- born 1931 in North Caucasian village of Privolnoye in the Krasnogvardeysk region of Stavropol Krai to a Russian-Ukrainian farming family
- like many other Russian viallages, Privolnoye experienced the hardships/costs of Stalin's collectivisation regime; by Gorby's own estimate, half his extended family died in the artificially created famine of 1931-32
- personally affected by purges; paternal grandfather Andrei sent to Irkutsk, Siberia to chop wood; maternal grandfather Pantelei Gopkolo arrested, imprisoned and interrogated for 14 months; when he returned, Gorby's house was a 'plague house' avoided by others in the village as a house of an 'enemy of the people'
- worked in the fields with his mother; villagers ascribe Gorby's confident/outspoken manner to influence of mother's personality
- attended high school in town of Krasnogvardeiskoye, 10 miles walk away; high achiever, would correct teachers in Russian history classes; grades were all 5 (equiv of A) except for 4 in German
- worked in the fields with combines during his teenage years
- 1949 he and comrades at the tractor-machine station awarded Order of the Red Banner of Labour for their part in that year's awesome harvest
- during high school he joined the Komsomol (Communist youth league for 14-28yo)
- after high school, won a place at Moscow State University studying law
- 1950 became candidate member of CPSU
- 1955 graduated with law degree; returned to Stavropol with wife Raisa, whom he'd met and married during uni; short stint at state prosecutor's office before returning to politics, quickly becoming leader of the Stavropol City Komsomol
- 1961 becomes leader of Stavropol Krai Komsomol
- 1962 becomes organiser for Stavropol Agricultural Unit; around this time forms a mentoring relationship under the wing of Fyodor Kulakov (friend in high place); is a delegate to 22nd Communist Party Congress
- 1962-68 earns agricultural economics degree
- 1970 becomes First Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee; head of entire Stavropol Krai; with help of Kulakov, at this time the national head of agriculture
- 1971 elected to Central Committee
- 1975 we see Gorby's influence growing; leads delegation to West Germany at the invitation of a local communist group
- 1978 Kulakov dies, Gorby replaces him as Central Committee Secretary for Agriculture?
- 1980 becomes member of Politburo
- 1982 Andropov becomes General Secretary of CPSU, makes Gorby his personal assistant (Gorby had rep for incorruptibility), grooms him to be his successor
- 1984 Andropov dies, is replaced by Chernenko; Gorby personally recommends Chernenko instead of trying to take power himself, looks good in eyes of Old Guard
- 1985 Chernenko dies, Gorbachev chosen as General Secretary of CPSU
FFFFFFFFF
- 1985 summit in Geneva with Ronald Reagan; the start of their
- 1986 Reykjavik, Iceland; another Reagan/Gorby summit; humanises the leaders in each others' eyes
- 1988 Reagan visits Moscow, when asked by journalist if he still considers USSR to be an 'evil empire' he says no, that was 'another time'; when asked who deserved credit for perestroika/glasnost/changesinUSSR, he replied that Gorby did (Matlock says this contributed to Gorby's popularity more than any other single event)
blahhhhhh.
Gorby was apparently idolised in the West, especially in USA, media called it 'Gorbymania'
1987 TIME Man of the Year
compared with previous Soviet leaders, Gorby appears friendly/trustworthy/cooperative; the average American citizen saw him as dismantling communism, ending Cold War, and as ultimate proof that US democracy and capitalism wins over communism ... OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT
Andrey Grachev: 'the end of the Cold War is justly associated with the name of Mikhail Gorbachev'
Glasnost/opennness: reduced censorship, encourage open discussion that would hopefully lead to reform that would improve/perfect Soviet system - originally intended to be an economic policy?????? Gorby thought that the open discussion would allow Soviet economy to be fixed, or something??? BUT the people interpreted it as freedom of speech/discussion, as a social policy. People criticised Stalin's regime, talked openly of purges/gulags/collectivisation. Once-banned literature was circulated.
Perestroika: 'restrucuturing' of economy; attempt to introduce some market features ... but this didn't work. Opposition from above: nomenklatura (ruling class) didn't like it ... specific reason why: [I can't remember] ... so they just didn't implement his reforms and carried on with old command system???? Opposition from below: people had gotten used to the old system, didn't want to have to deal with price rises (improved services, sure... but market prices! nooo!) or something ... generally believed that perestroika failed because it 'didn't go far enough' so you got this awkward part-market part-command economy that flailed. And to deal with this flailing/inefficiency, people turned to old methods like ... barter/black market ... and people were unhappy ... which probably led to the whole 'GORBY SUCKS' thing ...
Eastern Europe: repudiation of Brezhnev Doctrine, let them do their own thing; largely contributed to collapse of USSR/end of Cold War? - Gorby didn't intervene due to economic reasons (USSR's own problems so great he wasn't able to do much??? idk) and foreign policy reasons (he wouldn't be able to maintain the :D relationship with the West if he went all Brezhnev and used force to keep communist regimes in Eastern Europe in power)
Nice relations w/US also contributed to end of Cold War
Glasnost and perestroika also contributed to collapse of USSR, but unlike the nice relations with USA/West ... this wasn't deliberate. He didn't meant to kill USSR, he wanted to perfect it, was a true believer in socialism, etc. ... attempted to be a reformer, became an accidental revolutionary. Or something.
Glasnost/perestroika = example of the events running away from him, sweeping him along... he had no control over... glasnost, at least. Unleashed a democratic flood! A flood of criticism from the people of the USSR/Gorby himself...
Relations with USA: apparently they were good because he acquiesced/cooperated/agreed with Reagan a lot of the time, so it's arguable if Gorby did anything. Or something. The awesomeness was that he allowed himself to be acted upon, the fact that he cooperated, rather than him actually actively doing stuff in their dealings... ish. Idk.
Bad for USSR, good for world? xD
Deserves credit for allowing USSR to collapse in a peaceful way / overseeing Cold War's end in a peaceful way
Huge polarised opinions about him show that significance of individuals in history / their being remembered depends not on judging how good their deeds were, just how big the impact they had was ... or something??? Couuld be 'bad' impact, could be 'good' ... ?
Eeeeeeeeee part B.
//disclaimer: don't take any of this as accurate, it's panicked revision spam (:
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