2. •1950 Gorbachev entered Moscow State University •1985 Death of Chernenko; Gorbachev became
•1952 Joined Communist Party Party general secretary
•1953 Death of Stalin •1986 Nuclear accident at Chernobyl; Sakharov
•1955 Completed law school; returned to Stavropol released from exile in Gorky
•1970 Appointed Party chief in Stavropol •1988 Ethnic violence in Armenia and Azerbaijan;
•1978 Moved to Moscow as secretary of Central Gorbachev became president of Soviet Union
Committee of Soviet Communist Party •1989 Destruction of Berlin Wall
•1982 Death of Brezhnev •1990 Lithuania declared independence
•1984 Death of Andropov; Chernenko led Party •1991 August coup; disintegration of Soviet Union;
Gorbachev resigned
3.
4. 1.The introduction of glasnost and its development into freedom of speech and publication.
2.The release of dissidents from prison and exile and the resumption of rehabilitations of those unjustly repressed in
the past.
3.The establishment of freedom of religious observation and the ending of the persecution of the churches.
4.Freedom of communication across frontiers, including an end to the jamming of foreign broadcasts, more exchange
of information, and a growing liberty to travel abroad.
5.The introduction of genuinely competitive elections for a legislature with real power (a decision, taken in 1988 and
implemented in 1989, marking the point at which liberalisation turned into democratisation).
6.The development of civil society, with all sorts of independent organisations and pressure groups emerging – a
result of perestroika and not, as some observers imagine, a precursor of it.
7.Progress towards a rule of law which included subjecting the Communist Party to the law and moving supreme
power from party to state institutions (with the Politburo in the last two years of the Soviet Union no longer the de
facto highest organ of state power, but more of a talking-shop in which members increasingly raised their voices
against Gorbachev).
5. 8.Replacing Leninism and dogma with a commitment to pluralism and free intellectual inquiry (for even while
Gorbachev continued to speak respectfully of Lenin, he abandoned the fundamental tenets of Leninism).
9.The ending of Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, with the last Soviet soldier leaving that country in
early 1989.
10.Allowing the Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe to become independent and non-Communist without
a shot being fired (except in Romania, where Gorbachev had least influence, and Romanians fired on
Romanians).
11.Consenting to, and negotiating with Helmut Kohl, the peaceful reunification of Germany.
12.Underpinning these last three momentous foreign policy shifts was a fundamental change of outlook – what
was called the ‘New Thinking’ – which Gorbachev embraced and promoted. He rejected the notion of East-
West relations as a zero-sum game and endorsed the idea that there were universal values and universal
interests. By so doing, he had already by 1988 demolished the ideological foundation of the Cold War. In
1989, when Gorbachev’s actions and non-actions reflected this New Thinking, the Cold War ended on the
ground.
6. "Mikhail Gorbachev Biography -
Life, Family, Wife, Young, Old, Information, B
orn, House, Time, Year." Encyclopedia of
World Biography. Web. 30 Nov. 2011.
<http://www.notablebiographies.com/Gi-
He/Gorbachev-Mikhail.html>.
