# How was Gorbachev able to survive the collapse of the Soviet Union while living in Russia?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gorbachev-able-to-survive-the-collapse-of-the-soviet-union-while-living-in-russia/970781
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 2, 2022, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gorbachev-able-to-survive-the-collapse-of-the-soviet-union-while-living-in-russia/970781 "2022-09-02T03:12:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2022, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gorbachev-able-to-survive-the-collapse-of-the-soviet-union-while-living-in-russia/970781/1 "2022-09-02T03:12:12Z")
It’s always intrigued me how Gorbachev, who presided over the collapse of the Soviet Union managed to survive living in Russia without being assassinated.Putin(a Communist apparatchik that he was) had no love for Gorbachev. He snubbed his funeral as well.
---
### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2022, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gorbachev-able-to-survive-the-collapse-of-the-soviet-union-while-living-in-russia/970781/2 "2022-09-02T03:21:53Z")
Gorbachev, with all his faults, was well respected around the world. He was a true world leader; while many didn’t like what he did, others appreciated it. He was globally well-liked, and had he been assassinated, it would have demonstrated that Russia was a genuinely lawless state… which, of course, it now is under Putin. I think killing him would have caused an upheaval in Russia that not even Putin wanted to deal with.
---
### Author:  [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2022, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gorbachev-able-to-survive-the-collapse-of-the-soviet-union-while-living-in-russia/970781/3 "2022-09-02T05:19:37Z")
The last attempt on Gorbachev’s life was in 1990
---
### Author:  [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2022, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gorbachev-able-to-survive-the-collapse-of-the-soviet-union-while-living-in-russia/970781/4 "2022-09-02T11:29:45Z")
He’d become a political irrelevance once Yeltsin had elbowed him aside. He was more use to Putin as evidence that dissidents weren’t necessarily all disappeared or defenestrated - as long as they presented no real threat.