January 25, 2001. Copyright, 2001, Graphic News. All rights reserved

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV, RUSSIAÕS FORGOTTEN LEADER, TURNS 70
By Mark Samms

LONDON, January 25, Graphic News:  IN the quieter moments as he approaches his 70th birthday, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev would be less than human if he didnÕt ask himself, ÒWhere did it all go wrong?Ó

The man who should be remembered forever as one of the bravest and most radical reformers of the 20th century is instead recalled with a mixture of pity and ridicule in his homeland.

The two words with which the former Soviet leader will always be associated are glasnost (openness) and perestroika (reform). He unleashed both on a country that had never experienced either Ð and it was an experiment that left him stranded in a power vacuum.

The newly-enfranchised republics became restless because the reforms were not taking place quickly enough. Meanwhile, the Communist old guard became terrified at the disappearance of the established order. Both sides turned against the hapless Gorbachev, and he found himself stranded without friends or a power base.

He eventually slunk into retirement on Christmas Day 1991, bewildered, beaten, scorned and deeply hurt. His only consolation lies in the fact that history will be kinder to his achievements than the millions who are benefiting from the changes he brought about, and enjoying the kind of freedoms of which their ancestors could only dream.

Sources: Russian National News Service; www.cnn.com; www.encyclopaedia.com