Mikhail Gorbachev

Statesman

1931-03-02 – 2022-08-30

Mikhail Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian statesman who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union. He is known for reforms including glasnost and perestroika and for his role in ending the Cold War era.

Quotes by Mikhail Gorbachev

We could only solve our problems by cooperating with other countries. It would have been paradoxical not to cooperate. And therefore we needed to put an end to the Iron Curtain, to change the nature of international relations, to rid them of ideological confrontation, and particularly to end the arms race.
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A society should never become like a pond with stagnant water, without movement. That's the most important thing.
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What we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars.
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Without perestroika, the cold war simply would not have ended. But the world could not continue developing as it had, with the stark menace of nuclear war ever present.
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Ex-Presidents of the United States get state subsidies. Not so in Russia. You get no government support.
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Starting reforms in the Soviet Union was only possible from above, only from above. Any attempt to go from below was suppressed, suppressed in a most resolute way.
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Political leaders still think things can be done through force, but that cannot solve terrorism. Backwardness is the breeding ground of terror, and that is what we have to fight.
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Imagine a country that flies into space, launches Sputniks, creates such a defense system, and it can't resolve the problem of women's pantyhose. There's no toothpaste, no soap powder, not the basic necessities of life. It was incredible and humiliating to work in such a government.
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Sometimes people ask me why I began perestroika. Were the causes basically domestic or foreign? The domestic reasons were undoubtedly the main ones, but the danger of nuclear war was so serious that it was a no less significant factor.
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America must be the teacher of democracy, not the advertiser of the consumer society. It is unrealistic for the rest of the world to reach the American living standard.
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We are not abandoning our convictions, our philosophy or traditions, nor do we urge anyone to abandon theirs.
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On the day I became Soviet leader, in March 1985, I had a special meeting with the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries and told them: 'You are independent, and we are independent. You are responsible for your policies, we are responsible for ours. We will not intervene in your affairs, I promise you.'
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I grew up in a family of peasants, and it was there that I saw the way that, for example, our wheat fields suffered as a result of dust storms, water erosion and wind erosion; I saw the effect of that on life - on human life.
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Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.
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We are all passengers aboard one ship, the Earth, and we must not allow it to be wrecked. There will be no second Noah's Ark.
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People, human beings with all their creative diversity, are the makers of history.
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In effect, according to Lenin, socialism and democracy are indivisible. By gaining democratic freedoms the working masses come to power.
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