1993), Faculty of Law of the Aristotle University (Thessaloniki, Greece, 1993), University of Bristol (England, 1993), University of Calgary (Canada, 1993), Carleton University (Canada, 1993) .), Soka Gakkai International (pres. Ikeda) (Japan, 1993), Kung Khi University (Republic of Korea, 1995), Durnham University (England, 1995), Modern University of Lisbon (Portugal, 1995), University Soka (Japan, 1997), University of Tromso (Norway, 1998), as well as an Honorary Citizen of the cities: Berlin (Germany, 1992), Aberdeen (Great Britain, 1993), Piraeus (Greece, 1993), Florence ( Italy, 1994), Sesto San Giovanni (Italy, 1995), Kardamyla (Chios Island, Greece, 1995), El Paso (key to the city) (USA, 1998).

He is the author of the books: "A Time for Peace" (1985), "The Coming Century of Peace" (1986), "Peace has no Alternative" (1986), "Moratorium" (1986), " Selected speeches and articles" (vols. 1-7, 1986-1990), "Perestroika: new thinking for our country and for the whole world" (1987), "August putsch. Causes and consequences" (1991). ), "December-91. My position" (1992), "Years of difficult decisions" (1993), "Life and reforms" (2 volumes, 1995), "Reformers are not happy" (dialogue with Zdenek Mlynar, in Czech, 1995), "I want to warn ..." (1996), "Moral lessons of the twentieth century" in 2 vols. (dialogue with D. Ikeda, in Japanese, German, French lang., 1996), "Reflections on the October Revolution" (1997), "New thinking. Politics in the era of globalization" (co-authored with V. Zagladin and A. Chernyaev, in German. lang., 1997 ), "Reflections on the Past and the Future" (1998) and numerous other publications in scientific collections and periodicals.

Lives and works in Moscow.

Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich

Date of Birth: 2 March 1931. Place of Birth: Privolnoye, Krasnogvardeisky Dist., Stavropol Terrytory, Russia

Profession: politician

Married on: 09/25/1953. To: Raisa Titarenko (now Gorbacheva)

Number of Children: one. Daughter: Irina

Details of Education: Faculty of Law, Moscow State Univ. 1955, Stavropol Agric. Inst. 1967;

Career to Date: machine operator 1946; joined CPSU 1952; Deputy Head, Dept. of Propaganda Stavropol Komsomol Territorial Cttee. 1955-56; First Sec. Stavropol Komsomol City Cttee. 1956-58; Second, then First Sec. Komsomol Territorial Cttee. 1958-62; Party Organizer, Stavropol Territorial Production Bd. of Collective and State farms 1962; Head Dept. of party bodies of CPSU Territorial Cttee. 1963-66; First Sec. Stavropol City Party Cttee. 1966-68; Second Sec. Stavropol Territorial CPSU Cttee. 1968-70 First Sec. 1970-78; mem. CPSU Cen. Cttee. 1971-91, Sec. 1978-85, alt. mem. Political Bureau CPSU, Cen. Cttee. 1979-80 mem. 1980-91 Gen. Sec. CPSU Cen. Cttee. 1985-91; del. to CPSU Congresses 1961, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1990;

Deputy Supreme Soviet of USSR. 1970-89 (Chair. Foreign Affairs Comm., Soviet of the Union 1984-85), mem. Presidium 1985-88, Chair. 1988-89; Deputy Supreme Soviet of RSFSR. 1980-1990; elected to the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. 1989 Chair. Supreme Soviet 1989-90; Pres. of USSR. 1990-91, Chair Defense Council;

Head Int. Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies, 1992-; Head Int. Green Cross 1993-;

Publications: A Time for Peace 1985, The Coming Century of Peace 1986, Speeches and Writings (7 vol.) 1986-90, Peace has no Alternative 1986, Moratorium 1986, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World 1987, The August Coup (Its Cause and Results) 1991, December-91. My stand 1992, The Years of Hard Decisions 1993, Life and Reforms 1995, Reflections on the past and the Future 1998, Moscow (in Russian) etc.

Honors and Awards: Nobel Peace Prize 1990; recipient Indira Gandhi award, 1987, Peace award World Meth. Coun., 1990, Albert Schweitzer Leadership Award, Ronald Reagan Freedom Award 1992, Hon. Citizen of Berlin 1992; Freeman of Aberdeen 1993; etc., more than 40.

