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?