Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Head of State)

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (1931–2022) was a Russian statesman who presided over the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He was the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1985–91 and president 1988–91.

Born to a peasant family in Privolnoye, southern Russia, Gorbachev grew up in the countryside. He did well at school and was accepted into Moscow University’s faculty of law. There he met his future wife Raisa Maksimovna Titorenko; she was a bright sociology student who helped open his eyes to theatre and the arts.

Upon graduation, Gorbachev got a job in the prosecutor’s office in Stavropol, the big town near his home village. He embarked on a party career, first in the Young Communist League (the Komsomol,) and then in the Communist apparatus where he rose quickly. He became the leading light of a generation of party insiders who sought reform. He cleverly used the party’s authoritarian traditions to his advantage. In 1985, after becoming general secretary, the communist party’s top job, he sacked opponents ruthlessly.

In 1986, as the country’s head of state, he introduced two major social reforms, glasnost (“openness”) and perestroika (“restructuring.”) At home, he persuaded Soviet communists to abandon their monopoly of power and accept a multi-party system. Overseas, he convinced the United States to withdraw its nuclear missiles from Europe. His foreign policy helped bring about an end to the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact, the Soviet alliance system in Eastern Europe, collapsed.

Opposition to Gorbachev’s policies led to an attempted coup in 1991. He resigned, and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States effectively dissolved the Soviet Union. Many of its major components like Ukraine and the Baltic states declared themselves as independent, and Boris Yeltsin became President of the Russian Republic.

After 1991, Gorbachev headed the Moscow-based Gorbachev Foundation, a center for the study of international relations. He wrote several autobiographical books while in power and more since retirement. His notable works include Perestroika: New Thinking For Our Country And The World (1987,) The August Coup: The Truth And The Lessons (1991;) The Search for a New Beginning: Developing A New Civilisation (1995;) Memoirs (1996,) Gorbachev: On My Country and the World (1999) and The New Russia (2016.) He was the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (1990.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Mikhail Gorbachev

We must treat water as if it were the most precious thing in the world, the most valuable natural resource. Be economical with water! Don’t waste it! We still have time to do something about this problem before it is too late.
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Water

Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Democracy

Without glasnost there is not, and there cannot be, democratism, the political creativity of the masses and their participation in management.
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Government

My life’s work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Politics, Politicians

The ecologization of politics requires us to acknowledge the priority of human values and makes ecology part of education at an early age, molding a new, modern approach to nature and, at the same time, giving back to man a sense of being part of nature. No moral improvement of society is possible without that.
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Wildlife

If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven’t done much today.
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Live-now, Past and Present

The shortage of fresh water is the major ecological problem of this moment.
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Water

The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries. It s an invention of civilization.
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Business, Capitalism

Our enemy sees us clearly. … They will not start a war. They’re worried about one thing: If democracy develops here, if we succeed, we will win
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Government

Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Christianity

It is better to discuss things, to argue and engage in polemics than make perfidious plans of mutual destruction.
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Arguments

I am a Communist, a convinced Communist! For some that may be a fantasy. But to me it is my main goal.
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Communism, Socialism

It would be naive to think that the problems plaguing mankind today can be solved with means and methods which were applied or seemed to work in the past.
—Mikhail Gorbachev
Topics: Loneliness

God has given us enough wisdom to make improvements in our relations.
—Mikhail Gorbachev

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