The former and last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who brought the Cold War to a peaceful end, has died aged 91.
Key points
- Mr Mikhail Gorbachev took power in 1985 and introduced reforms, as well as opening up the Soviet Union to the world.
- He became general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and de facto leader of the country, in 1985.
- His policy of glasnost, or openness, allowed people to criticise the government in a way which had been previously unthinkable. Glasnost means making information public as a topic for discussion, but it also unleashed nationalist sentiments in many regions of the country which eventually undermined the stability of the country and hastened its collapse.
- In 1991, after a shambolically organised coup by communist hardliners failed, Mr Gorbachev agreed to dissolve the Soviet Union and left office.
- He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 “for the leading role he played in the radical changes in East-West relations”.
India and Mikhail Gorbachev
- India received MiG-23 fighter and MiG-29 interceptor aircraft from the Soviet Union under Gorbachev.
- India also received some T-72 tanks “before some of Moscow’s Warsaw Pact allies, and entered into a co-production scheme for this system”.
- India was also the first “Third World” country to lease nuclear submarines from the Soviet Union.
- In 1986, on his first visit to an Asian country, Gorbachev arrived in India to sign the Delhi Declaration with Rajiv Gandhi.
- The agreement focused on complete nuclear disarmament and for the Indian side, echoed the concept of non-violence as practised by Mahatma Gandhi.
- In 1988, the Soviet leader was awarded the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development.