Order of Lenin (three times), Orders of Red Banner of Labor, Badge of Honor and other medals (USSR).

Honorary Degrees: more than 30 Universities.

Hobbies and Interests: theatre, music, cinema, strolls.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. Born March 2, 1931 in the village. Privolnoye (North Caucasian Territory). Soviet, Russian state, political and public figure. The last General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The last Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, then the first Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The only President of the USSR.

Founder of the Gorbachev Foundation. Since 1993, co-founder of ZAO Novaya Daily Gazeta (see Novaya Gazeta). Member of the editorial board since 1993.

He has a number of awards and honorary titles, the most famous of which is the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize. Included in the list of 100 most studied personalities in history.

During the period of Gorbachev's activity as head of state and head of the CPSU in the Soviet Union, there were serious changes that affected the whole world, which were the result of the following events:

A large-scale attempt to reform the Soviet system ("Perestroika"). Introduction to the USSR of the policy of glasnost, freedom of speech and press, democratic elections.
End of the Cold War.
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 the socialist countries of Eastern Europe to a market economy and democracy.

Born on March 2, 1931 in the village of Privolnoye, Medvedensky District, Stavropol Territory (then the North Caucasian Territory), into a peasant family. Father - Sergey Andreevich Gorbachev (1909-1976), Russian.

Mother - Gopkalo Maria Panteleevna (1911-1993), Ukrainian.

Both grandfathers of M. S. Gorbachev were repressed in the 1930s. Paternal grandfather, Andrei Moiseevich Gorbachev (1890--1962), a peasant-individualist; for failure to fulfill the sowing plan in 1934, he was sent into exile in the Irkutsk region, released two years later, returned to his homeland and joined the collective farm, where he worked until the end of his life.

Maternal grandfather, Pantelei Efimovich Gopkalo (1894-1953), came from the peasants of the Chernigov province, was the eldest of five children, lost his father at the age of 13, and later moved to Stavropol. He became the chairman of the collective farm, in 1937 he was arrested on charges of Trotskyism. While under investigation, he spent 14 months in prison, endured torture and abuse. Panteley Efimovich was saved from execution by a change in the “party line”, the February 1938 plenum, dedicated to the “fight against excesses”. As a result, in September 1938, the head of the GPU of the Krasnogvardeisky district shot himself, and Pantelei Efimovich was acquitted and released. Already after the resignation and collapse of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev stated that the stories of his grandfather served as one of the factors that led him to reject the Soviet regime.

During the war, when Mikhail was more than 10 years old, his father went to the front. After some time, German troops entered the village, the family spent more than five months in the occupation. On January 21-22, 1943, these areas were liberated by Soviet troops with a blow from under Ordzhonikidze. After his release, a notice came that his father had died. And a few days later a letter came from my father, it turned out that he was alive, the funeral was sent by mistake. Sergey Andreevich Gorbachev was awarded two orders of the Red Star and the medal "For Courage". Then the father supported Mikhail more than once in difficult moments of his life.

From the age of 13, he combined his studies at school with occasional work at the MTS and on the collective farm. From the age of 15 he worked as an assistant to the MTS combine operator. In 1949, the schoolboy Gorbachev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for shock work in grain harvesting. In the tenth grade, at the age of 19, he became a candidate member of the CPSU, recommendations were given by the director and teachers of the school. In 1950 he graduated from high school with a silver medal and entered Lomonosov Moscow State University without exams, this opportunity was provided by a government award. In 1952 he was admitted to the CPSU. After graduating with honors from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University in 1955, he was sent to Stavropol to the regional prosecutor's office, worked for 10 days by distribution - from August 5 to August 15, 1955. On his own initiative, he was invited to free Komsomol work, became deputy head of the Department of Agitation and Propaganda of the Stavropol Territory Komsomol Committee, from 1956 the first secretary of the Stavropol City Komsomol Committee, then from 1958 the second and in 1961-1962. the first secretary of the regional committee of the Komsomol.

While studying at Moscow State University, he met and on September 25, 1953 married Raisa Maksimovna Titarenko, a student at the Faculty of Philosophy (1932-1999). The wedding was played in the dining room of the student hostel on Stromynka.

