Mikhail Gorbachev: Soviet leader who ended Cold War dies

He was 91.

Gorbachev assumed power  in 1985 and soon opened up the Soviet Union ushering in reforms with the two Russian words- Glasnost and Perestroika- becoming the magic password to change the country and the way the world would see the former USSR. While Glasnost meant increased "openness and transparency" in government institutions and functioning Perestroika meant “restructuring".

Mikhail Gorbachev was one of the prominent political figures of the 20th century and had brought the Cold War to a peaceful end.

According to reports, he died in a Moscow hospital after suffering from a long and serious illness.

"Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and long illness," the hospital told reporters as quoted  by Sputnik.

In the year 1990, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye, Stavropol Krai, to a poor peasant family of Russian and Ukrainian heritage. Growing up under the rule of Joseph Stalin, in his youth he operated combine harvesters on a collective farm before joining the Communist Party, which then governed the Soviet Union as a one-party state according to the prevailing interpretation of Marxist–Leninist doctrine.

While studying at Moscow State University, he married fellow student Raisa Titarenko in 1953 prior to receiving his law degree in 1955.

Moving to Stavropol, he worked for the Komsomol youth organization and, after Stalin's death, became a keen proponent of the de-Stalinization reforms of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

He was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee in 1970, in which position he oversaw construction of the Great Stavropol Canal. In 1978, he returned to Moscow to become a Secretary of the party's Central Committee, and in 1979 joined its governing Politburo.

Within three years of the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, following the brief regimes of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, the Politburo elected Gorbachev as General Secretary, the de facto head of government, in 1985.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has condoled the death of the leader.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expresses deep condolences over the death of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and will send a telegram to his family and friends in the morning, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik.

Meanwhile, world leaders mourned his death with US President Joe Biden saying: " Mikhail Gorbachev was a man of remarkable vision."

"We send our deepest condolences to his family and friends, and to people everywhere who benefited from his belief in a better world," he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Gorbachev's "commitment to peace in Europe changed our common history", reports BBC.

British PM Boris Johnson tweeted: "'m saddened to hear of the death of Gorbachev. I always admired the courage & integrity he showed in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion. In a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, his tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all."

UN Chief Antonio Guterres tweeted: "Mikhail Gorbachev was a one-of-a kind statesman who changed the course of history. The world has lost a towering global leader, committed multilateralist, and tireless advocate for peace. I’m deeply saddened by his passing."

Interestingly, India was the first Asian country Mikhail Gorbachev visited (November 1986) after becoming the General Secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union in 1985.

He had met former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi during his visit to India.