Mikhail Gorbachev Died

The former president of the USSR died at the age of 92.

The first president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, died at the age of 92 after a long illness, RIA Novosti was told at the Central Clinical Hospital.

“Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev died this evening after a severe and prolonged illness,” the Central Clinical Hospital reported.

Mikhail Gorbachev was born in what is now the Stavropol Territory. From the age of 15 he worked as an assistant combine operator. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University and the correspondence department of the Stavropol Agricultural Institute. He began his career in the Stavropol Komsomol committee, then worked in the local bureau of the CPSU.

In 1971 he was elected a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, in 1985 he became General Secretary of the Central Committee. As head of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev announced a course towards liberalization in the country, which he called “perestroika”, and also went towards rapprochement with the West.

In February 1990, Gorbachev was elected president of the USSR, becoming the first and last person in this position. In August of the same year, a group of top Soviet leaders tried to remove him, announcing the creation of the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP), but the coup failed.

Gorbachev resigned as president in December 1991, after the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus signed the Belavezha Accords to liquidate the USSR and create the CIS. After leaving politics, he created and headed the International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Science Research (Gorbachev-Fund). In 1996, he participated in the presidential elections in Russia, gaining 0.51% of the vote.

In 1990 Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize.

The first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, and Chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus Stanislau Shushkevich also died this year.