Few people can claim to have truly changed the world.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, is on that short list. Gorbachev, who died this week at the age of 91, will be remembered by history as the man who ended the Soviet Union and the Cold War — and helped walk the world back from the brink of nuclear annihilation as a result.
The latter was intended; the former was not. For those reasons, Gorbachev is revered around the world and reviled at home. Yet even foreigners must also recognize the unintended effects of his tenure. He provided a powerful lesson to autocrats about the consequences of reform and the apparent need to rule with an iron fist.