Clotilde Dumay, edited by Solène Leroux
modified to
07:56, August 31, 2022
The last president of the USSR died Monday evening at the age of 91. Mikhail Gorbachev is above all two words: perestroika and glasnost, restructuring and transparency in French. Two reforms aimed at profoundly transforming the Soviet Union and bringing it closer to Westerners.
The disappearance of a peacemaker. Mikhail Gorbachev left his mark on the 20th century. The last president of the USSR died Monday evening at the age of 91. It disappears when the East-West divide reactivates, a dark nod to history, while Vladimir Putin’s Russia seeks to bring Ukraine to heel. Mikhail Gorbachev is above all two words: perestroika and glasnost, restructuring and transparency. Two reforms aimed at profoundly transforming the Soviet Union and bringing it closer to Westerners.
“We call this perestroika revolutionary,” said Mikhail Gorbachev at the time. “It will bring about profound transformations. It will enable us to achieve long-term objectives. It is the assurance of a new dimension for our society.” Glasnost, the policy of transparency, then frees speech in the country.
Admired by the West, hated by Russians
These are the two legs of a doctrine that will not work. After a meteoric rise, this apparatchik, who embodied the renewal when he came to power at the age of 54, was soon to be confronted with the disorganization of the economy and the discontent of public opinion, engendered by these reforms.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in ending the Cold War. But his fellow citizens will only remember him from December 25, 1991, when Boris Yeltsin forced him to resign. “Only a few hours left and he will abandon the nuclear fire button to Boris Yeltsin this Wednesday,” said Europe 1 correspondent Valérie Meyer at the time. “Because it is Russia which inherits the prerogatives of the defunct Union, in agreement with the leaders of the governments of the CIS”, the Commonwealth of Independent States.
A few hours later, the USSR is dissolved. For this, the West will admire Mikhail Gorbachev. The Soviets will hate him.