Editing Mikhail Gorbachev

{{Infobox politician|name=Mikhail Gorbachyov|native_name=Михаил Горбачёв|nationality=Russian|political_line=[[Anti-communism]]<br>[[Revisionism]]<br>[[Social democracy]]|birth_date=2 March 1931|birth_place=Privolnoye, [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]]|image=Mikhail Gorbachev.png|caption=Gorbachev in 1987|death_date=30 August 2022|death_place=[[Moscow]], [[Russian Federation]]}}

'''Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev''' (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who is known for organizing the [[overthrow of the Soviet Union]]. He supported the [[1989 Tian'anmen Square riots|1989 CIA-backed riots in Beijing]] and advocated for the overthrow of remaining [[Socialist state|socialist states]] in Asia and the rest of the world.<ref>{{Citation|author=Mikhail Gorbachev|year=2000|title=My Ambition was to Liquidate Communism|title-url=https://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv6n1/gorbach.htm|publisher=[[Revolutionary Democracy]]}}</ref> Gorbachev lacked experience in the military, foreign affairs, industry, science, and [[Trade union|trade unions]] and did not understand [[Marxism]] or Soviet history.<ref name=":022">{{Citation|author=Roger Keeran, Thomas Kenny|year=2010|title=Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union|chapter=Promise and Foreboding, 1985-86|page=95–101, 120–128|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaceaj5ucph44bjwyhlhsbycckr3ts76zbucn2hbrea32tltcd4s5ekg?filename=Roger%20Keeran_%20Thomas%20Kenny%20-%20Socialism%20Betrayed_%20Behind%20the%20Collapse%20of%20the%20Soviet%20Union-iUniverse.com%20%282010%29.pdf|publisher=iUniverse.com|isbn=9781450241717|lg=https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=EB8A647627A86692FB1AA43916CE6A02}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Gorbachev was born in the farming village of Privolnoye, south of Stavropol. [[German Reich (1933–1945)|German]] invaders killed seven of his relatives during the [[Great Patriotic War]]. He moved to Moscow in 1950 to study at Lomonosov State University and joined the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] in college. He returned to Stavropol after graduating and supported [[Alexander Dubček]]'s [[Revisionism|revisionist]] policies in [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1960–1990)|Czechoslovakia]].<ref name=":022" />

== Political career ==
In 1970, Gorbachev became First Secretary of Stavropol Krai and was elected to the [[Supreme Soviet]]. He became a member of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]] in 1971 and became its head of agriculture in 1978. In 1979, he became a member of the Politburo.<ref name=":022" /> He visited [[Kingdom of Belgium|Belgium]], the [[Kingdom of the Netherlands|Netherlands]], [[French Republic|France]], and [[Federal Republic of Germany|West Germany]] in the 1970s during the peak of [[Eurocommunism]].<ref name=":02222">{{Citation|author=Roger Keeran, Thomas Kenny|year=2010|title=Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union|chapter=Turning Point, 1987-88|page=156–158|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaceaj5ucph44bjwyhlhsbycckr3ts76zbucn2hbrea32tltcd4s5ekg?filename=Roger%20Keeran_%20Thomas%20Kenny%20-%20Socialism%20Betrayed_%20Behind%20the%20Collapse%20of%20the%20Soviet%20Union-iUniverse.com%20%282010%29.pdf|publisher=iUniverse.com|isbn=9781450241717}}</ref>

== General Secretary ==

=== Early leadership ===
Gorbachev became General Secretary in 1985 and initially followed [[Yuri Andropov|Andropov]]'s line, continuing the anti-alcohol campaign and encouraging new cadre. He increased support for [[Republic of Nicaragua|Nicaragua]] and [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (1978–1992)|Afghanistan]] while trying to improve relations with the [[Imperial core|West]]. Within a year, he replaced half of all Politburo members and the leaders of five republics and promoted his supporters to Foreign Minister and Premier. Beginning in the fall of 1985, he reduced assistance to Afghanistan.<ref name=":022" />

