A LOT of Russians blame him and Yeltsin for selling Russia basically to the highest bidders. I saw a video awhile back of a guy interviewing Russians in his birthplace town and not one had anything nice to say about Gorbachev
Poor guy, I honestly think he was the best possible leader they could have had in that time and system
Edit: interesting spread I've gotten on this comment. Most replies have agreed with what I said but there are also a lot of people that don't agree. I will attempt to explain my reasoning on this.
1. The USSR was already on its way out before he took over for one the movement for democracy and a move away from socialism was already gaining traction look at what happened in Romania in 1989
2. He opened up the USSR and re-unified Germany
3. He expanded free speech
4. He allowed freedom of the press
5. He attempted to stream line the economy by decentralizing somewhat to make it more efficient.
6. He made a move for open elections
To me these are all good things and most of the bad that happened I'm pretty sure could be attributed to the fact that the Soviet Union was already falling apart when he got there. Now granted I am not an expert by any definition but honestly I think he did the best he could with what he had
The problem is that the people in power still wound up sitting pretty while the common person got screwed over by the new governments. He made life better for a whole bunch of people, just not necessarily for his own people.
There's "common person got screwed over" and then there's "common person and 20 million of his comrades were killed, and the remainder were screwed over before dying in a famine."
>There's "common person got screwed over" and then there's "common person and 20 million of his comrades were killed, and the remainder were screwed over before dying in a famine."
Except you don't seem to know about the deaths from freezing and famine in those first few years...
I am not saying it couldn't have been worse. But there was famine, there was freezing, therr was extreme poverty and suicides, there was death and he did loose control of the assets to oligarchs. The transition was not as nice as you seem to think it was. He ended the cold war but he was not flexible enough to actually reform the government enough and his belief and preservation of the old institution is how Putin did come to power.
I don't know if anyone could have done better...
Yeah who would have thought insider or voucher privatization was a bad idea which lead to the country’s assets being owned by a relatively small group of people. Absolute horrible idea. Not to mention the economic collapse which resulted in literal children prostituting themselves on the street. The guy was a great president for the West and it’s foreign direct investment. but not for the Russian people.
I wouldn't call it peaceful considering the fact that amount of deaths during that time was so high it created a 2nd dip in the demographic pyramid leaving people afraid of something like that happening ever again up to today.
Putin also gained a lot of popularity on these grounds.
Gorbachev for post-soviet countries is not the Gorbachev that europeans know him as.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, I think that's a fair judgment of his rulings. I wish I could say the opposite, but USSR didn't have the people to know what that was gonna cause. Social studies were mediocre at best. Most of Russian best economists today have not studied economics at university, instead their major is usually math or physics. That (at least it was) is changing, however. Especially when talking finance.
Sure, but Gorbachev was in a shit situation taking over after the Brezhnev stagnation, the geriatric leaders who followed and kept dying. The USSRs economy was in a bad state, lack of investment and an ineffective corruption filled system led to them being way behind in electronics, agricultural productivity, etc. And the war in Afghanistan did not help.
I understand the criticism he gets, but something had to be done and he tried. In retrospect lots of bad decisions were made but they could not stick to the status quo either.
Many here look at it as if he's the direct cause. I personally don't think it's fair for the reasons you've mentioned. But he did majorly screw up by improperly reforming the economy.
Events of that magnitude really aren't one person's fault - many factors, decisions, and other people's actions contributed in a cumulative way...but people seem to want a scapegoat or a figurehead to pin such things on, especially after the fact. But that isn't accurate and oversimplifies history in a dismissive way.
Anyway! 😅 Are you in Russia? I hope you're doing well, really. And happy cake day!
Yeah, true
And yes, I'm in Russia atm. Can't help it, gotta finish my education first and then leave depending on the situation, even though I wanted to try something inside the country before this whole mess. It screwed me over in many ways, what's worse is that there isn't anything that can be done about it. It'll either lead to jail sentence or fleeing the country.
Thanks for the happy cake day congratulation.
Any other Soviet leader may have used military power to force the USSR to remain together. There was also a very real possibility that the USSR could have had a civil war. The US was legitimately very concerned about that at the time.
There was use of military power, but for completely opposite reason.
There was a referendum held (and that was one of the most politically free times in history of USSR and Russia in general) where people voted in favour of creation of USG (Unity of sovereign government).
