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.
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.
Sigh. I miss optimism in the political sphere.
R.I.P. Mr. Gorbachev.
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.
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.
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?
Maybe someone else also would have, but he is the one that actually did it. So full marks for doing so.
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.
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.
I wonder if CNN will air it in the days to come.
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.
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.”
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.
Being “snubbed” by the likes of Putin is probably the best way of honoring Gorbachev there is.
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.
I agree.
Most likely, Kamala Harris will attend on behalf of the U.S.