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At the age of 54, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected to the general secretariat by Politburo on 11 March 1985. [29] In May 1985, Gorbachev publicly admitted the slowing down of the economic development and inadequate living standards, being the first Soviet leader to do so while also beginning a series of fundamental reforms.
Shortly after Chernenko's death, on 11 March 1985, , the Politburo unanimously elected Gorbachev as his successor. [ 33 ] [ 34 ] He thus became the eighth leader of the Soviet Union. [ 35 ] Few in the government imagined that he would be as radical a reformer as he proved. [ 36 ]
Gorbachev's security detail managed to construct a makeshift television antenna so he and his family could watch the press conference. [39] After viewing the conference, Gorbachev expressed confidence that Yeltsin would be able to stop the coup. That night, his family smuggled out a videotape of Gorbachev condemning the coup.
Russians who came for a last look at former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday mourned both the man and his policies that gave them hope. President Vladimir Putin claimed to be too busy ...
Mikhail Gorbachev, who as the last leader of the Soviet Union waged a losing battle to salvage a crumbling empire but produced extraordinary reforms that led to the end of the Cold War, died Tuesday.
Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Soviet leader who knocked down the walls between East and West, dies at 91.
Gorbachev's father had joined the Red Army and fought on the frontlines; he was wrongly declared dead during the conflict and fought in the Battle of Kursk before returning to his family, injured. [20] After Germany was defeated, Gorbachev's parents had their second son, Aleksandr, in 1947; he and Mikhail would be their only children. [11]
The following day Yeltsin moved into Gorbachev's former office, [166] though the Russian authorities had taken over the suite two days earlier. The Soviet Armed Forces were placed under the command of the Commonwealth of Independent States , but were eventually subsumed by the newly independent republics, with the bulk becoming the Armed Forces ...