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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.
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www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Mikhail
Gorbachev - Generator
- Biography