There are 3 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 481 times. The latest Post () was by UK Man.
Two words I will always associate with Gorbachev - glasnost and perestroika (openness and restructuring). he always appeared to be the friendly face of the Soviet Union and was the spark to end the Cold War.
We thought that his openness, lack of militaristic aggression, and willingness to work with western countries would change the old USSR/new Russia forever. Sadly, wrong.
Just read this, from JV Last of The Bulwark:
QuoteIn a 2018 poll by the respected Levada Center (another byproduct of Gorbachev’s reforms), 66 percent of Russians respondedthat they regretted the collapse of the Soviet Union. So, of course, does Gorbachev. His ambition was to perfect the country, not to end it.
Yet Russians seem to blame him for the catastrophe. A 2017 Levada poll found that only 1 percent of Russians expressed admiration for Gorbachev, 30 percent professed to dislike him, and 13 percent said their overall attitude was one of disgust or hatred. (Yeltsin, who died in 2007, received almost identical ratings.) As a leader, Russians rank Gorbachev well below Joseph Stalin.
“I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been able to process this fact. How could Russians not revere the man who climbed down from total power over them and then willingly went away? FFS, Gorbachev was one of only three Soviet leaders to leave office alive. For all I know, he was the first Russian leader to walk out on his own two feet maybe . . . ever?
“I’m not sure what the lessons are here.
If you are an optimist, you say that Gorbachev showed how much leverage a wise leader can exercise over events for the cause of good.
If you are a pessimist, you say that Gorbachev showed how little profit there is for a leader to serve the cause of good.”
Compared to the f'ing nutcase they have in charge the now Gorby was an angel.
