Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (1931-)

He was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 and the last supreme leader of the Soviet Union.

Born in a peasant family in Stavropol on March 2, 1931. He entered the law department of Moscow University in 1950. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1952. After graduation in 1955, he returned to work in his hometown. In December 1962, he served as the director of the Party Bureau of Stavropol agricultural border area. From September 1962 to 1967, he completed the correspondence study of Stavropol Agricultural College and obtained the diploma of agricultural economics.

Between 1966-1970, he successively served as the First Secretary of Stavropol City Party Organization, the Second Secretary and the First Secretary of the regional Party committee. From 1971 on, he became a member of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U., and successively served as a deputy to the 22nd, 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In November 1978, he was appointed a Secretary of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee. He served as a Candidate Member of the Political Bureau of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee in November 1979 and was promoted to become a member of the Political Bureau in October of the following year. On March 11, 1985, he was elected General Secretary of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee.

On October 1, 1988, he was elected Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. On May 25, 1989, he was elected President of the Supreme Soviet Union at the first Soviet People’s Congress.

On March 14, 1990, he was elected the first President of the Soviet Union at the third (extraordinary) People’s Congress. After the “August 19-22” incident in 1991, he announced his resignation from the post of General Secretary of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee and demanded that the C.P.S.U. Central Committee “should dissolve itself”.

On December 25, 1991, he resigned as President of the Soviet Union and Commander of the Soviet Armed Forces and passed the power to use nuclear weapons of the former USSR to Yeltsin as the president of the Russian Federation. On May 24, 1993, Gorbachev was elected as the first president of the “Green Cross International” at the founding congress of this organization. He led the preparations for the establishment of the Russian United Social-Democratic Party which began in September 1999, and he was elected as the leader of the Party on March 11, 2000.

After Gorbachev became the supreme leader of the C.P.S.U., he put forward a new understanding of socialism and demanded the reform of the Soviet Union and formed a set of theories about the reform of the Soviet Union and in its international relations, which were commonly known as the “New Thinking”. With the concept of “perfect socialism” instead of “developed socialism”, and with the people’s autonomy as the central goal, he outlined the blueprint of “social democratization”, and put forward the specific plan of economic and political system reform. After 1987, in his book titled as Reform and New Thinking, he advocated the concept of supra-class “democratization”, “pluralism” without principle, and abstract “humanitarianism” and “openness” without restriction, and totally denied the socialist path of the Soviet Union. In 1988, at the Party Congress of the C.P.S.U., the concept of “humane and democratic socialism” was put forward, and “socialist pluralism”, “democratization” and “openness” were adopted as the three major “reform undertakings”.

It was argued that the establishment of democratic mechanism in the field of domestic socialist economy, politics and ideology was the implementation of diversity of ownership, decentralization of the Party and the government, and pluralism of public opinion.

In February 1990 with the proposal of Gorbachev, the Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U. issued the “Draft Program of Action for A Humane, Democratic Socialism”. In June, the same year, the 28th National Congress of the C.P.S.U. formally adopted a new draft program, declaring that the goal of the reform in the Soviet Union should be to “establish a humane, democratic socialism”. The launching of the “new thinking in the international policy” and the policy orientation towards “a humane, democratic socialism” has led to a great political and ideological disunity within the Party and society and caused the reform of the USSR go astray.

In the reform of economic system, Gorbachev concocted the principles of “all kinds of ownership are equal”, “non monopolization”, “non nationalization” and “privatization”; in the reform of political system, he carried out multi-party system, presidential system and established new federal relations. The article on the leadership of the Communist Party in the constitution was cancelled, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was transformed into a “self-made social and political organization” and a “parliamentary party”.

In the field of ideology, we should abandon the guidance of Marxism, advocate “freedom and democracy are the great values of human civilization”, engage in “pluralism”, let Yakovlev’s wrong management and guidance of public opinion, acquiesce in and connive at the criticism of public opinion, directly point to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, its history and socialist system, lift the ban on a number of controversial literary and art works, and connive at a number of relatives In the west, those who were dissatisfied with the Soviet Society held the voice of public opinion. In the social field, we should allow and support the establishment of various informal organizations, including targeted and organized anti Communist and anti socialist political organizations. In the face of the protests against the Soviet Communist Party and socialism launched by these organizations, we should not take any measures, resulting in social disorder and a sharp rise in crime rate; In terms of diplomacy, it advocates that “the value of all mankind is above all else”, and the foreign policy guideline “has changed from class interests in the past to human interests all over the world in the present”, specifically implementing the mitigation strategy centered on arms control.

Gorbachev’s idea and policy of “humane and democratic socialism” led to the serious consequences of the fall of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the subjugation of the Soviet Union. He became the culprit of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the “traitor of communism”. For this reason, he was recognized and awarded by western countries.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in September 1990, and in June 2005, Gorbachev was awarded the “Point Alpha Prize” for his role in supporting German reunification by the recomendation of the German Unification Commission. He was also awarded with the Medal of Freedom by the United States on September 18, 2008.

His works include Reform and New Thinking (1987), August Coup (1992), Socialism in the Future (1994), Thinking About the Past and the Future (1998), Gorbachev’s Memoir (2003), The Unification of East and West Germany (2006), Spiritual Lessons of the 20th Century (2005), Alone Together (2012), Leaving Kremlin (2014), and others.