Since March 1962, the party organizer of the regional committee of the CPSU of the Stavropol Territorial Production Collective Farm and State Farm Administration. In October 1961 - a delegate to the XXII Congress of the CPSU. Since 1963 - head of the department of party bodies of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the CPSU. F.D. Kulakov, who left the Stavropol region from the post of the first secretary of the regional party committee in 1964, called M.S. Gorbachev among the promising party workers. And although Efremov did not like him, there were strong recommendations from Moscow about his promotion.

September 26, 1966 Mikhail Gorbachev was elected First Secretary of the Stavropol City Committee of the CPSU. In the same year, he traveled abroad for the first time, to the GDR. In 1967, he graduated in absentia from the Faculty of Economics of the Stavropol Agricultural Institute with a degree in agronomist-economist.

Twice Gorbachev's candidacy was considered for a job in the KGB. In 1966, he was offered the post of head of the KGB department of the Stavropol Territory, but his candidacy was rejected by Vladimir Semichastny. In 1969, he considered Gorbachev as a possible candidate for the post of deputy chairman of the KGB of the USSR.

Gorbachev himself recalled that before being elected first secretary of the regional committee, he "had attempts to go into science ... I passed the minimum, wrote a dissertation."

Since August 5, 1968, the second secretary, since April 10, 1970 - the first secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the CPSU. His predecessor in this position, Leonid Efremov, argued that Gorbachev's promotion was at the insistence of Moscow, although Efremov found it possible to nominate him as his successor.

Deputy of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 9-11 convocations (1974-1989) from the Stavropol Territory. Until 1974, he was a member of the Commission of the Council of the Union for Nature Protection, then from 1974 to 1979 - Chairman of the Commission for Youth Affairs of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

In 1973, a candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Pyotr Demichev made him an offer to head the Propaganda Department of the CPSU Central Committee, where Alexander Yakovlev was acting head for several years. After consulting with Mikhail Suslov, Gorbachev refused.

According to the former chairman of the State Planning Committee, Nikolai Baibakov, he offered Gorbachev the post of his deputy for agriculture.

After the removal of Politburo member Dmitry Polyansky from the post of Minister of Agriculture of the USSR (1976), Gorbachev's mentor Fyodor Kulakov spoke about the post of Minister of Agriculture of the USSR, but Valentin Mesyats was appointed minister.

The administrative department of the CPSU Central Committee proposed Gorbachev to the post of Prosecutor General of the USSR instead of Roman Rudenko, but his candidacy for the future Secretary General was rejected by the Politburo member, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Andrei Kirilenko.

In 1971-1991 he was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. According to Gorbachev himself, he was patronized by Yuri Andropov, who contributed to his transfer to Moscow, according to independent estimates, Mikhail Suslov and Andrei Gromyko were more sympathetic to Gorbachev.

September 17, 1978 at the station Mineral water The North Caucasian Railway held the so-called “meeting of the four general secretaries”, which later gained some fame - Konstantin Chernenko, who was traveling to Baku and accompanying him, met with Mikhail Gorbachev, as the “master” of the Stavropol Territory, and Yuri Andropov, who was on vacation there at the same time. Historians emphasize that 47-year-old Mikhail Gorbachev was the youngest party functionary, whose candidacy Brezhnev approved as Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Gorbachev himself mentioned several of his meetings with Brezhnev even before moving to Moscow.

As Yevgeny Chazov testified, in a conversation with him after the death of F.D. Kulakov in 1978, Brezhnev "began to sort out from memory possible candidates for the vacant seat of Secretary of the Central Committee and was the first to name Gorbachev."

On November 27, 1978, at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, he was elected Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. December 6, 1978 moved with his family to Moscow. From November 27, 1979 to October 21, 1980 - candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Chairman of the Commission for Legislative Proposals of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1979-84.

From October 21, 1980 to August 24, 1991 - Member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, from December 9, 1989 to June 19, 1990 - Chairman of the Russian Bureau of the CPSU Central Committee, from March 11, 1985 to August 24, 1991 - General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. After the death of K. U. Chernenko, Gorbachev was nominated for the post of General Secretary at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU on March 11, 1985 by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR A.A. Gromyko, and Andrei Andreevich attributed this to his personal initiative. In the memoirs of the First Deputy Chairman of the KGB of the USSR F.D. Bobkov, it is mentioned that back in early 1985, due to Chernenko's illness, Gorbachev chaired the Politburo, from which the author concludes that Mikhail Sergeevich was already the second person in the state and successor to the post of general secretary.

