Mikhail Gorbachev 

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s crowning achievement is seen by the West as endingthe Cold War without bloodshed, but he failed to prevent the break-up of the Soviet Union


Mar 2, 1931: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev born into peasant family in southern Russian territory of Stavropol

Mar 1985: Becomes General Secretary of Communist Party after death of Konstantin Chernenko. Attempts to revive Soviet economy with policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (rebuilding)

Nov 1985: Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan (inset) hold their first summit

Dec 1986: Andrei Sakharov – father of dissident movement – released from exile after intervention by Gorbachev

Dec 1987: Gorbachev and Reagan sign first treaty to cut nuclear arsenals in Washington. All Soviet and U.S. intermediate-range missiles to be dismantled

Feb 1989: Nine-year Soviet invasion of Afghanistan ends

Nov: Popular revolutions oust communist governments in East Germany and Eastern Europe

Dec: Gorbachev and U.S. President George H.W. Bush hail end of Cold War

Oct 1990: East and West Germany united. Gorbachev is awarded Nobel Peace Prize for his extensive rolein reunification

Apr 1991: Warsaw Pact of East European nations disbanded

Jun: Boris Yeltsin (inset) elected president of Russia
             
Aug: Coup by Communist Party hard-liners fails after mass protests led by Yeltsin. Gorbachev resigns as party leader

Sep: Soviet supreme legislature recognises independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia

Dec: Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus proclaim Commonwealth of Independent States with no role for central authority or Gorbachev

Dec 25, 1991: Gorbachev resigns as president – Soviet Union formally dissolved following day

Aug 30, 2022: Gorbachev dies at age of 91
                                

Sources: Reuters, The Associated Press 
Pictures: Getty Images 
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