Obituary: Mikhail Gorbachev

One of the chief figures of the 20th century, Mikhail Gorbachev, the final premier of the Soviet Union, died today at the age of 91.  He, not Ronald Reagan or anybody else, is responsible for the dissolution of the USSR, and with that, the dissolution of the Iron Curtain in Europe.  He basically ended the Cold War.  It was going to happen sooner or later, since the Soviet Union simply didn't have the means to keep an empire, but Gorbachev is the one who started to get the ball rolling.  It is hard to overstate his importance.

After a series of very old men as premiers, MG (I don't feel like typing out his name) appeared to be quite young, only in his mid-fifties, when he took over as being leader of the USSR.  

Snip:

Born in the village of Privolnoye, Gorbachev grew up a committed communist during World War II. After graduating from Moscow State University with a law degree in 1955, he rose through the ranks of the Communist Party and ascended to power in March 1985.

Gorbachev ushered in sweeping changes like “perestroika” and “glasnost," reforms that sought to restructure the Soviet Union’s lagging economy and make its government more transparent.

After an attempted coup against him in August 1991, Gorbachev spent his last months in office watching republic after republic declare independence until he resigned on Dec. 25, 1991. The Soviet Union wrote itself into oblivion a day later.

It is too bad a shitheel like Vladimir Putin is trying to create the old empire all over again. He didn't learn a damned thing.