Gorbachev Quotations

Us reaching the moon convinced Gorbachev and other leaders that the Soviet Union couldn't compete with the U.S., so they revised their agenda. But people have short memories.

On March 11, 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union, and within a few weeks the full-scale reformation he attempted to carry out both inside his country and in its cold war relations with the West, particularly the United States, began to unfold.

Mr. Gorbachev is certainly in the upper echelon of the speakers that you'd want to have.

I experienced again in my recent conversations with Mikhail Gorbachev how much Raisa influenced her husband and his life, and how they both belonged together,

I wrote a letter to Gorbachev warning him that trouble was brewing. He replied, 'Alexander, you overestimate their intelligence and courage.' In July, I resigned. I said, 'Something's cooking, I can sense it.' He ignored me and went on holiday,

Twenty years later, then, little, if anything, is left of the historic opportunities Gorbachev opened up for his country and the world.

The opportunities that Gorbachev created for international relations have also been missed, perhaps even lost - here, however, primarily because of the United States.

The essential meaning of perestroika for Gorbachev and his supporters was creating and acting on alternatives to failed and dangerous policies at home and abroad.

Gorbachev was literally hated in the 1990s. He was seen as the destroyer of the Soviet Union, the destroyer of everything that generations and generations had built. But much of that was fueled in the '90s, as it played into the hands of Boris Yeltsin, his successor in government.

Those who warned that Gorbachev was being put under too much pressure were wrong.

Mikhail Gorbachev was the Jimmy Carter of the Communist bloc. The Russians hate him.