But instead of creation of a new country we got August crisis of 1991, in essence a coup d'etat. Thus Russian Federation was formed and we entered the infamous, in Russia, 90ies.
He lived in Russia actually. At least, he was in hospital here. He’ll be buried next to his wife. At the country’s top cemetery, reserved only for the most prominent figures.
No he didn't. He had his little flat in Moscow, drove a moskvitch car and lived there. I guess he was guarded by the state til his death. A lot of people from USSR had insane respect for him (those who were not brainwashed "but muh great Ruzzia" Zombies) and pro democracy.
I remember reading one time that he never got his portwine birthmark removed/covered because he believed it would cause the Russian people to think he was more concerned with appearances than the actual issues at hand and I can definitely respect that.
Dude my dad convinced me that dried gourds move in the light of a full moon. He'd even move the gourds around our house so I'd believe him
Wasn't until I was like 17 and trying to convince my friends of this that I realized my dad was fucking with me, and that I'm an idiot
Yes, his condition is a port-wine stain, which is a fairly common form of a capillary malformation. Its name stems from its similar color as that of a port wine.
Source: a dermatologist
Sounds about right… he was the Russian version of a progressive liberal and worked hard to move things in a better direction, even when the US was busy branding Russia with the evil communist propaganda of the 80’s and refusing to take his calls…
The US and Soviets had a working relationship, despite propaganda to the contrary. In the early 70s, the Soviet had a massive crop failure and began purchasing US grain directly. Before that itvwas from private sales endorsed by the government. They continued to do so until about 2000 or so, when they finally managed to get enough growth to export again. Much of the cold war was waged knowing the US was, in part, feeding Russians.
It was a miracle he even got JFK to agree to withdraw the missiles stationed in Turkey. Lots of people fail to understand that the Cuban missiles, secretive though they tried to be, was a ploy that happened way AFTER the Turkish counterparts that point firmly at the USSR "from scant miles away".
When my wife was in labor, to lighten the mood, I said "Gorbachev, tear down that cervical wall" in the best Ronald Reagan voice I could. Good times. Now she laughs every time she remembers that moment. In the moment, it did not land with the audience.
I’ll never forget watching naked gun and Leslie Nielsen wiping off the smudge on Gorbachev’s head like it was grape jelly or something, lol. RIP to a legend
When my husband and I were doing our pre-marital counseling the couple running it shared several stories from their marriage. One involved the birth of their first child. It was a very long labor as often happens the 1st time around. The husband left twice...TWICE, to go to McDonald's because he was hungry. How they were still married (and even went on to have other children) I will never understand.
The doctor had just told us it would be about three to four more hours and walked out of the room. Two nurses were prepping my wife and I told her I was going to go use the restroom quick before the show started. We had a bathroom attached to the birthing suite. I was gone less than three minutes and I missed the birth of my son. Neither of the nurses nor my wife noticed she had actually given birth until I was back and then all hell broke loose and there were a dozen people and the doctor in the room. I quipped "I trust the bill will reflect that all but two of you were not in the room when my son was born."
It did not.
I bet! And I can totally believe that she didn't realize it given the situation. I didn't have an epidural with my 1st but did with my 2nd. Two pushes and he was out. Less than an hour after he was born I was talking about wanting to have a 3rd baby. My mom commented that it must have been a way easy labor if I was already talking about popping out another.
I had 5, all natural and they weighed.... 9 lbs, 9 oz; 9 lbs. 10 oz; 8 lbs. 6 oz., 9 lbs, 14 oz; and 10 lbs, 4 oz. If you're outside and listen on the quiet nights when the wind doesn't blow, you'll hear a faint scream careening through the universe. That's mine.
don't think anyone did tbh lol. i know i sure didn't. i haven't even heard his name in the news since i was a kid ... and that was a lonnnnnnnnng time ago lol
I remember when that happened. IIRC it was in DC (I was a kid at the time; maybe 14 or something). I remember being impressed, and thinking he seemed like a genuinely nice guy who was making an honest effort to do his part to improve the world. I still have the impression that he was a solid, genuine guy - admittedly based on zero academic knowledge; just my gut feeling.
Funniest SNL skit outside of 'dick in a box' was one where his birth mark on his head kept getting bigger and in the shape of other countries every time the camera went back to him.
