“We all need to have perestroika,” Mikhail Gorbachev would often say.
The Soviet Union’s last leader lived by that credo. After becoming the general secretary of the Communist Party in 1985 and implementing his program of restructuring and glasnost (openness), he even changed his job title, preferring to be called president.
The first and last Soviet president was the most democratic leader that Russia (the USSR’s de facto center) had over the last century, if not ever. And in the 31 years since the Soviet collapse, his belief in peace, mutual understanding, dialogue and democracy remained unwavering.