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Today: April 17, 2025

Mikhail Gorbachev Fast Facts

January 12, 2013

Hereโ€™s a look at the life of Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the USSR.

Personal

Birth date: March 2, 1931

Death date: August 30, 2022

Birth place: Privolnoye, Russia, Soviet Union

Birth name: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

Father: Sergei Andreyevich Gorbachev

Mother: Maria (Gopkalo) Gorbacheva

Marriage: Raisa (Titarenko) Gorbacheva (1953-September 20, 1999, her death)

Children: Irina

Education: Moscow State University, Faculty of Law (1955), Stavropol Agricultural Institute, Faculty of Economy (1967)

Other Facts

Nominated for one Grammy Award and won one.

Timeline

1952 - Joins the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and works in various positions in the party for the next two decades.

1955-1958 - Becomes the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Stavropol Komsomol City Committee.

1963 - Becomes chief of the Agriculture Department in the Stavropol region.

1970-1978 - Named the first secretary for the Communist Party in the Stavropol region.

1970-1990 - Deputy of the Supreme Soviet, the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union.

1971 - Becomes a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

March 11, 1985 - Elected general secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. In this post, he is effectively the leader of the USSR.

1985-1988 - Participates in a series of summit talks with US President Ronald Reagan.

1987 - Signs the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty with the United States to limit nuclear weapons.

1989 - Announces the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan.

1989-1990 - Chairman of the Supreme Soviet.

1990 - Becomes president of the USSR.

1990 - Wins the Nobel Peace Prize for helping end the Cold War.

December 21, 1991 - USSR dissolves and the Commonwealth of Independent States is formally established.

December 25, 1991 - Resigns as president of the USSR.

1992-2022 - Founder and president of The International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (The Gorbachev Foundation)

1993-2000 - Founds and serves as president of Green Cross International, an environmental organization.

1996 - Runs for election in Russia, but receives only 1% of the vote.

November 24, 2001 - Is elected head of the Social Democratic Party of Russia.

February 8, 2004 - Wins a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, for โ€œProkofiev: Peter and the Wolf/Beintus: Wolf Tracks.โ€ He shares the award with Sophia Loren and former US President Bill Clinton.

May 2004 - Resigns from the Social Democratic Party of Russia over conflicts with party direction and leadership.

January 2006 - Along with a business partner, Gorbachev buys 49% of shares in the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper.

August 2007 - Appears in print advertisements for Louis Vuitton leather goods.

October 2007 - Becomes head of a new Russian political movement, Union of Social Democrats.

September 19, 2008 - Receives the 2008 Liberty Medal, awarded each year by the National Constitution Center, which is chaired by former US President George H.W. Bush.

November 2009 - Attends ceremonies in Berlin, marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

March 2, 2011 - On his 80th birthday, Gorbachev is awarded Russiaโ€™s highest honor, the Order of St. Andrew, by President Dmitry Medvedev.

March 7, 2013 - In an interview with the BBC, Gorbachev is critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and says, โ€œFor goodness sake, you shouldnโ€™t be afraid of your own people.โ€

May 26, 2016 - The Ukraine bans Gorbachev after he shows support for Russiaโ€™s annexation of Crimea.

January 26, 2017 - Writes a piece for Time magazine titled, โ€œIt All Looks as if the World Is Preparing for War,โ€ in which he says the most urgent problem we face is โ€œthe militarization of politics and the new arms race.โ€

December 4, 2018 - In an opinion piece in the Washington Post on US President Donald Trumpโ€™s intention to withdraw from the INF treaty, which Gorbachev and Reagan signed in 1987, Gorbachev and former US Secretary of State George Shultz write that abandoning the treaty โ€œthreatens our very existence.โ€

August 30, 2022 - Gorbachev dies after a long illness, according to official Russian news agencies.

The-CNN-Wire
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