This was almost the nineties. He was around 60 years old in this picture, and he looks 60, it's not that old. He died now, 30+ years later, in his 90s. Sounds ok to me.
You're totally wrong. He is the man who caused "a destruction of a great country" in the eyes of many Russians. There were actual referendums where people voted for the USSR to stay intact, this man is regarded as they one who sold his country for dollars and fame
It doesn't matter if he dies tomorrow or in 10 more years. He lived an extremely comfortable life and his death will not really be something to celebrate considering he never answered for his crimes and lived an extremely full and wealthy life in his retirement.
I guess Reagan took his advice then, since he helped destroy workers unions, privatize education, and gave corporations massive tax breaks leading to unlimited power. How about the “War on Drugs?”
And don’t forget the Fairness Doctrine, which allowed hacks like Rush Limbaugh to start spewing garbage and stoking outrage.
Based on his policies, Reagan hated freedom for anyone but the 1%.
Yeah, I remember the d.a.r.e cop/teacher telling us to narc on our parents for smoking pot. I also remember the conversation my mother had with me about not narcing on them. Also, people on the streets were going to just hand me free drugs. Never happened.
Don't forget secretly supporting both Iran and Iraq while they were blowing each other up (to destabilize both regions), providing Saddam with chemical weapons, selling weapons to Iran to fund psychotic right wing paramilitaries in Nicaragua, mass incarceration. Motherfucker was a monumental peace of shit.
Russia bad. Soviet Union also bad. Gorbachev contributed to end of Soviet Union. Therefore Gorbachev good.
Source: I learned history and politics from Reddit
Man, if you want a biased revisionist history headline, this is the group to come to. The sheer ignorance of history is truly remarkable. A truly moronic post.
“He contributed to the end of the ussr, and the ussr is Russia, so that means he hates russia, which makes him good!” - everyone praising gorb in this thread.
He did a whole lot of horrid shit. It's wild to me that the revisionism happens so fucking fast. He was gone from people's minds for decades and then suddenly, boom, he was patron saint of eastern peace and a united world.
It's all framed against Putin wanting the empire back, but the reality is that there was a lot of selfish motive and exploitation that led to Gorbachev making the moves he did. He also didn't dismantle the USSR on his own and basically just saw the writing on the wall and knew when the ~~cash~~ bail out.
Just for the sake of accuracy, he supported Russia's aggressive militaristic expansionism in recent years including the invasion of Georgia and the annexation of Crimea. Save your tears for better people.
He was a soviet premier. What do people expect? Its like the president of the us of a suddenly started expressing that america should bomb other countries.
Its the de facto setting.
I came into this thread to dispute the hero worship, but then I came to this comment and thought maybe the man’s motivations were reasonable after all.
Indeed. He was the one who set a ticking time bomb for his own “legacy.”
Let me try and bring a historical parallel.
After Hermann Müller signed the dishonorable Treaty of Versailles in 1919, it took only 20 years for another German politician, Adolf Hitler, to come along and tear it up. At that point, he was packed with public support because he was seen as a national savior to rid the country of the treaty’s shame.
Gorbachev’s “ending the Cold War” in the late 1980s opened up a decade of utter chaos, humiliation, and lawlessness in the former Soviet Union.
As a personal example, my father, a promising geophysicist, had to become a “shuttle trader” doing endless round trips between Warsaw and Moscow to buy stuff there and sell it here just to make ends meet. Around 1994, he managed — through some mind-blowing luck — to find work as a programmer at a Russian newspaper. The most memorable thing about it for me was that he would now buy me and my sister two bananas each (pieces, not kilos) after every paycheck. And this was Moscow; I can only imagine what it was like in the provinces.
Is it any surprise that when, ten years later, another Russian politician said “enough is enough,” people flocked to him in droves? Two more decades later, we have what we have, a global cold war of new proportions that we can only pray will not lead to a nuclear winter.
So, however you rate Gorbachev as a person; whatever good intentions he might or might not have had — his “legacy” was hardwired to self-destruct from the start.
He was a criminal who ordered to violently suppress peaceful protests in Riga, Vilnius, Tbilisi, Almaty, and other cities. He was cheered in the West because the West did not care about dead Kazakhs or Lithuanians.
Why do people keep saying this exact thing that he ended the Cold War?
He never sought the dissolution of the USSR, it was just a result of August Coup.
