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RUSSIA, KREMLIN, KUPANG TIMES - Mikhail Gorbachev, who was the last President of the Soviet Union, died at the age of 91 on Tuesday, (30/08/22).
The Hospital, said, in a statement, that; "Gorbachev died after a long illness."
However, the hospital did not explain in detail, Gorbachev's illness.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, said in an official statement, via the Russian news agency, that; "The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, expresses his deep condolences for Gorbachev's death and will send an official telegram to the Gorbachev family."
Despite only being in power for less than seven years, Gorbachev made a series of astonishing changes in the Soviet Union.
During his reign, the Soviet Union lost the battle, but produced remarkable reforms that led to the end of the Cold War.
The authoritarian Soviet Union collapsed and made several countries in Eastern Europe free from Russian domination.
During his leadership, the East-West nuclear confrontation ended.
But Gorbachev's resignation from leadership as President of the Soviet Union, was very embarrassing.
His power was taken in a coup, which took place in August 1991.
During the latter years of his leadership, Gorbachev spent time in office overseeing the countries that declared independence, until Gorbachev stepped down as President of the Soviet Union, on December 25, 1991.
A quarter of a century, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev told The Associated Press, that; "I didn't consider using broad force to try to keep the Soviet Union united, because I was afraid there would be chaos in the nuclear nation,"
“The country is full of weapons, and such an attempt will push the country into civil war,”|Mikhail Gorbachev (Former President of the Soviet Union)
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was not the same as the transformation Gorbachev envisioned when he became President of the Soviet Union, in March 1985.
By the end of his reign, he was powerless to stop the wave of trouble Gorbachev had built up.
Gorbachev, however, had a greater impact in the second half of the 20th century than any other political figure.
“I see myself as the man who initiated the necessary reforms for the country, for Europe and for the world,”|Mikhail Gorbachev, in an interview with The Associated Press in 1992, shortly after he stepped down from the post of President of the Soviet Union.
"I'm often asked, would I start all over again if I had to do it all over again? Yes indeed, with more perseverance and with greater determination,”|Mikhail Gorbachev (Former President of the Soviet Union)
Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War and spent his last years collecting awards and honors from all corners of the world.
But Gorbachev was despised in his own home, the Soviet Union.
The Russian people blamed him for the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
The once terrifying superpower, now its territory is divided into 15 separate countries.
His former allies abandoned him and made him a scapegoat for the country's problems.
His candidacy for President in 1996 was a National joke, and garnered less than 1 percent of the vote.
In 1997, he was forced to make a TV commercial for Pizza Hut to raise money for his charitable Foundation.
“In the ad, he had to take a pizza, divide it into 15 slices like dividing a country that chose to become independent from the Soviet Union, and then show how to put it back together,” quipped Anatoly Lukyanov, a former supporter of Gorbachev.
Gorbachev never intended to dismantle the Soviet system.
What Gorbachev did was to fix it.
Immediately after taking power, Gorbachev began a campaign to end his country's economic and political stagnation, using "Glasnost" or Openness, to help achieve his goals, namely; "Perestroika" or Restructuring.
In his memoirs, he said that he had long been frustrated that in a Country with enormous Natural Resources, tens of millions of people lived in Poverty.
“Our society is stuck in the grip of a bureaucratic command system,”|Mikhail Gorbachev (Former President of the Soviet Union)
“We are destined to serve the Ideology and bear the heavy brunt of the Arms race, it is very tense.”|Mikhail Gorbachev (Former President of the Soviet Union)
During his tenure, Gorbachev freed a number of political prisoners, allowed open debate and multi-candidate elections, gave his citizens freedom to travel, stopped religious repression, reduced nuclear weapons, forged closer ties with the West and did not oppose the fall of communist regimes in other countries. Eastern European satellite country.
But the power that Gorbachev unleashed, quickly spiraled out of his control.
Long-suppressed ethnic tensions flared, sparking war and unrest in troubled places such as the southern Caucasus region.
Strikes and labor unrest were followed by rising prices and shortages of consumer goods.
At one of the lowest points in his tenure, Gorbachev approved a crackdown on the restive Baltic republics in early 1991.
The violence turned many intellectuals and reformers against it.
Competitive elections also produced new populist politicians who opposed Gorbachev's policies and authority.
(W.J.B)
