# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/21 "2022-08-31T01:40:08Z")
I can’t think of Gorbachev without thinking of the scene in Naked Gun refenced by Dewey\_Finn. I disagree with the notion that he “ended the Cold War”. Nobody told Putin, and he’s still waging it. Gotta give the guy some credit, not many dictators step down peacefully and die of old age. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/22 "2022-08-31T02:01:10Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > not many dictators step down peacefully and die of old age If he was a dictator then I would say that he was a reluctant one who did the most one could do to finesse the end of the dictatorship at great cost to himself. I was in the military at the time and I remember being at sea in the mid '80s and being shadowed by a Soviet Krivak frigate and overflown by a Bear D maritime patrol aircraft on a daily basis for three weeks. Gorbachev’s time was one of great optimism before that damn coup happened. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/23 "2022-08-31T02:07:13Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > Gorbachev’s time was one of great optimism… Sigh. I miss optimism in the political sphere. R.I.P. Mr. Gorbachev. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/24 "2022-08-31T14:12:01Z")
> [@Lantern2](#): > > The grim reality of what Russia has become complicates his legacy but I think mostly it was a positive one. Yes, and it seems he is reviled among modern Russians. He’s depicted as the man that destroyed the soviet union, and the economy, then (worst of all) appeared on a pizza hut commercial. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/25 "2022-08-31T14:29:07Z")
So passes an age… The August coup basically made it obvious he was not feared _and neither were the communist hardliners._ The capital sin for any Russian/Soviet leader, a sociopolitical culture where they’d look at Machiavelli like he’s nuts for even asking about feared vs. loved. That killed the chances for a soft landing and a controlled transition. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/26 "2022-08-31T21:39:52Z")
Maybe Russia isn’t much better off today, for his efforts… but it’s not just about Russia. Most of Eastern Europe is now mostly-free and mostly well-led. Would that have been possible without Gorbachev? ---
**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 31, 2022, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/27 "2022-08-31T21:40:58Z")
Maybe someone else also would have, but he is the one that actually did it. So full marks for doing so. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/28 "2022-08-31T21:44:17Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > Gorbachev’s time was one of great optimism before that damn coup happened. I was in my 20s during the late '80s and early '90s – maybe I was too naive, but I definitely had the sense, at that time, that after decades of the Cold War, and the ever-present threat of WW III, that things really _had_ changed, and for the better. ---
**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 31, 2022, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/29 "2022-08-31T23:01:55Z")
I just watched Werner Herzog’s documentary “Meeting Gorbachev” from 2018 on German TV (ARD), shown in his honor, and I didn’t know it existed. I can only recommend it, as always Herzog just naturally asks the right questions and shows the right pictures (including much archival footage and lengthy interview parts). This doc shows once more that Gorbachev was a real mensch. > **[Meeting Gorbachev (2018) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8811382/)** > > Meeting Gorbachev: Directed by Werner Herzog, André Singer. With Mikhail Gorbachev, Werner Herzog, André Singer, Leonid Brezhnev. The life of Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and final President of the Soviet Union in chronological order. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/30 "2022-08-31T23:18:26Z")
I wonder if CNN will air it in the days to come. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2022, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/31 "2022-08-31T23:54:14Z")
Gorby did a great favor for the world. And then we pissed it away. RIP Mikhail, hope you learned a lesson about doing the right thing. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2022, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/32 "2022-09-02T13:01:58Z")
I was impressed that he played himself in _Faraway, So Close!_ Consoled by an angel. “I’m sure that a secure world can’t be built on blood, only on harmony.” ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2022, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/33 "2022-09-02T14:42:49Z")
There will be elements of a state funeral, but nothing announced yet. Putin is too busy to attend – he’s rewriting history for schoolchildren. As you said, it’s unlikely many foreign leaders would attend so they have to plan accordingly to save face. It would be nice if his death stirred some of the older generation a little. > **[Putin snubs funeral of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev | CNN](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/09/01/europe/state-funeral-gorbachev-russia-intl/index.html)** > > Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of Mikhail Gorbachev, the Kremlin said Thursday, in a snub of the former Soviet leader with whom the Russian President had a fraught relationship. ---
**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:** [September 2, 2022, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/34 "2022-09-02T14:47:49Z")
Being “snubbed” by the likes of Putin is probably the best way of honoring Gorbachev there is. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2022, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/35 "2022-09-02T15:58:17Z")
I suppose I can buy that under current circumstances an actual official State Funeral, that would mean the expected presence of high-level officials both foreign and domestic, would get pretty damn awkward for everybody. Better to NOT have Vlad in attendance if this is the excuse it takes. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2022, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620/36 "2022-09-02T19:51:22Z")
I agree. Most likely, Kamala Harris will attend on behalf of the U.S. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mikhail-gorbachev-has-died-at-age-91/970620.md?page=1)