Russia: 1981-1990

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet

Union following the short stints in power of Andropov and Chernenko. For a chronology of events that ocurred while Gorbachev was in power, click here.

Gorbachev's main objective was to revive the stagnating Russian economy. He initiated a series of reforms called perestroika which included modest attempts to democratize the political system and the limited introduction of free-market mechanisms into the economy. Another series of reforms, glasnost, involved a "cultural thaw" and allowed more freedom of speech and the press.

Gorbachev pursued better relations with the West than did his predecessors, signing several treaties on nuclear weapons. He was Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1987. In 1989 Gorbachev supported the reformist Communist governments in Eastern Europe and acquiesced in their fall. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1990. For a glimpse of the Russian reaction to this event, click here.

On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned his presidency of the USSR and it ceased to exist that very day. Gorbachev has remained fairly active, running for president and even appearing in a Pizza Hut ad. He remains popular in the West, but less so in Russia.