On October 1, 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev took the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, that is, he began to combine the highest positions in the party and state hierarchy.

He was elected a delegate to the XXII (1961), XXIV (1971) and all subsequent (1976, 1981, 1986, 1990) Congresses of the CPSU. From 1970 to 1989 - Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from July 2, 1985 to October 1, 1988. Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (October 1, 1988 - May 25, 1989). Chairman of the Commission for Youth Affairs of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1974-79); Chairman of the Commission for Legislative Proposals of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1979-84); People's Deputy of the USSR from the CPSU - 1989 (March) - 1990 (March); Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (formed by the Congress of People's Deputies) - 1989 (May) - 1990 (March); Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1980-1990).

On March 15, 1990, at the Third Extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, 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. Reserve colonel.

During the events of August 1991, the head of the State Emergency Committee, Vice-President of the USSR Gennady Yanaev announced his assumption of office and. about. President, citing Gorbachev's illness. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR declared this decision the actual removal of Gorbachev from power and demanded that it be canceled. According to Gorbachev himself and those who were with him, he was isolated in Foros (according to the statements of some former members of the State Emergency Committee, their accomplices and lawyers, there was no isolation). After the self-dissolution of the GKChP and the arrest of its former members, Gorbachev returned from Foros to Moscow, upon his return he said about his "imprisonment": "Keep in mind, no one will know the real truth." On August 24, 1991, he announced the resignation of the General Secretary of the Central Committee. In November 1991 Gorbachev left the CPSU.

On November 4, 1991, Viktor Ilyukhin, Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General of the USSR, Head of the Department of the USSR Prosecutor General's Office for Supervision of the Execution of Laws on State Security, initiated a criminal case against Gorbachev under Article 64 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (Treason to the Motherland) in connection with his signing of resolutions of the USSR State Council dated 6 September 1991 on the recognition of the independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. As a result of the adoption of these resolutions, the USSR Law of April 3, 1990 "On the procedure for resolving issues related to the secession of a union republic from the USSR" was violated, since in these republics no referendums were held on secession from the USSR and no transitional period for consideration of all contentious issues. The Prosecutor General of the USSR 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.

After the signing by the presidents of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR and L. Kravchuk and the chairman of the Supreme Council of the Byelorussian SSR S. Shushkevich on December 8, 1991, the Belovezhskaya Agreement on the termination of the existence of the USSR and the creation of the CIS, Gorbachev 17 days later in a televised address to the people announced the termination of his activities in office President of the USSR and signed a decree on the transfer of control of the strategic nuclear weapons Russian President Boris Yeltsin. After that, the state flag of the USSR was lowered over the Kremlin.

On the day of the signing of the Belovezhskaya Pact, Gorbachev met with Vice-President of the RSFSR Alexander Rutskoi. Rutskoi persuaded the President of the USSR to arrest Yeltsin, Shushkevich and Kravchuk. Gorbachev languidly objected to Rutskoi: “Don't panic… The agreement has no legal basis… They will arrive, we will gather in Novo-Ogaryovo. By the New Year there will be a Union Treaty!

The day after the signing of the agreement, the President of the USSR M.S. Gorbachev made a statement saying that each union republic has the right to secede from the Union, but the fate of a multinational state cannot be determined by the will of the leaders of the three republics. This question must be decided only by constitutional means, with the participation of all the union republics and taking into account the will of their peoples. It also talks about the need to convene a Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR.

On December 18, in his message to the participants of the meeting in Alma-Ata on the formation of the CIS, Gorbachev proposed calling the CIS the "Commonwealth of European and Asian States" (SEAG). He also suggested that after the ratification of the agreement on the creation of the CIS by all the union republics (except the Baltic ones), the final meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR would be held, which would adopt its resolution on the termination of the existence of the Soviet Union and the transfer of all its legal rights and obligations to the commonwealth of European and Asian states .

On December 21, 1991, by decision of the Council of Heads of State of the CIS, the outgoing President of the USSR received lifelong benefits: a special pension, medical care for the whole family, personal protection, a state dacha, and a personal car was assigned to him. The solution of these issues was entrusted to the Government of the RSFSR.

