Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union, serving as General Secretary from 1985 until the country's dissolution in 1991.
His policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) loosened state control and inadvertently hastened the Soviet collapse.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for helping end the Cold War.
In the West he is often celebrated; in Russia, opinion is more divided—some credit him with expanding freedoms, others blame him for national humiliation.
Former communist superpower
- KremlinMoscow's fortified government seat
- PolitburoCommunist party's governing body
- General SecretaryTop organizational leader title
- Communist PartyMarxist-Leninist political organization
Cold War · Iron Curtain · Brezhnev · Chernobyl · KGB · Red Square · Moscow · superpower
Agent of institutional improvement
- visionaryImaginative planner of futures
- controversialCausing public dispute
- foundationUnderlying support structure
- memoirsWritten personal history
cancer · funeral · historical figure · transformation · unintended consequences · Soviet collapse · freedom · nostalgic
American presidential surname
- ThatcherStraw roof maker
- BushAmerican political surname
- KohlGerman political surname
- summitPeak or diplomatic gathering
Geneva · Reykjavik · Malta · Washington · détente · rapprochement · German reunification · Berlin Wall
Rearranging an existing framework
- economic reformSystematic policy modernization
- liberalizationReducing state economic controls
- decentralizationDistributing power from center
- modernizationAdoption of current methods
market reform · cooperatives · privatization · self-management · acceleration · joint ventures · economic crisis · shortages
Quality of being accessible
- transparencyState of being see-through
- press freedomRight to publish uncensored
- freedom of speechProtected right to speak
- public debateFormal public argumentation
samizdat · dissidents · Sakharov · intellectual freedom · pluralism · civil liberties · democratization · truth-telling
Award honoring global conciliation
- laureateCelebrated achievement recipient
- OsloNorway's chief city
- 1990Final decade's start
- disarmamentReducing or eliminating weapons
START · arms control · international recognition · humanitarian · cooperation · conflict resolution · non-violence · global peace
USSR
Former communist superpower
- KremlinMoscow's fortified government seat
- PolitburoCommunist party's governing body
- General SecretaryTop organizational leader title
Communist Party · Cold War · Iron Curtain · Brezhnev · Chernobyl · KGB · Red Square · Moscow · superpower · Warsaw Pact
reformer
Agent of institutional improvement
- visionaryImaginative planner of futures
- controversialCausing public dispute
- foundationUnderlying support structure
memoirs · cancer · funeral · historical figure · transformation · unintended consequences · Soviet collapse · freedom · nostalgic · polarizing
Reagan
American presidential surname
summit · Geneva · Reykjavik · Malta · Washington · détente · rapprochement · German reunification · Berlin Wall · NATO
restructuring
Rearranging an existing framework
- economic reformSystematic policy modernization
- liberalizationReducing state economic controls
- decentralizationDistributing power from center
modernization · market reform · cooperatives · privatization · self-management · acceleration · joint ventures · economic crisis · shortages · rationing
openness
Quality of being accessible
- transparencyState of being see-through
- press freedomRight to publish uncensored
- freedom of speechProtected right to speak
public debate · samizdat · dissidents · Sakharov · intellectual freedom · pluralism · civil liberties · democratization · truth-telling · historical revisionism
Peace Prize
Award honoring global conciliation
disarmament · START · arms control · international recognition · humanitarian · cooperation · conflict resolution · non-violence · global peace
- Russian FiguresStalin, Lenin, Trotsky, Brezhnev, Khrushchev
- Soviet collapseglasnost, perestroika, USSR, Soviet Union, USSR dissolution
- historical figureshistorical figures, leaders, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Joan of Arc
- Nobel PrizeAlfred Nobel, Nobel Committee, laureate, Stockholm, Oslo
- Bush 41Barbara Bush, Dan Quayle, Gulf War, Desert Storm, read my lips
- Cold War GermanyBerlin Wall, East Germany, West Germany, German reunification, divided Germany
Mikhail GorbachevJoseph Stalin
Vladimir Putin · Kim Jong-il · Kim Jong-un · Mao Zedong · hardliner
Mikhail GorbachevJoseph Stalin
Vladimir Lenin · Nikita Khrushchev · Vladimir Putin · founder · consolidator
Mikhail GorbachevJoseph Stalin
Adolf Hitler · Mao Zedong · Pol Pot · Kim Il-sung · Augusto Pinochet