Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev Михаил Горбачёв
Mikhail Gorbachev in 1988
1st President of the Soviet Union
In office 15 March 1990 – 25 December 1991
Prime Minister	Nikolai Ryzhkov Valentin Pavlov Ivan Silayev
Vice President	Gennady Yanayev
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Position abolished
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office 11 March 1985 – 24 August 1991
Deputy	Vladimir Ivashko
Preceded by	Konstantin Chernenko
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
In office 25 May 1989 – 15 March 1990
Deputy	Anatoly Lukyanov
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Anatoly Lukyanov
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
In office 1 October 1988 – 25 May 1989
Preceded by	Andrei Gromyko
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Personal details
Born	Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (1931-03-02) 2 March 1931 (age 85) Privolnoye, North Caucasus Krai, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Russian
Political party	Soviet Communist (1950–91) Independent (1991–2001; 2004–07) Russian Social Democratic (2001–04) Union of Social Democrats (2007–14)
Spouse(s)	Raisa Gorbachova (m. 1953; d. 1999)
Children	Irina Mikhailovna Virganskaya
Education	Law
Alma mater	Moscow State University
Signature
Website	gorby.ru/en/
Central institution membership 1980–1991: Full member, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th Politburo 1979–1980: Candidate member, 25th Politburo 1978–1991: Member, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th Secretariat 1971–1991: Full member, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th Central Committee Other offices held 2001–2004: Chairman, Social Democratic Party of Russia 1985–1991: Chairman, Defense Council 1970–1978: First Secretary, Stavropol Regional Committee This article is part of the series The life of Mikhail Gorbachev Gorbachev Era Revolutions of 1989 Dissolution of the Soviet Union Leader of the Soviet Union ← Chernenko Last leader

Gorbachev Era
Revolutions of 1989
Dissolution of the Soviet Union

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (/ˈɡɔːrbəˌtʃɒf/;Russian: Михаи́л Серге́евич Горбачёв; IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ɡərbɐˈtɕɵf]; born 2 March 1931) is a former Soviet statesman. He was the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union, having been General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, when the party was dissolved. He was the country's head of state from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991 (titled as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990, and as President of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991).

Gorbachev was born in Stavropol Krai into a peasant Ukrainian–Russian family, and in his teens, operated combine harvesters on collective farms. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1955 with a degree in law. While he was at the university, he joined the Communist Party, and soon became very active within it. In 1970, he was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee, First Secretary to the Supreme Soviet in 1974, and appointed a member of the Politburo in 1979. Within three years of the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, following the brief "interregna" of Andropov and Chernenko, Gorbachev was elected general secretary by the Politburo in 1985. Before he reached the post, he had occasionally been mentioned in Western newspapers as a likely next leader and a man of the younger generation at the top level.