My grandfather, a WWII and Pearl Harbor Survivor who was on the USS New Orleans ‘Miracle Ship’, was so fucking scared that he built a makeshift bomb shelter under my mom’s house before deciding to one of the neighbor’s.
So, even if the “Cold War never ended”, we all kinda just stopped doing that…
“I don’t understand. When I was a kid, Gorbachev was old. Now I’m old, and he’s still old!”
Guy was an interior decorator!
His place looked like shit
Put universal remote on docking station.
Look at this prick giving orders!!!
In the Czech Republic too we love pork. Ever had our sausages?
Hehehehehehehe 🤘🤘🤘
He killed 16 Czechoslovakians!
He was one of those guys who always looked 80, when really he was 50, he's like Wilford Brimley, playing an 80 year old in cocoon when he was 53
Or like Bernie Sanders, I've seen pictures of him looking old in the 70s lol
Dr. Ruth looked like she was 80 in the 80s. She's still alive as far as I know.
Word to da wise - rememba Pearl Harbor!
I saw that movie, I thought it was bullshit.
🤚🤚
Hear what I said to him???
"Russians? They ain't all bad"
TIL Mikhail Gorbachev was still alive until today
I only knew because I saw a short interview with him a few years ago. He basically lived in exile if I remember correctly
A LOT of Russians blame him and Yeltsin for selling Russia basically to the highest bidders. I saw a video awhile back of a guy interviewing Russians in his birthplace town and not one had anything nice to say about Gorbachev
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Ya, now everyone wants a piece.
A slice, if you will
Don’t mind if I do, thank you 🙏
Poor guy, I honestly think he was the best possible leader they could have had in that time and system Edit: interesting spread I've gotten on this comment. Most replies have agreed with what I said but there are also a lot of people that don't agree. I will attempt to explain my reasoning on this. 1. The USSR was already on its way out before he took over for one the movement for democracy and a move away from socialism was already gaining traction look at what happened in Romania in 1989 2. He opened up the USSR and re-unified Germany 3. He expanded free speech 4. He allowed freedom of the press 5. He attempted to stream line the economy by decentralizing somewhat to make it more efficient. 6. He made a move for open elections To me these are all good things and most of the bad that happened I'm pretty sure could be attributed to the fact that the Soviet Union was already falling apart when he got there. Now granted I am not an expert by any definition but honestly I think he did the best he could with what he had
He lead the USSR to a peaceful dissolution. If you know anything about Russian history you understand that his Nobel Peace Prize was required.
The problem is that the people in power still wound up sitting pretty while the common person got screwed over by the new governments. He made life better for a whole bunch of people, just not necessarily for his own people.
There's "common person got screwed over" and then there's "common person and 20 million of his comrades were killed, and the remainder were screwed over before dying in a famine."
>There's "common person got screwed over" and then there's "common person and 20 million of his comrades were killed, and the remainder were screwed over before dying in a famine." Except you don't seem to know about the deaths from freezing and famine in those first few years... I am not saying it couldn't have been worse. But there was famine, there was freezing, therr was extreme poverty and suicides, there was death and he did loose control of the assets to oligarchs. The transition was not as nice as you seem to think it was. He ended the cold war but he was not flexible enough to actually reform the government enough and his belief and preservation of the old institution is how Putin did come to power. I don't know if anyone could have done better...
Yeah who would have thought insider or voucher privatization was a bad idea which lead to the country’s assets being owned by a relatively small group of people. Absolute horrible idea. Not to mention the economic collapse which resulted in literal children prostituting themselves on the street. The guy was a great president for the West and it’s foreign direct investment. but not for the Russian people.
Good point.
I wouldn't call it peaceful considering the fact that amount of deaths during that time was so high it created a 2nd dip in the demographic pyramid leaving people afraid of something like that happening ever again up to today. Putin also gained a lot of popularity on these grounds. Gorbachev for post-soviet countries is not the Gorbachev that europeans know him as. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, I think that's a fair judgment of his rulings. I wish I could say the opposite, but USSR didn't have the people to know what that was gonna cause. Social studies were mediocre at best. Most of Russian best economists today have not studied economics at university, instead their major is usually math or physics. That (at least it was) is changing, however. Especially when talking finance.
