Mikhail Gorbachev dies: Former Soviet leader who 'ended the Cold War' remembered for enduring legacy

Mikhail Gorbachev, who reframed the East's relationship with the West has died at the age of 91 - James Mates reports

The former president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev has died, according to Russian news agencies.

News organisations quoted a statement from the Central Clinical Hospital as saying he died after a long illness, but no other details were given.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that Russian President Vladimir Putin offered deep condolences over Gorbachev’s death and would send an official telegram to Gorbachev’s family in the morning.

Boris Johnson, meanwhile, paid tribute to his "courage and integrity."

Though in power less than seven years, Gorbachev unleashed a breath-taking series of changes.

But they quickly overtook him and resulted in the collapse of the authoritarian Soviet state, the freeing of Eastern European nations from Russian domination and the end of decades of East-West nuclear confrontation.

His power was sapped by an attempted coup against him in August 1991 and he spent his last months in office watching republic after republic declare independence until he resigned on December 25, 1991. The Soviet Union wrote itself into oblivion a day later.

A quarter-century after the collapse, Gorbachev said that he had not considered using widespread force to try to keep the USSR together because he feared chaos in a nuclear country.

“The country was loaded to the brim with weapons. And it would have immediately pushed the country into a civil war,” he said.

By the end of his rule he was powerless to halt the whirlwind he had sown. Yet Gorbachev may have had a greater impact on the second half of the 20th century than any other political figure.

Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher once said about Gorbachev "this is a man I can do business with." He also struck up a good relationship with then-US president Ronald Reagen.

“I see myself as a man who started the reforms that were necessary for the country and for Europe and the world,” Gorbachev said in a 1992 interview shortly after he left office.

“I am often asked, would I have started it all again if I had to repeat it? Yes, indeed. And with more persistence and determination,” he said.

Who was Mikhail Gorbachev?

Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War and spent his later years collecting accolades and awards from all corners of the world. However, he was widely despised at home.

It was unthinkable that a man with such a sunny disposition, and seemingly totally lacking the ruthlessness associated with Soviet leaders, could have fought his way to the top of such a fearsome regime.

Even so, he remained a Communist in his thinking – a factor with which his arch-rival Boris Yeltsin, who ultimately hounded him out of office, was cruelly to taunt him.

But his was a form of Communism unlike the obdurate, immoveable creed followed by his predecessors.

He had a cosmopolitan air and – through a translator – spoke the language of conquering inflation and of turning around the Soviet Union’s politics and economy, both of which were stuck in the quagmire of dogma.

Russians blamed him for the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union - a once-fearsome superpower whose territory fractured into 15 separate nations.

His run for president in 1996 was a national joke, and he polled less than 1% of the vote.

In 1997, he resorted to making a TV ad for Pizza Hut to earn money for his charitable foundation. His former allies deserted him and made him a scapegoat for the country’s troubles.

“In the ad, he should take a pizza, divide it into 15 slices like he divided up our country, and then show how to put it back together again,” quipped Anatoly Lukyanov, a one-time Gorbachev supporter.

'A seismic figure': Robert Moore, who reported from both Moscow and Washington, recalls what he witnessed after he arrived in Russia more than 30 years ago

Gorbachev never set out to dismantle the Soviet system. What he wanted to do was improve it.

Soon after taking power, Gorbachev began a campaign to end his country’s economic and political stagnation, using “glasnost” or openness, to help achieve his goal of “perestroika” or restructuring.

In his memoirs, he said he had long been frustrated that in a country with immense natural resources, tens of millions were living in poverty.

“Our society was stifled in the grip of a bureaucratic command system,” Gorbachev wrote. “Doomed to serve ideology and bear the heavy burden of the arms race, it was strained to the utmost.”

What did he do as president?

Once he began, one move led to another, as he:

• freed political prisoners

• allowed open debate and multi-candidate elections

• gave his countrymen freedom to travel

• halted religious oppression

• reduced nuclear arsenals

• established closer ties with the West

• did not resist the fall of Communist regimes in Eastern European satellite states.

But the forces he unleashed quickly escaped his control. Long-suppressed ethnic tensions flared, sparking wars and unrest in trouble spots such as the southern Caucasus region. Strikes and labour unrest followed price increases and shortages of consumer goods.

The official news agency Tass reported that Gorbachev will be buried at Moscow’s Novodevichy cemetery next to his wife.

How have world leaders reacted to his death?

Mr Johnson has said that he is “saddened” to hear that Mikhail Gorbachev has died, in a “time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine.”

“I always admired the courage and integrity he showed in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion," he said on Twitter.

“In a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, his tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.”

The president of the European Commission said Mikhail Gorbachev’s legacy is “one we will not forget.”

In a Twitter post, Ursula von der Leyen said: “Mikhail Gorbachev was a trusted and respected leader.

“He played a crucial role to end the Cold War and bring down the Iron Curtain. It opened the way for a free Europe. This legacy is one we will not forget. R.I.P Mikhail Gorbachev.”

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said Mikhail Gorbachev “performed great services” but was “not able to implement all of his visions.”

He told BBC’s Newsnight: “The people of eastern Europe and the German people, and in the end the Russian people, owe him a great debt of gratitude for the inspiration, for the courage in coming forward with these ideas of freedom.”

Mr Kissinger, after again acknowledging Mr Gorbachev was unable able to implement his full vision, added: “He will still be remembered in history as a man who started historic transformations that were to the benefit of mankind and to the Russian people.”

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said Mikhail Gorbachev had “changed the world.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger has referred to the late Mikhail Gorbachev as “one of my heroes.”

In a social media post, he said: "Mikhail Gorbachev was one of my heroes, and it was an honour and a joy to meet him. I was unbelievably lucky to call him a friend. “All of us can learn from his fantastic life.”