By the 27th congress of the CPSU in 1986, [[Counterrevolution|counterrevolutionaries]] controlled much of the party leadership. Gorbachev worked with other traitors including [[Alexander Yakovlev]], [[Eduard Shevardnadze]], and [[Boris Yeltsin]] to overthrow [[socialism]].<ref>{{Web citation|author=Nikos Mottas|newspaper=[[In Defense of Communism]]|title=Mikhail Gorbachev, a modern Judas|date=2022-09-01|url=http://www.idcommunism.com/2022/09/mikhail-gorbachev-modern-judas.html|retrieved=2022-09-04}}</ref> He ended Soviet nuclear tests and reduced strategic arms by 50% while receiving no concessions from the [[United States of America|United States]] and reduced government planning of enterprises.<ref name=":022" />

Gorbachev removed deputies from the [[Central Asia|Central Asian]] and [[Caucasus|Caucasian]] republics from the Politburo. In December 1986, he replaced [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (1936–1991)|Kazakh]] General Secretary [[Dinmukhamed Kunaev]] with [[Gennady Kolbin]], an ethnic [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1917–1991)|Russian]], which caused nationalist riots in Kazakhstan.<ref name=":022" />

=== Dismantling of socialism ===
In 1988, Gorbachev began dismantling [[Planned economy|central planning]] and abandoned international solidarity. He and Yakovlev sabotaged the media to air criticisms of [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] and central planning and demonize their political opponents. Gorbachev replaced worker [[Worker cooperative|co-ops]] with crime-infested private enterprises. In March 1988, [[Nina Andreyeva]] published a letter condemning Gorbachev and his followers as well as Russian [[Nationalism|nationalists]]. Following the release of the letter, Gorbachev and Yakovlev stripped [[Anti-revisionism|anti-revisionist]] [[Yegor Ligachyov]] of his authority and purged supporters of the letter from the Politburo.<ref name=":0222">{{Citation|author=Roger Keeran, Thomas Kenny|year=2010|title=Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union|chapter=Turning Point, 1987-88|page=132–143|pdf=https://ipfs.io/ipfs/bafykbzaceaj5ucph44bjwyhlhsbycckr3ts76zbucn2hbrea32tltcd4s5ekg?filename=Roger%20Keeran_%20Thomas%20Kenny%20-%20Socialism%20Betrayed_%20Behind%20the%20Collapse%20of%20the%20Soviet%20Union-iUniverse.com%20%282010%29.pdf|publisher=iUniverse.com|isbn=9781450241717}}</ref>

At a party conference in June 1988, Gorbachev proposed a new form of government with an executive president and a Congress of People's Deputies replacing the Council of Ministers and Supreme Soviet. The proposal reduced the CPSU from a vanguard party to an electoral party in a parliamentary system. Against the wishes of the Afghan government and other [[Warsaw Pact|Soviet allies]], he withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan in early 1989 and allowed the [[Taliban]] to take over.<ref name=":02222" />

== Later life ==
In 1996, Gorbachev ran for president of Russia but received less than 1% of the vote.<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Liberation News]]|title=Gorbachev: Darling of the West, despised at home & worldwide|date=2022-08-31|url=https://www.liberationnews.org/gorbachev-darling-of-the-west-despised-at-home-worldwide/|retrieved=2022-09-01}}</ref>

== Political positions ==
Gorbachev promoted a policy of glasnost<ref group="lower-alpha">Russian: гласность</ref> (openness), which resulted in [[Communism|communists]] being purged from the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] and mass media. He established market reforms called perestroika<ref group="lower-alpha">Russian: перестройка</ref> (restructuring), which diminished state support for the [[Proletariat|working class]]. He reduced assistance to less developed parts of the Soviet Union, increasing national conflict,<ref name=":0" /> and rejected the [[Leninism|Leninist]] concept of the [[vanguard party]].<ref name=":0222" />

== Notes ==
<references group="lower-alpha" />

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Anti-communists]]
[[Category:Counterrevolutionaries]]
[[Category:Soviet politicians]]
[[Category:Revisionists]]
[[Category:Wreckers]]