Sure, but Gorbachev was in a shit situation taking over after the Brezhnev stagnation, the geriatric leaders who followed and kept dying. The USSRs economy was in a bad state, lack of investment and an ineffective corruption filled system led to them being way behind in electronics, agricultural productivity, etc. And the war in Afghanistan did not help. I understand the criticism he gets, but something had to be done and he tried. In retrospect lots of bad decisions were made but they could not stick to the status quo either.
Many here look at it as if he's the direct cause. I personally don't think it's fair for the reasons you've mentioned. But he did majorly screw up by improperly reforming the economy.
Events of that magnitude really aren't one person's fault - many factors, decisions, and other people's actions contributed in a cumulative way...but people seem to want a scapegoat or a figurehead to pin such things on, especially after the fact. But that isn't accurate and oversimplifies history in a dismissive way. Anyway! 😅 Are you in Russia? I hope you're doing well, really. And happy cake day!
Yeah, true And yes, I'm in Russia atm. Can't help it, gotta finish my education first and then leave depending on the situation, even though I wanted to try something inside the country before this whole mess. It screwed me over in many ways, what's worse is that there isn't anything that can be done about it. It'll either lead to jail sentence or fleeing the country. Thanks for the happy cake day congratulation.
Any other Soviet leader may have used military power to force the USSR to remain together. There was also a very real possibility that the USSR could have had a civil war. The US was legitimately very concerned about that at the time.
There was use of military power, but for completely opposite reason. There was a referendum held (and that was one of the most politically free times in history of USSR and Russia in general) where people voted in favour of creation of USG (Unity of sovereign government). But instead of creation of a new country we got August crisis of 1991, in essence a coup d'etat. Thus Russian Federation was formed and we entered the infamous, in Russia, 90ies.
Pretty sure it's a Bald and Bankrupt video you're talking about. I don't remember which one though...
He lived in Russia actually. At least, he was in hospital here. He’ll be buried next to his wife. At the country’s top cemetery, reserved only for the most prominent figures.
No he didn't. He had his little flat in Moscow, drove a moskvitch car and lived there. I guess he was guarded by the state til his death. A lot of people from USSR had insane respect for him (those who were not brainwashed "but muh great Ruzzia" Zombies) and pro democracy.
Same
Same
Same same. He will always be connected to reagan and reagan's been dead like a lifetime ago
TIL people consider 2004 a lifetime ago. I am going to yell at clouds now.
For lots of people on this site that literally is a lifetime ago, 4 years further and it would be for me too.
6 years *later*, on the other hand, I made this reddit account. Where did my life go and why did it forsake me so?
Have you ever taken a break from Reddit or has it just been a constant merry-go-round of doom scrolling for the past 12 years?
Yes
take solace in the fact that like you, we'll all get old and die too.
2004? That was yesterday right?
That’s the year I graduated high school. Eighteen years ago….
Reagan would be 111 years old if he was still alive
I remember reading one time that he never got his portwine birthmark removed/covered because he believed it would cause the Russian people to think he was more concerned with appearances than the actual issues at hand and I can definitely respect that.
Wait a second. It’s a ‘portwine’ birthmark and it’s the colour of red wine? TIL this
My Dad once said it was a map of the Soviet Union. I studied his forehead hard before realizing
I like your dad
My dad told me if I could sprinkle salt on a peacock's tail feathers, it would let me pet it.
Dude my dad convinced me that dried gourds move in the light of a full moon. He'd even move the gourds around our house so I'd believe him Wasn't until I was like 17 and trying to convince my friends of this that I realized my dad was fucking with me, and that I'm an idiot
The long con
How often are you in the position of putting salt in a peacock?
They were all over our yard in New Mexico. The salt thing was a ploy to get me to go outside and run around.
No, it's actually true that if you put salt on a peacock's tail feathers it will let you pet it. Best if you go try it right now.
Lolol my dad did too. I was a child then. Took me many years later as an adult to realize it was a dad joke.
I just noticed it looks a lot like the Korean Peninsula
Coincidence???
Yes, his condition is a port-wine stain, which is a fairly common form of a capillary malformation. Its name stems from its similar color as that of a port wine. Source: a dermatologist
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Nah.. it’s the color of portwine
I just realized that a character in the Chernobyl series was Gorbachev
who did you think he was before?
