Mikhail Gorbachev

Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone review – ingenious, essential viewing from Adam Curtis

Showing everyone from reindeer herders to scientists wrapping themselves in sticky tape to head into Chernobyl, this fine series traces the latterday Russian revolution that brought in a kleptocracy and paved the way for Putin

Stuart Jeffries

13, Oct, 2022 @8:37 AM

Mikhail Gorbachev’s commitment to the environment was ahead of its time

After stepping down as Soviet leader he devoted himself to ‘the most urgent task facing humanity today’

Amelia Gentleman

04, Sep, 2022 @10:00 AM

Gorbachev freed my generation of eastern Europeans from the abyss. We saw a different future | Ivan Krastev

The man who liberalised the Soviet Union died last week, beset by a sense that his country had been betrayed – by the west and history

Ivan Krastev

04, Sep, 2022 @7:00 AM

The Observer view on Mikhail Gorbachev: he drew a line under a wretched past but failed to usher in a brighter future | Observer editorial

Hailed a hero by the west for banishing Stalin’s legacy and ending the cold war, he was ultimately reviled at home

Observer editorial

04, Sep, 2022 @5:30 AM

‘His was the slow way to freedom’: Russia says farewell to Mikhail Gorbachev

Putin has snubbed him, but thousands have come to see the last Soviet leader lying in state in Moscow

Andrew Roth in Moscow

03, Sep, 2022 @4:10 PM

Mikhail Gorbachev funeral held in Moscow as Putin too busy to attend

Hundreds of mourners pay tribute in Russian capital to former Soviet leader credited with helping to end cold war

Andrew Roth in Moscow

03, Sep, 2022 @2:40 PM

Once the world had Gorbachev and Mandela. Now we have Trump, Johnson and Truss | Jonathan Freedland

The Soviet leader’s death is a reminder that the ‘great man theory’ of history is truer than we might like to think, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland

Jonathan Freedland

02, Sep, 2022 @4:23 PM

Putin to snub Gorbachev funeral due to work schedule

Russian president lays wreath at hospital where Soviet leader died but will not attend service, Kremlin says

Andrew Roth in Moscow

01, Sep, 2022 @2:18 PM

The Guardian view on Gorbachev’s legacy: the hope endures | Editorial

Editorial: Russia’s post-Soviet experiment in democracy failed, but the dream of its political freedom must be preserved

Editorial

31, Aug, 2022 @5:36 PM

Gorbachev was let down by the west. Putin’s Russia is the result | Letters

Letters: With better support from the US and Britain, Russia could have been a very different place today, says Michael Meadowcroft, while Bill Robinson remembers photographing the Thatchers and the Gorbachevs in Moscow

Letters

31, Aug, 2022 @5:18 PM

Kremlin fails to say whether Gorbachev will get state funeral

Putin acknowledges last Soviet leader’s ‘huge impact’ while grappling with his legacy of reform

Andrew Roth in Moscow

31, Aug, 2022 @2:31 PM

A peaceful yet radical social transformer: Mikhail Gorbachev leaves a blazing legacy | Archie Brown

No western leader could have predicted his progressive reforms. But war between his country and Ukraine was a devastating blow, says Archie Brown, an emeritus professor of politics at Oxford University

Archie Brown

31, Aug, 2022 @2:01 PM