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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 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]
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.
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.
Although Gorbachev was mourned in the Western world, reactions to his death within Russia were less positive. Reporting on Gorbachev's death, Russian media had little to say regarding his death; [16] Russian tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda stated that Gorbachev had "changed the world too irreversibly for his ideological opponents". [17]
Mr Gorbachev’s death at the age of 91 has inspired an outpouring of tributes from world leaders. Many made reference to the timing of his death during the worst period of relations between ...
STORY: The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was laid to rest on Saturday (September 3).Gorbachev, who presided over the Soviet Union from 1985 until its collapse in 1991, died on Tuesday ...
However, the first and only Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, was elected by the democratically elected Congress of People's Deputies. [9] In connection with the dissolution of the Soviet Union national elections for the office of President never took place. To be elected to the office a person must have been a Soviet citizen and older than ...