# Mikhail Gorbachev has died at age 91 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 30, 2022, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620 "2022-08-30T20:57:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/1 "2022-08-30T20:57:58Z")
He changed the world in so many ways, without actually wanting to. > **[Last Soviet leader Gorbachev, who ended Cold War and won Nobel prize, dies...](https://www.reuters.com/world/mikhail-gorbachev-who-ended-cold-war-dies-aged-92-agencies-2022-08-30/)** > > Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, hospital officials in Moscow said. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/2 "2022-08-30T21:06:49Z")
Didn’t realize he was still alive. Outlived every American president the Soviet Union faced except Carter. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lantern2/32/3010_2.png) [@Lantern2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern2)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/3 "2022-08-30T21:09:21Z")
This is a big one. I remember thinking about which major figures of the 20th century were still alive and concluding that Gorbachev was the biggest one. The grim reality of what Russia has become complicates his legacy but I think mostly it was a positive one. He was a humane and decent man who wanted to move a corrupt and autocratic system in the right direction. He lost control of the process in the end but Russia still had a shot at building a stable democracy in the 90’s; unfortunately it didn’t have the best leadership and was unlucky with events like the 1998 financial crisis. I think Gorbachev was the right leader for the 80s and Yeltsin the right leader for the early 90’s but if a more capable leader had emerged in the mid-late 90s the future of Russia could have been different. 1989 was the first year that I really followed international politics closely and I remember avidly reading the Time magazine profile of Gorbachev when he was named man of the decade. Haven’t read a proper biography of him though, any recommendations? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/4 "2022-08-30T21:13:52Z")
I merged the 2 threads together here in P&E. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/5 "2022-08-30T20:58:11Z")
Mikhail Gorbachev, last premier of the Soviet Union, has died today (august 30th 2022) in a Moscow hospital: > **[Last Soviet leader Gorbachev, who ended Cold War and won Nobel prize, dies...](https://www.reuters.com/world/mikhail-gorbachev-who-ended-cold-war-dies-aged-92-agencies-2022-08-30/)** > > Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, hospital officials in Moscow said. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/6 "2022-08-30T21:01:43Z")
That makes me really sad. Like for almost every German, he will always have a place in my heart, which no other politician has except also Willy Brandt. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/7 "2022-08-30T21:06:46Z")
> [@Reuters](#): > > who ended the Cold War without bloodshed In that the Soviet Union (and the rest of Eastern Europe communist regimes) collapsed around him without him killing people in a last ditch attempt to keep it going, yes. I suppose it’s selfish of me to wish that he had done more to accomplish a decent transition. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/8 "2022-08-30T21:09:32Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I suppose it’s selfish of me to wish that he had done more to accomplish a decent transition. He didn’t stand a chance. When the crucial decisions for the future of what had been the USSR were made, Yeltsin already held the reins. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/9 "2022-08-30T21:10:58Z")
There is an interesting quote at the end of the Reuters article I linked to: _«After visiting Gorbachev in hospital on June 30, liberal economist Ruslan Grinberg told the armed forces news outlet Zvezda: “He gave us all freedom - but we don’t know what to do with it.”»_ ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/10 "2022-08-30T21:12:12Z")
That’s a great quote. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/11 "2022-08-30T21:36:57Z")
> [@JoseB](#): > > “He gave us all freedom - but we don’t know what to do with it.” Yep, that pretty much sums it up. He did something almost unprecedented in human history. He rose to the top of a brutal dictatorship, had all the power that implies, and then he _gave it away_. Not because someone forced him to, or because he was incompetent, but because he realized that the system he’d worked within for his entire life was just not sustainable. It had to be reformed, and big part of that was giving up the levels of control that the USSR had come to expect as normal. It all fell apart because not enough regular people understood what he wanted to do, and far too many in leadership positions saw this new freedom as an opportunity to steal everything they could, and take up the power that Gorbachev had laid down. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/12 "2022-08-30T22:00:57Z")
For a politician, he seems to have had an unusual amount of integrity. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/13 "2022-08-30T22:01:56Z")
It’s such a shame what Russia ended up turning into. Think Putin will give him a state funeral? He hated him, but I imagine he’d do it for the propaganda value. Of course very few foreign dignitaries will be in attendance. I wonder if they’ll break out the old flags. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/14 "2022-08-30T22:05:15Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I suppose it’s selfish of me to wish that he had done more to accomplish a decent transition I wish he had as well but he was undone by those stupid coup perpetrators. That coup is my personal favourite historical “what if”. Very, very sad. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/15 "2022-08-30T22:12:49Z")
I always respected him for making that [cameo appearance](https://youtu.be/hZgmcm7nLjE?t=15) in the _Naked Gun_ movie. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/16 "2022-08-30T22:24:35Z")
But are we _blaming_ him for giving away the SSSR to kleptocrats and dictators? How could he better have dealt with them? Besides pushing for far-reaching economic plans already in the 1970s… ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/17 "2022-08-30T22:45:48Z")
Fun fact! Not only was he the last head of the USSR, he was the only leader of the USSR to be born there. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/18 "2022-08-30T22:54:45Z")
Seconded. Sigh… ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/19 "2022-08-30T23:32:18Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > But are we _blaming_ him for giving away the SSSR to kleptocrats and dictators? I’m not blaming him. If I blame anyone, it’s Yeltsin. He created the conditions that let Putin take over. I’m not sure that there was any way Gorbachev could have avoided the problems in the mid-90s. Clearly the USSR had to change, but after so many years of poor leadership, oppression and corruption, it may have been impossible to fix things. But I respect the fact that he really tried. It wasn’t just cosmetic changes for appearances’ sake, he really did want to fix things. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/20 "2022-08-30T23:52:07Z")
RIP Gorbachev. I was only a kid when he was in office, but I still remember how he was seen as the “good guy” in the USSR. His legacy is well-deserved. _Dasvidaniya_ comrade. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620.md?page=2)