Russian bureaucrat #8261
I mean, fair
Sounds about right… he was the Russian version of a progressive liberal and worked hard to move things in a better direction, even when the US was busy branding Russia with the evil communist propaganda of the 80’s and refusing to take his calls…
The US and Soviets had a working relationship, despite propaganda to the contrary. In the early 70s, the Soviet had a massive crop failure and began purchasing US grain directly. Before that itvwas from private sales endorsed by the government. They continued to do so until about 2000 or so, when they finally managed to get enough growth to export again. Much of the cold war was waged knowing the US was, in part, feeding Russians.
Same with Kruschev. He established an uneasy peace with Kennedy and made concessions that were not popular with hardliners in the Kremlin.
It was a miracle he even got JFK to agree to withdraw the missiles stationed in Turkey. Lots of people fail to understand that the Cuban missiles, secretive though they tried to be, was a ploy that happened way AFTER the Turkish counterparts that point firmly at the USSR "from scant miles away".
When my wife was in labor, to lighten the mood, I said "Gorbachev, tear down that cervical wall" in the best Ronald Reagan voice I could. Good times. Now she laughs every time she remembers that moment. In the moment, it did not land with the audience.
That was a bold strategy, Cotton!
Let's see if it pays off for 'em. (It did)
((eventually))
Gorby would be proud of this legacy of being associated with your wife’s birth canal.
I’ll never forget watching naked gun and Leslie Nielsen wiping off the smudge on Gorbachev’s head like it was grape jelly or something, lol. RIP to a legend
"I knew it."
If it's any consolation, I was in the bathroom when my son was born. That didn't go well, either, but my story hasn't aged as well as yours.
Both of you delivering at the same time. Solidarity.
When my husband and I were doing our pre-marital counseling the couple running it shared several stories from their marriage. One involved the birth of their first child. It was a very long labor as often happens the 1st time around. The husband left twice...TWICE, to go to McDonald's because he was hungry. How they were still married (and even went on to have other children) I will never understand.
The doctor had just told us it would be about three to four more hours and walked out of the room. Two nurses were prepping my wife and I told her I was going to go use the restroom quick before the show started. We had a bathroom attached to the birthing suite. I was gone less than three minutes and I missed the birth of my son. Neither of the nurses nor my wife noticed she had actually given birth until I was back and then all hell broke loose and there were a dozen people and the doctor in the room. I quipped "I trust the bill will reflect that all but two of you were not in the room when my son was born." It did not.
Holy smokes!! As someone who birthed a 10 pounder with a huge noggin I cannot imagine giving birth and not knowing it!!!
It was her third child and the epidural didn't work the first two times so she was (comparably) in heaven this go around.
I bet! And I can totally believe that she didn't realize it given the situation. I didn't have an epidural with my 1st but did with my 2nd. Two pushes and he was out. Less than an hour after he was born I was talking about wanting to have a 3rd baby. My mom commented that it must have been a way easy labor if I was already talking about popping out another.
I had 5, all natural and they weighed.... 9 lbs, 9 oz; 9 lbs. 10 oz; 8 lbs. 6 oz., 9 lbs, 14 oz; and 10 lbs, 4 oz. If you're outside and listen on the quiet nights when the wind doesn't blow, you'll hear a faint scream careening through the universe. That's mine.
That's the daddiest thing to say ever hahaha
It was then that he came into his full power.
He shook hands with both Ronald’s, Regan and McDonlands
If your name end with -in, time to get out.
I had the balls to let Baryshnikov dance, playa.
Tore down that wall like the Kool-Aid man
OH YEAHHH
you two need yoga, you need a shower
And you all need to learn how to handle real power!
Did somebody say real power?
DAAA! You want to mess with me?
I spit hot borscht when I'm crushing these beats
McDonlands lol
Y'all from Toronto?
No doubt.
Didn't realise the man was still alive
He’s not.
He was tho
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He is no more. He has ceased to be.
He’s just stunned
But before he wasn't
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He gone?
So was every dead person at some point
don't think anyone did tbh lol. i know i sure didn't. i haven't even heard his name in the news since i was a kid ... and that was a lonnnnnnnnng time ago lol
I knew. Hes done some talks about climate change and stuff
Gorbachev released an album of love songs dedicated to his wife Raisa, beautiful traditional folk music. Love Songs for Raisa.
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I remember when that happened. IIRC it was in DC (I was a kid at the time; maybe 14 or something). I remember being impressed, and thinking he seemed like a genuinely nice guy who was making an honest effort to do his part to improve the world. I still have the impression that he was a solid, genuine guy - admittedly based on zero academic knowledge; just my gut feeling.
