I have come not to bury Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, but to praise him. One of the most remarkable world leaders from an increasingly hard to visualize era passed away Tuesday, August 30. He was 91. 

Last week I watched the American President – Aaron Sorkin’s 1995 masterpiece.1 Once again I was so jolted by observing how radically different the political landscape appears now. President Shepherd’s emotions, passions and agendas appear almost quaint now nearly 30 years later. The antagonist in the movie, Senator Bob Rumson, looks more like a Saturday Night Live caricature than current conservatives.

No parent ever wants to outlive their children and no statesman wants to outlive his or her legacy. Imagine how Gorbachev felt comparing the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent rise of an open, free Russia in the early to mid-1990s with the current reality as Putin’s Russia invaded the sovereign nation of Ukraine without sanction or provocation. At that moment it seemed as though the Herculean efforts of his entire professional life were reduced to ashes.

It is hard to overstate what a revolution Gorbachev represented, coming to power as General Secretary of the Soviet Union in 1985 at the tender age of 54. He succeeded a run of decrepit Soviet hardliners and served as the eighth and final leader of the USSR.  

Gorbachev will be remembered for Glasnost, Perestroika and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent end of the Cold War. 

In less than six years (1985-91), Gorbachev accomplished the following: 2 

• Reopened positive relations to the West
• Participated in summit meetings with the United States
• Pulled Soviet troops out of Afghanistan after more than a decade of fighting
• Made overtures to Europe and establishing a “Common European Home”
• Renewed efforts to restore strong relations with China
• Tore down the Berlin Wall
• Unilaterally reduced Soviet Armed Forces by 500,000
• Won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize
• Signed nuclear non-proliferation treaties with the United States and NATO
• Allowed limited freedom of the press
• Allowed religion to emerge from secrecy
• Reformed governmental structures to include more voices
• Rejected the Brezhnev Doctrine, which called for military intervention in satellite states
• Granted free elections and eventually independence to former annexed nations, such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Ukraine

You’re not going to believe this, but none of the things on the list above were exactly easy tasks, especially under the microscope of the Politburo, the KGB and other dark, shadowy figures seen in every spy movie you’ve ever watched.

Finally in 1991, the KGB did come. Gorbachev was undeterred.

Hard-liners from Moscow knew he was vulnerable. In the summer of 1991, they sent the head of the KGB to Gorbachev’s vacation home in Crimea, on the Black Sea, to hold the Soviet leader hostage. Gorbachev told his guests they were killing the country.

“The demand was made: ‘You will resign.’ I said, ‘You will never live that long,’ ” Gorbachev recalled. “And I said, ‘Convey that to those who sent you. I have nothing more to say to you.’ “4

One of the things that shaped his life was living through Nazi occupation in Privolnoye, later saying in an interview with the Academy of Achievement, “This was all happening right in front of our eyes, the eyes of the children. Thus, you see, I belong to the so-called children-of-the-war generation. The war left a heavy mark on us, a painful mark. This is permanent, and this is what determined a lot of things in my life.”

Gorbachev stood for what many in the last days of the Soviet Union could not fathom let alone voice: hope.

I was a fearful kid growing up in the 1980s. The saber rattling of the Cold War was reaching its crescendo and Ronald Reagan seemed determined to destroy the Soviet Union by whatever means necessary. The threat of another world war seemed imminent and I was consumed by the need to read and learn about how the world got to this point. I grew up across the Columbia River from the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant. When Chernobyl happened, I was even more panicked. 

I remember being on a family vacation to Disneyland when Reagan made his famous Berlin Wall speech. 5  Truly a watershed moment. Watching the Wall come down was one of the best memories of my young life. Finally it seemed like the apocalypse had been avoided or at least delayed. 

Several years after resigning, Gorbachev appeared in a now iconic Pizza Hut commercial. The franchise opened its first store in Moscow’s Red Square in 1990 – the first American fast food place to be allowed inside the Iron Curtain. The 60-second spot is a master class on how Russians viewed the last leader of the USSR. 6

One need not wonder what Gorbachev thought about the current leadership in Russia. He watched in abject horror along with the rest of us.

In stark contrast to the last leader of the Soviet Union, Putin will be remembered for unprovoked invasions and unrestrained brutality to all challengers – real and imagined. That and his penchant for appearing shirtless in YouTube videos. 7 

Putin launched the largest unprovoked European land war in 70 years against Ukraine, began his career with a draconian response to the uprising in Chechnya and has pushed Russian to the brink of financial ruin – save for the oligarchs he so savagely protects.

“It is evident, for example, that force and the threat of force can no longer be, and should not be, instruments of foreign policy,” Mr. Gorbachev told the United Nations on Dec. 7, 1988 — a message that clearly never reached Putin. 8 

As Russian tanks crossed the borders into Ukraine in February, Gorbachev lamented the suffering to come, ​​”There is nothing in the world more precious than human lives.” 9 

Putin reviled Gorbachev, his one time mentor, for allowing the Soviet Union to disintegrate. In something straight out of a Real Housewives script, the despot will not allow a state funeral. 

Quite a contrast. Gorbachev knew lasting democracy never comes without a fight. 

Despite the struggles, Gorbachev chose hope. 

FOOTNOTES

1 Next time you watch American President, remember that Sorkin freely admitted years later that he was using crack cocaine daily while working on the screenplay… for three straight years. 

2 This is by no meant a comprehensive list and is detailed in rough chronological order

3 This video of Trojan being destroyed is one of the first videos I ever watched on my Blackberry

4 Quote from NPR’s obituary

5 This is a fascinating recount written by Reagan’s speechwriter, Peter Robinson on the background of Berlin Wall speech

6 The true story of the Pizza Hut commercial, from the BBC

7 Fear not, I am not going to link them here, because I have no desire to feed the ego of a soulless dictator

8 Quote from The New York Times obituary

9 Quote from The Washington Post obituary