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Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the former Soviet Union, has passed away

Politiko 2022-08-31 08:34:31

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the former Soviet Union, has passed

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last former president of the Soviet Union to bring a peaceful end to the Cold War, has died aged 91.

Gorbachev, who took power in 1985, opened the Soviet Union to the world and introduced a series of reforms to the country. But he was unable to prevent the slow collapse of the Soviet Union, from which modern Russia emerged.

The hospital in Moscow where he died said he suffered from a long and serious illness, the BBC reports .

In recent years his health has deteriorated. In June, international media reported that he was suffering from kidney disease, but the cause of his death has not been released.

Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and de facto leader of the country in 1985.

At the time, he was 54 - the youngest member of the governing council known as the Politburo, and was seen as a breath of fresh air behind some older leaders. His predecessor, Konstantin Chernenko, had died aged 73 after just over a year in office.

Few leaders have had such a profound impact on the global order, but Gorbachev did not come to power seeking to end Soviet control over Eastern Europe. Rather, he hoped to revitalize its society.

The Soviet economy had been struggling to keep up with the US for years, and his Perestroika policy attempted to introduce some market-like reforms to the state-run system.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 "for the leading role he played in the radical changes in East-West relations".

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