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Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: Михаи́л Серге́евич Горбачёв
(help·info)), surname more accurately romanized as Gorbachyov; born March 2, 1931)
is a Russian politician. He was the last leader of the Soviet Union, serving from
1985 until its collapse in 1991. His attempts at reform helped end the Cold War,
and also ended the political supremacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU) and dissolved the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
1990.
 Early
life
Gorbachev faced a tough childhood under the totalitarian leadership of Joseph
Stalin; his paternal grandfather was sentenced to nine years in the gulag for
withholding grain from the collective's harvest . He lived through World War II,
during which, starting in August 1942, German troops occupied Stavropol. Although
they would leave by February 1943, the occupation increased the hardship of the
community and left a deep impression on the young Gorbachev. From 1946 through
1950, he worked during the summers as an assistant combine harvester operator at
the collective farms in his area. He would take an increasing part in promoting
peasant labour, which he describes as "very hard" because of enforced state quotas
and taxes on private plots. Furthermore, as peasants were not issued passports,
their only opportunity to leave their peasant existence was through enlisting in
'orgnabour' (organised recruitment) labour projects, which prompted Gorbachev to
ask "what difference was there between this life and serfdom?".
Political
career
Despite the hardship of his background, Gorbachev excelled in the fields and in the
classroom. He was considered one of the most intelligent in his class , with a
particular interest in history and mathematics. After he left school he helped his
father harvest a record crop on his collective farm. As a result, he was awarded
the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, at just 16 (1947). It was rare for someone
his age to be given such an honour. It was almost certainly this award, coupled
with his intelligence that helped secure his place at Moscow University, where he
studied law from September 1950. Gorbachev may never have intended to practice law,
however he simply may have seen it as preparation for working in the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He became a candidate member of the Party that
same year. While living in Moscow, he met his future wife, Raisa Maksimovna
Titarenko. They married on 25 September 1953 and moved to Gorbachev's home region
of Stavropol in southern Russia when he graduated in June 1955, where he immersed
himself in party work. Upon graduating, he briefly worked in the Prokuratura
(Soviet State Procuracy) before transferring to the Komsomol, or Communist Union of
Youth. He served as First Secretary of the Stavropol City Komsomol Committee from
September, 1956, later moving up to the Stavropol Krai (regional) Komsomol
Committee, where he worked as Second Secretary from April 1958 and as First
Secretary from March 1961. Raisa would give birth to their first child, a daughter,
Irina, on 6 January 1957.
He attended the important XXIInd CPSU Party Congress in October 1961, where
Khrushchev announced a plan to move to a communist society within 20 years and
surpass the U.S. in per capita production. Gorbachev was promoted to Head of the
Department of Party Organs in the Stavropol Agricultural Kraikom in 1963. By 1966,
at age 35, he obtained a correspondence degree as an agronomist-economist from the
Agricultural Institute. His career moved forward rapidly - in 1970, he was
appointed First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Kraikom, becoming one of the
youngest provincial party chiefs in the USSR. In this position he helped to
reorganize the collective farms, improve workers' living conditions, expand the
size of their private plots, and give them a greater voice in planning. His work
was evidently effective, because he was made a member of the CPSU Central Committee
in 1971. In 1972, he headed a Soviet delegation to Belgium, and two years later, in
1974, he was made a Representative to the Supreme Soviet, and Chairman of the
Standing Commission on Youth Affairs. He was subsequently appointed to the Central
Committee Secretariat for Agriculture in 1978, replacing Fyodor Kulakov, who had
backed his rise to power, after Kulakov died of a heart attack.
In 1979, he was promoted to the Politburo as a candidate member, and received full
membership in 1980. There, he received the patronage of Yuri Andropov, head of the
KGB and also a native of Stavropol, and was promoted during Andropov's brief time
as leader of the Party before Andropov's death in 1984. With responsibility over
personnel, working together with Andropov, 20 percent of the top echelon of
government ministers and regional governors were replaced, often with younger men.
During this time Grigory Romanov, Nikolai Ryzhkov, and Yegor Ligachev were
elevated, the latter two working closely with Gorbachev, Ryzhkov on economics,
Ligachev on personnel. He was also close to Konstantin Chernenko, Andropov's
successor, serving as second secretary.
His positions within the CPSU created more opportunities to travel abroad and this
would profoundly affect his political and social views in the future as leader of
the country. In 1975, he led a delegation to West Germany, and in 1983 he headed a
delegation to Canada to meet with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and members of the
Commons and Senate. In 1984, he traveled to the UK, where he met with Margaret
Thatcher.
General Secretary of
the CPSU
Upon the death of Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev, at age 54, was elected
General Secretary of the Communist Party on 11 March 1985, defeating Grigory
Romanov, who was considered the other favourite.
He became the Party's first leader to have been born after the Revolution. As de
facto ruler of the USSR, he tried to reform the stagnating Party and the state
economy by introducing glasnost ("openness"), perestroika ("restructuring"), and
uskoreniye ("acceleration", of economic development), which were launched at the
27th Congress of the CPSU in February 1986.
Religious
affiliation
Gorbachev was baptized in the Russian Orthodox church as a child. He campaigned for
establishment of freedom of religion laws in the former Soviet Union.
Gorbachev has also expressed pantheistic views, saying, in an interview with the
magazine Resurgence, "Nature is my god."
At the end of a November 1996 interview on CSPAN's Booknotes, Gorbachev described
his plans for future books. He made the following reference to God: "I don't know
how many years God will be giving me, what His plans are." (it should be noted,
however, that referring to "God" in such manner in Russia is part of the
phraseology, regardless of the person's religious views).
Gorbachev was the recipient of the Athenagoras Humanitarian Award of the Order of
St. Andrew Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on 20 November
2005.
Naevus
flammeus
Gorbachev is the most famous person in modern times with visible naevus flammeus.
The crimson birthmark on the top of his bald head was the source of much satire
among critics and cartoonists. (Among his official photos there was at least one on
which this birthmark was removed.) Contrary to some accounts, it is not
rosacea.
On American comedian Jim Gaffigan's album Doin' My Time, Gaffigan sympathized with
Gorbachev's baldness (he himself being bald) and also discovering the naevus
flammeus on the top of his head. Gaffigan (impersonating Gorbachev): "I have
finally become leader of the Soviet Union, I may have lost some hair. What is this?
Oh no..."
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Mikhail
Gorbachev - Generator - Biography
