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Mikhail Gorbachev

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1985–1991; President of the Soviet Union 1990–1991

Soviet Union / Russia · 1931–2022

Led the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 as General Secretary of the Communist Party and, from 1990, as President. Introduced the domestic reform programmes known as perestroika and glasnost. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

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How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure?
A period of transition to a new quality in all spheres of society's life is accompanied by painful phenomena. When we were initiating perestroika we failed to properly assess and foresee everything. Our society turned out to be hard to move off the ground, not ready for major changes which affect people's vital interests and make them leave behind everything to which they had become accustomed over many years. In the beginning we imprudently generated great expectations, without taking into account the fact that it takes time for people to realize that all have to live and work differently, to stop expecting that new life would be given from above.

Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 5 June 1991 source

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What is something everyone in your world agrees about that you think is wrong?
I have been suspected of utopian thinking more than once, and particularly when five years ago I proposed the elimination of nuclear weapons by the year 2000 and joint efforts to create a system of international security. It may well be that by that date it will not have happened. But look, merely five years have passed and have we not actually and noticeably moved in that direction?

Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 5 June 1991 source

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