Activities of Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and President of the USSR:

Being at the pinnacle of power, Gorbachev in January 1987 at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU launched the policy of "perestroika", in the development of which he carried out numerous reforms and campaigns, which later led to a market economy, free elections, the destruction of the monopoly power of the CPSU and the collapse of the USSR.

Acceleration- the slogan put forward on April 20, 1985, associated with promises to dramatically increase the industry and the well-being of the people in a short time; the campaign led to an accelerated retirement of production capacity, contributed to the start of the cooperative movement and prepared the way for perestroika.

Anti-alcohol campaign in the USSR, launched on May 17, 1985, led to a 45% increase in prices for alcoholic drinks, reducing the production of alcohol, cutting down vineyards, the disappearance of sugar in stores due to home brewing and the introduction of cards for sugar, but also an increase in life expectancy among the population, a decrease in the level of crimes committed on the basis of alcoholism. The authors of the idea were Yegor Ligachev and Mikhail Solomentsev, whom Gorbachev actively supported. According to Nikolai Ryzhkov, Chairman of the USSR Government, the country lost 62 billion Soviet rubles in the "struggle for sobriety".

In December 1985, Gorbachev, after consulting with his closest associate, Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU E. K. Ligachev, against the advice of Prime Minister N. I. Ryzhkov, decided to appoint B. N. Yeltsin as the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU.

On April 8, 1986, Gorbachev visited Tolyatti, where he visited the Volga Automobile Plant. The result of this visit was the decision to establish a research and production enterprise on the basis of the flagship of the domestic engineering industry - the branch scientific and technical center (STC) of OJSC AVTOVAZ, which was a significant event in the Soviet automobile industry. At his speech in Togliatti, Gorbachev for the first time distinctly pronounces the word "perestroika", this was picked up by the media and became the slogan of the new era that had begun in the USSR.

On May 1, 1986, after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, at the direction of Gorbachev, in order to prevent panic among the population, May Day demonstrations were held in Kyiv, Minsk and other cities of the republics with a risk to the health of those present.

On May 15, 1986, a campaign began to intensify the fight against unearned income, which was understood locally as a fight against tutors, flower sellers, chauffeurs who gave passengers a lift, and sellers of homemade bread in Central Asia. The campaign was soon curtailed in connection with the introduction of the first elements of a market economy in the USSR.

November 19, 1986 is published Law of the USSR "On individual labor activity"(according to the law - “socially useful activity of citizens in the production of goods and the provision of paid services, not related to their labor relations with state, cooperative, other public enterprises, institutions, organizations and citizens, as well as intra-collective farm labor relations"), for the first time in decades, securing the right of citizens of the USSR to private entrepreneurship (in small forms) and giving such a legislative regulation.

Return at the end of 1986 from political exile of the Soviet scientist and dissident, Nobel Prize winner A. D. Sakharov, the termination of criminal prosecution for dissent.

Transfer of enterprises to self-support, self-sufficiency, self-financing- the introduction of the first elements of a market economy in the USSR, the widespread introduction of cooperatives - the forerunners of private enterprises, the removal of restrictions on foreign exchange transactions.

Perestroika with alternating indecisive and drastic measures and countermeasures to introduce or limit the market economy and democracy.

In January 1987, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which discussed the responsibility of senior party cadres, the first sharp public conflict between Gorbachev and Yeltsin took place. Since that time, Gorbachev has been regularly criticized by Yeltsin, and the confrontation between the two leaders begins.

The reform of power, the introduction of elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and local Soviets on an alternative basis.

Personnel changes in the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the resignation of many party functionaries of advanced age (1988). In 1989, more than 100 members of the Central Committee of the CPSU were retired by Gorbachev.

Publicity, the actual removal of party censorship on the media and cultural works. Posthumous cancellation in September 1989 of the awarding of L. I. Brezhnev with the Order of Victory - as contrary to the status of the order.

Tough measures to localize national conflicts, in particular, the dispersal of a youth rally in Alma-Ata, the entry of troops into Azerbaijan, the dispersal of a demonstration in Georgia on April 9, 1989, the beginning of a long-term conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh (1988), countering the separatist aspirations of the Baltic republics, and then recognition on September 6, 1991 of their independence from the USSR.

