BERLIN (AP) – Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union and to many the man who restored democracy to communist-ruled European nations, was hailed Wednesday as a rare leader who changed the world and for a time it brought hope for peace between the superpowers.
But the man who died on Tuesday aged 91 was also reviled by many countrymen who blamed him for the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union and its decline as a superpower. The Russian nation that emerged from its Soviet past shrank as 15 new nations were created.
The loss of pride and power also led to the rise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who for the past quarter century has sought to restore Russia to its former glory and beyond.
US President Joe Biden praised Gorbachev for being open to democratic changes. Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in ending the Cold War.
“After decades of brutal political repression, he adopted democratic reforms. He believed in glasnost and perestroika, openness and restructuring, not as mere slogans, but as the way forward for the people of the Soviet Union after so many years of isolation and deprivation,” Biden said.
Biden added that “these were the acts of a rare leader, one with the imagination to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it. The result was a world more safe and more freedom for millions of people.”
Although Gorbachev was widely celebrated abroad, he was an outcast at home. Putin acknowledged that Gorbachev had “a profound impact on the course of world history.”
“He led the country during difficult and dramatic changes, amid large-scale foreign policy, economic and social challenges,” Putin said in a short telegram sending his condolences to Gorbachev’s family.
Gorbachev “realized that reforms were necessary and tried to offer his solutions to serious problems,” Putin said.
Reactions from Russian officials and lawmakers were mixed. They applauded Gorbachev for his part in ending the Cold War but censured him for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Oleg Morozov, a member of the Kremlin’s main United Russia party, said Gorbachev should have “repented” of mistakes that went against Russia’s interests.
“He was a willing or unwilling co-author of the unjust world order that our soldiers are now fighting on the battlefield,” Morozov said, referring to Russia’s current war in Ukraine.
Lech Walesa, leader of Poland’s pro-democracy Solidarity movement in the 1980s and the country’s president from 1990 to 1995, had a more nuanced view of Gorbachev. She said she “admired him, even liked him, but didn’t understand him.”
“He believed until the end that communism could be reformed, but I, on the contrary, did not believe it was possible,” Walesa told Wirtualna Polska media.
Walesa added: “He knew the Soviet Union couldn’t last much longer and he was doing everything he could to prevent the world from holding Russia accountable for communism. And there he succeeded.”
World leaders paid tribute to a man some described as a great and courageous leader.
In Germany, where Gorbachev is considered one of the fathers of the country’s reunification in 1990 and is popularly called “Gorbi”, former Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed him as “a unique world politician”.
“Gorbachev wrote the history of the world. He exemplified how a single statesman can change the world for the better,” he said, recalling how he had feared Russian tanks might reach East Germany, where he lived, when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
Current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz praised Gorbachev for paving the way for his country’s reunification, although he also noted that Gorbachev died at a time when many of his achievements have been destroyed.
“We know that he died at a time when not only has democracy in Russia failed (there is no other way to describe the current situation there), but also Russia and Russian President Putin are drawing new trenches in Europe and have started a horrible war against a neighboring country, Ukraine,” Scholz said.
Outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that “at a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, (Gorbachev’s) tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.”
French President Emmanuel Macron described Gorbachev as “a man of peace, whose election opened a path of freedom for Russians. His commitment to peace in Europe changed our shared history.”
Others in Europe challenged the positive memories of Gorbachev.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s top diplomat who is also the son of Vytautas Landsbergis, who led Lithuania’s independence movement in the early 1990s, tweeted that “Lithuanians will not glorify Gorbachev.”
Memories are still fresh in the Baltic country of January 13, 1991, when hundreds of Lithuanians marched on the Vilnius television tower to oppose Soviet troops deployed to crush the country’s bid to restore its independence. . In the clashes that followed, 14 civilians were killed and more than 140 were injured. Moscow recognized Lithuania’s independence in August of that year.
“We will never forget the simple fact that his army murdered civilians to prolong the occupation of our country by his regime. Their soldiers fired at our unarmed protesters and crushed them under their tanks. This is how we will remember him,” Landsbergis wrote.
But another Baltic leader, Latvian President Egils Levits, noted that Gorbachev’s policies enabled the eventual independence of the three Baltic countries.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Gorbachev “a unique statesman who changed the course of history” and “did more than any other individual to bring about the peaceful end of the Cold War “.
“The world has lost a towering world leader, a committed multilateralist and a tireless champion of peace,” the UN chief said.
Gorbachev’s contemporaries pointed to the end of the Cold War as one of his achievements.
“Mikhail Gorbachev played a critical role in the peaceful end of the Cold War. At home, he was a figure of historical importance, but not in the way he intended,” said Robert M. Gates, who led the CIA between 1991 and 1993 and then became US Secretary of Defense.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Gorbachev “opened the doors of the Soviet Union to the great wave of Jewish immigration to Israel in the 1990s.”
In Asia, Gorbachev was remembered as a leader with the courage to bring about change.
China recognized Gorbachev’s role in healing relations between Moscow and Beijing. Gorbachev had been an inspiration to China’s reformist thinkers in the late 1980s, and his visit to Beijing in 1989 marked a turning point in relations between the sides.
“Mr. Gorbachev made positive contributions to the normalization of relations between China and the Soviet Union. We regret his death and extend our condolences to his family,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
However, China’s Communist Party leaders also regard Gorbachev’s liberal approach as a fatal sign of weakness and his moves toward peaceful coexistence with the West as a form of surrender.
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Patrick Quinn reported from Bangkok. AP reporters around the world contributed to this report.
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