Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev poses for a portrait in 2009.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev had humble beginnings: he was born into a peasant family in Privolnoye on March 2, 1931. Here, he is with his parents in Privolnoye.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev with his maternal grandparents, Panteley and Vasilisa Gopkalo, circa 1937.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev, far right, poses for a photo with his colleagues, circa 1947.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev, wearing a hat, is seen with his comrades in the 1940s.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev, seen here in 1984, became a member of the Communist Party in 1952 and received a law degree from Moscow University in 1955. By the late 1960s, he had risen to the top of the party hierarchy in the region of Stavropol.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher pose for a photograph in London as they meet in December 1984. Thatcher once called him “a man to do business with”.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev, center, attends an International Women’s Day gala in Moscow in March 1985. In 1980 he became a full member of the Politburo and in 1985 rose to the top of the party. This effectively made him the leader of the Soviet Union.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev follows pallbearers carrying the casket of his predecessor as Soviet leader, Konstantin Chernenko, in Red Square in Moscow in March 1985.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan hold a historic ‘fireside chat’ in Geneva, Switzerland in November 1985. The two had a series of talks at the summit.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev and Reagan attend the closing ceremony of the Geneva Summit in November 1985.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, are received in Prague, Czechoslovakia, April 1987.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev visits Bucharest, Romania, May 1987.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev salutes during a parade in Moscow in November 1987.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev speaks with Reagan at the start of a summit in Washington, DC, December 1987.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev and Reagan sign an arms control agreement in December 1987 that bans the use of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev shakes hands with businessman — and future US president — Donald Trump at the US State Department in December 1987. It was before a lunch held in Gorbachev’s honor.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev shows Reagan around Red Square during Reagan’s visit to Moscow in May 1988.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev, bottom right, and members of the Politburo vote to remove Andrei Gromyko, bottom center, as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in October 1988. Gorbachev would then succeed him in the role.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev visits New York with Reagan and US Vice President George HW Bush in December 1988.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
A Moscow woman and her cat watch Gorbachev’s New Year message in December 1988.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev and Cuban President Fidel Castro wave during Gorbachev’s visit to Cuba in April 1989.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev greets East German leader Erich Honecker after arriving in East Berlin in October 1989.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev addresses a group of business executives in San Francisco in 1990.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Coretta Scott King presents Gorbachev with the Albert Einstein Award for his contribution to peace in June 1990.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev gives a speech after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in June 1991. He was awarded “for his leading role in the peace process that today characterizes important parts of the international community.”
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev shakes hands with Bush, then president, in Moscow in July 1991.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev rubs his eyes while speaking in Moscow in August 1991. He threatened to resign if the Soviet Union collapsed. That month, his country’s hardliners staged a revolt while Gorbachev was on vacation in Crimea. Boris Yeltsin, the president of the largest Soviet republic and a fierce critic of what he considered Gorbachev’s half-way reforms, came to Gorbachev’s rescue, confronting and defeating the coup plotters.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev held a press conference the day after returning from Crimea in August 1991. He had been held captive in his dacha by coup plotters who were trying to remove him from power to stop his economic reform policies. The coup leaders had publicly stated that Gorbachev was leaving office due to health problems. Here, Gorbachev has a crumpled note that he had hidden on his body to explain what really happened in case he was killed.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev closes his resignation speech after delivering it on Soviet television in December 1991. Throughout the Soviet Union, one republic after another declared independence. Shortly after his speech, the Soviet hammer and sickle flag was taken down from the Kremlin, and in its place was raised the white, blue and red flag of Russia.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev and Reagan spend time together at Reagan’s ranch in California in May 1992. Both were no longer in power.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
From left, Bush, Gorbachev and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl attend a ceremony at Prague Castle in 1999. They were among six former world leaders to receive the Order of the White Lion, the highest award Czech state
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbechev bows at Reagan’s funeral in June 2004.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin before a press conference in Germany in December 2004.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
CNN founder Ted Turner and Gorbachev answered questions during a United Nations press conference in 2005. Gorbachev was presenting Turner with the Alan Cranston Peace Prize later that day.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev shakes hands with a member of Green Cross International during a tour of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward in 2007. Gorbachev founded Green Cross International, an environmental organization.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shake hands at the UN’s European headquarters in 2009. The theme for the day was “resetting the nuclear disarmament agenda”.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev appears on stage during the finale of the Gorby 80 Gala in London in 2011. The concert celebrated Gorbachev’s 80th birthday.