Disappearance of products from stores, hidden inflation, the introduction of a rationing system for many types of food in 1989. The period of Gorbachev's rule is characterized by the washing out of goods from stores, as a result of pumping the economy with non-cash rubles, and subsequently hyperinflation.

Under Gorbachev, the external debt of the Soviet Union continued to grow. Approximate data are as follows: 1985, external debt - $31.3 billion; 1991, external debt - $70.3 billion.

The reform of the CPSU, which led to the formation of several political platforms within it, and in the future - the abolition of the one-party system and the removal of the constitutional status of "leading and guiding force" from the CPSU.

Rehabilitation of victims of Stalinist repressions who were not rehabilitated earlier under.

The weakening of control over the socialist camp (the Sinatra doctrine), which led, in particular, to a change of power in most socialist countries, the unification of Germany in 1990, the end of the Cold War (the latter in the United States is usually regarded as a victory for the American bloc.

The introduction of Soviet troops into Baku on the night of January 19-20, 1990, against the Popular Front of Azerbaijan. More than 130 dead, including women and children.

Revival since January 7, 1991 of the tradition of celebrating Orthodox Christmas at the state level, declaring it a non-working day.

During the years of his reign, Gorbachev put forward a number of peace initiatives and proclaimed a policy "new thinking" in international affairs. The government of the USSR unilaterally declared a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing. However, such initiatives of the Soviet leadership were sometimes regarded by Western partners as a sign of weakness and were not accompanied by reciprocal steps. Thus, with the abolition of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, the opposing NATO bloc not only continued its activities, but also advanced its borders far to the east, to the borders of Russia.

Mikhail Gorbachev's family:

Wife - (nee Titarenko), died in 1999 from leukemia. She has lived and worked in Moscow for over 30 years. As Mikhail Sergeyevich said in an interview for the press in September 2014, Raisa Maksimovna’s first pregnancy in 1954, back in Moscow, due to heart complications after suffering rheumatism, doctors, with his consent, were forced to interrupt artificially; the student spouses lost the boy whom Gorbachev wanted to name Sergei. In 1955, the Gorbachevs, having completed their studies, moved to the Stavropol Territory, where Raisa felt better with a change in climate, and soon the couple had a daughter.

Granddaughters: Ksenia Anatolyevna Virganskaya-Gorbacheva (January 21, 1980) First husband - Kirill Solod, son of a businessman (1982), got married on April 30, 2003. The second husband, Dmitry Pyrchenkov (former concert director of singer Abraham Russo), got married in 2009. Great-granddaughter - Alexandra Pyrchenkova (October 22, 2008).

Anastasia Anatolyevna Virganskaya (March 27, 1987) - a graduate of the journalism faculty of MGIMO, works as chief editor on the Trendspace.ru website, husband Dmitry Zangiev (1987), got married on March 20, 2010. Dmitry graduated from the Eastern University at the Russian Academy of Sciences, studied in 2010 in graduate school Russian Academy civil service under the President of the Russian Federation, worked in 2010 in an advertising agency.

Brother - Alexander Sergeyevich Gorbachev (September 7, 1947 - December 15, 2001) - military man, graduated from the Higher Military School in Leningrad. He served in the strategic missile forces, retired with the rank of colonel.

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 them. 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, occurred 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 the union republics announced 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 Rus'.
• 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 - new supreme body The State Council of the USSR, headed by Soviet President 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.

Mikhail Gorbachev is a statesman and public figure of the 20th century who entered the political world during the Soviet era. He became the first and only president of the USSR, the results of whose activities left a deep mark on Russian history, and also became important factors in the development of the rest of the world. The assessment of Gorbachev's role in the fate of the country in society is ambiguous - some believe that he brought the people more good than harm, while others are sure that the politician caused all the troubles of modern Russia after the collapse of the USSR.

Childhood and youth

Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeevich was born on March 2, 1931 in the Stavropol village of Privolnoye. Father Sergei Andreevich and mother Maria Panteleevna (Ukrainian by nationality) were peasants, so the childhood of the future president of the USSR passed without wealth and luxury. In his early years, young Mikhail had to endure the German occupation of Stavropol, which left an imprint on his character and political position in the future.