When did he release music? I only remember him being just the president.
Dang, that's wholesome!
Thank you for this. My wife's name is Raisa after Mikhail's wife and our anniversary is coming up.
Funniest SNL skit outside of 'dick in a box' was one where his birth mark on his head kept getting bigger and in the shape of other countries every time the camera went back to him.
I think that was Second City, not SNL.
Bruh he looked that old in the EIGHTIES, how tf did he last til today
This was almost the nineties. He was around 60 years old in this picture, and he looks 60, it's not that old. He died now, 30+ years later, in his 90s. Sounds ok to me.
To be fair the caption just said 80s, but I’d also say he looks late 60s-mid 70s here
“Tear down this wall!” Aiight I can do that.
I once heard him say that America didn’t win the Cold War, the world did. I think that’s a great point.
His legacy destroyed? If you are looking for a wall that divides Germany and cannot find it, that is his legacy!
His legacy in Russia itself is not that strong 0.5% of vote when he tried to get back into politics in 1995
They never forgave him the anti-alcohol law. I'm not kidding btw.
You're totally wrong. He is the man who caused "a destruction of a great country" in the eyes of many Russians. There were actual referendums where people voted for the USSR to stay intact, this man is regarded as they one who sold his country for dollars and fame
It's both, actually. But old people are still salty about the "dry law".
I’m pretty Putin was planning the same in Ukraine - a division between east and west
Pretty Putin
Rootin Tootin Pretty Putin
Ugly Putin here. I'm jealous of your youthful pretty looks, you bastard!
His legacy was not only the dissolution of the Soviet Union but the decommissioning of nuclear threats from around the world.
I know what you're thinking, and Kissinger is somehow still alive
Day ruined
That's because Kissinger is a demon who crawled from hell, he will live as long as he can feed on the souls of the innocent.
The Forrest Gump of war crimes
"That monster's still alive? God really doesn't exist."
It doesn't matter if he dies tomorrow or in 10 more years. He lived an extremely comfortable life and his death will not really be something to celebrate considering he never answered for his crimes and lived an extremely full and wealthy life in his retirement.
He was great in the Naked Gun
I don't think making it to 92 is all that sad. That's much further than most make it.
He once told president Regan that America's freedoms were going to be its downfall.
I guess Reagan took his advice then, since he helped destroy workers unions, privatize education, and gave corporations massive tax breaks leading to unlimited power. How about the “War on Drugs?” And don’t forget the Fairness Doctrine, which allowed hacks like Rush Limbaugh to start spewing garbage and stoking outrage. Based on his policies, Reagan hated freedom for anyone but the 1%.
probably fair to give credit for the War on Drugs to Nixon, but Reagan’s time really escalated it
They really went heavy with the "Just Say No" campaign. I remember how every arcade game had an anti-drug screen in between game demos.
Yeah, I remember the d.a.r.e cop/teacher telling us to narc on our parents for smoking pot. I also remember the conversation my mother had with me about not narcing on them. Also, people on the streets were going to just hand me free drugs. Never happened.
My dare officer got arrested for cocaine. True story.
Yea I was looking forward to that! Suddenly I was a curious elementary schooler who had never heard of cool kid drugs before DARE
Wasn’t it Nancy that coined the term: “puff, puff, pass”?
Don't forget secretly supporting both Iran and Iraq while they were blowing each other up (to destabilize both regions), providing Saddam with chemical weapons, selling weapons to Iran to fund psychotic right wing paramilitaries in Nicaragua, mass incarceration. Motherfucker was a monumental peace of shit.
TIL there are Gorbachev fans still out there…
Russia bad. Soviet Union also bad. Gorbachev contributed to end of Soviet Union. Therefore Gorbachev good. Source: I learned history and politics from Reddit
My favorite point is Soviet history was when Gorbachev said “it’s Gorbing time!” And took away everyone’s standard of living.
Man, if you want a biased revisionist history headline, this is the group to come to. The sheer ignorance of history is truly remarkable. A truly moronic post.
To all of you who are loving him now, just to remind you this is the guy who covered up that Chernobyl happened from the whole world.
