Mikhail Gorbachev
1931–2022 · Soviet/Russian (Privolnoye / Moscow) · End of Cold War
Known for: Last leader of the Soviet Union—glasnost and perestroika ended the Cold War but dissolved the USSR
Gorbachev introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) to reform the Soviet system, inadvertently destroying it. He ended the Cold War, allowed Eastern Europe to go free, signed arms reduction treaties with Reagan, and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
He's a hero in the West and widely despised in Russia for presiding over the collapse of a superpower. He did Pizza Hut commercials in the 1990s, which tells you everything about the post-Soviet 1990s.
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