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Mikhail Gorbachev in his youth

At the age of 13, Gorbachev began to combine his studies at school with work on a collective farm: first he worked at a mechanical and tractor station, and later became an assistant combine operator, whose duties were extremely difficult for a teenager. For this work, Mikhail Sergeevich was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1949, which he received for overfulfilling the grain harvesting plan.

The following year, Gorbachev graduated from a local school with a silver medal and entered the law faculty of Moscow State University without any problems. At the university, the future politician headed the Komsomol organization of students, where he was charged with the spirit of freethinking, which influenced his future worldview. In 1952, Mikhail was accepted as a member of the CPSU, and 3 years later, after successfully graduating from the university, Gorbachev received the post of first secretary of the city committee of the Komsomol of Stavropol.

Policy

The political career of Mikhail Gorbachev developed rapidly. In 1962, he was appointed to the post of party organizer of the Stavropol Territorial Production Agricultural Administration, in which Gorbachev earned a reputation as a promising politician during the reforms of the then Soviet head Nikita Khrushchev.

Politician Mikhail Gorbachev

Gorbachev did not have special charisma or memorable external data (a man has an average height of 175 cm), so he made his way only with skills and working qualities.

On the background good harvests in Stavropol, Mikhail Sergeevich established himself as a leading expert in the field of agriculture, which subsequently allowed him to become the ideologist of the CPSU on the development of this area.

In 1974, Gorbachev was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, where he headed the commission on youth problems. In 1978, the politician was transferred to Moscow and appointed secretary of the Central Committee, which was initiated by the former leader of the USSR Yuri Andropov, who considered Mikhail Sergeyevich an unusually highly educated and experienced specialist.

In 1980, Gorbachev joined the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Numerous reforms in the market economy and in the political system fell under his leadership. In 1984, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the politician read out the report “The Living Creativity of the People”, which became the so-called “prelude” to the restructuring of the country. The report was received with optimism by Gorbachev's colleagues and the Soviet people.

General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU

Having won support and creating for himself the image of a global reformer, Mikhail Sergeevich was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1985, after which the global process of democratization of society began in the USSR, later called perestroika.

Having become the leader of the second most powerful power in the world, Mikhail Gorbachev began to pull out the country that had fallen into stagnation. Without a clearly defined plan, the politician made a number of changes in the foreign and domestic policy of the Soviet Union, which eventually led to the collapse of the state.

General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Mikhail Gorbachev

On account of Gorbachev's "prohibition", the exchange of money, the introduction of self-support, the end of the war in Afghanistan, the end of the long-term cold war with the West and the weakening of the nuclear threat. Also, by the hands of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, who then had full power over the country, the USSR liberalized society and weakened censorship, which allowed Gorbachev to gain popularity among the population, with whom the politician for the first time in the history of the Soviet state communicated in a free, and not in a “reigning” style. .

First President

The main mistake in Gorbachev's policy was the inconsistency in the implementation of economic reforms in the USSR, which led to a sharp deepening of the crisis in the country, as well as to a decrease in the standard of living of citizens. In the same period, the Baltic republics took a course towards estrangement from the Union, which did not prevent the Soviet leader from becoming the first and only president of the USSR, whom Gorbachev was elected in 1990 in accordance with the country's amended legislation.

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Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Gorbachev

However, the weakening of control over society led to dual power in the Soviet Union, a wave of strikes swept the country, and the economic crisis led to total shortages and empty shelves on store shelves. During that period, the 10th part of the country's gold reserves was "eaten", the situation in the USSR was close to a critical point. Mikhail Sergeevich could not prevent the collapse of the Union and his own resignation from the presidency.

In August 1991, Gorbachev's allies, which included a number of Soviet ministers, announced the creation of the GKChP (State Committee for the State of Emergency) and demanded that Mikhail Sergeevich resign. Gorbachev did not accept these demands, provoking an armed coup d'état in the country, known as the August coup.

Read also Gorbachev himself could stand behind the GKChP - media

Then the GKChP was resisted by the political leaders of the RSFSR, which included the then president of the republic, and Ivan Silaev. In December 1991, 11 union republics signed the Belovezhskaya agreement on the creation of the CIS, which became evidence of the termination of the existence of the USSR, despite the objections of Mikhail Sergeevich. After that, Gorbachev resigned and withdrew from politics.