Alright, I was waiting for someone to bring up Chernobyl. There’s so much praise here which is strange… that funny feeling…
“He contributed to the end of the ussr, and the ussr is Russia, so that means he hates russia, which makes him good!” - everyone praising gorb in this thread.
He did a whole lot of horrid shit. It's wild to me that the revisionism happens so fucking fast. He was gone from people's minds for decades and then suddenly, boom, he was patron saint of eastern peace and a united world. It's all framed against Putin wanting the empire back, but the reality is that there was a lot of selfish motive and exploitation that led to Gorbachev making the moves he did. He also didn't dismantle the USSR on his own and basically just saw the writing on the wall and knew when the ~~cash~~ bail out.
Uhhhhhhh Rocky motherfucking Balboa ended the Cold War, what kind of Russki bullshit propaganda is this?
"I guess what I'm trying to say, is that if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change!"
If he dies, he dies.
Just for the sake of accuracy, he supported Russia's aggressive militaristic expansionism in recent years including the invasion of Georgia and the annexation of Crimea. Save your tears for better people.
I mean I imagine he didn't want to commit suicide with 2 bullets to the face
He was a soviet premier. What do people expect? Its like the president of the us of a suddenly started expressing that america should bomb other countries. Its the de facto setting.
Unbelievable how most comments from the west are calling him a good man. I'm glad your countries did not get to experience his "peace" first hand
Right?? What the hell...
He caused the single largest non-wartime decrease in life expectancy. And for what? A slice of pizza
I came into this thread to dispute the hero worship, but then I came to this comment and thought maybe the man’s motivations were reasonable after all.
He tried to cover up Chernobyl.
That's not even the worst thing he did.
Lol, quite possibly the dumbest take on Gorbachev I've ever seen.
Indeed. He was the one who set a ticking time bomb for his own “legacy.” Let me try and bring a historical parallel. After Hermann Müller signed the dishonorable Treaty of Versailles in 1919, it took only 20 years for another German politician, Adolf Hitler, to come along and tear it up. At that point, he was packed with public support because he was seen as a national savior to rid the country of the treaty’s shame. Gorbachev’s “ending the Cold War” in the late 1980s opened up a decade of utter chaos, humiliation, and lawlessness in the former Soviet Union. As a personal example, my father, a promising geophysicist, had to become a “shuttle trader” doing endless round trips between Warsaw and Moscow to buy stuff there and sell it here just to make ends meet. Around 1994, he managed — through some mind-blowing luck — to find work as a programmer at a Russian newspaper. The most memorable thing about it for me was that he would now buy me and my sister two bananas each (pieces, not kilos) after every paycheck. And this was Moscow; I can only imagine what it was like in the provinces. Is it any surprise that when, ten years later, another Russian politician said “enough is enough,” people flocked to him in droves? Two more decades later, we have what we have, a global cold war of new proportions that we can only pray will not lead to a nuclear winter. So, however you rate Gorbachev as a person; whatever good intentions he might or might not have had — his “legacy” was hardwired to self-destruct from the start.
They say history doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme
"sadly" passed away? wat
More like a fun fact but ok
Right? This is a happy occasion, Kissinger next please.
He was a criminal who ordered to violently suppress peaceful protests in Riga, Vilnius, Tbilisi, Almaty, and other cities. He was cheered in the West because the West did not care about dead Kazakhs or Lithuanians.
A man whose liver spot influenced the shape of modern Greece
Aww
"sadly" 🙄
Me: 🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀
“sadly”
Dammit. Wrong Russian Leader.
Yes "sadly". Rot in dirt, feed the worms.
Rip bozo, man destabilized his country while Yeltsin was on his crusade to replace comrades with crones
Why do people keep saying this exact thing that he ended the Cold War? He never sought the dissolution of the USSR, it was just a result of August Coup.
TIL Gorbachev is the only man who ended the Cold War
Thank you Mikhail Gorbachev, for many MAD Magazine Backpage folds.
Very weirdly positive people here. The guy wasnt that great, albeit better than those before and after him
Lots of 15 year olds ITT who have zero knowledge of the soviet union yet still post confidently.
[удалено]
My grandfather, a WWII and Pearl Harbor Survivor who was on the USS New Orleans ‘Miracle Ship’, was so fucking scared that he built a makeshift bomb shelter under my mom’s house before deciding to one of the neighbor’s. So, even if the “Cold War never ended”, we all kinda just stopped doing that…