Gorbachev was the last leader to the Soviet Union and attempted to usher in a period of peace between the Soviet Union and America. He was clearly a man of the people and tried to give more freedoms to the Soviets.
During his time as leader, he was very open to the people and began to bring the USSR away from the more extremist side of the left to a more moderate place. For example, Gorbachev gave his people freedom of speech, which was something so extreme for previous leaders to give to the people. Another example is when a West German landed in the Red Square and was greeted fairly calmly rather than with armed guards. If another leader, such as Brezhnev, was in control, this man would have been executed within the hour of his landing if he was not shot down by soldiers on the border.
Gorbachev was also very open to diplomatic meetings and consolidations with the US rather than throwing threats at them. He even proposed to completely disarm both nations of all nuclear weapons, which had never been even considered by any other leader in the past for both countries.
In conclusion, Gorbachev's time in office was clearly a positive one as he attempted to try and make the world a better place for everyone. Perhaps nuclear disarmament will be reconsidered in the future, but for now, there will always be the looming threat of nuclear launch sometime in the future.
I do like the overview of Gorbachev during his leadership of the USSR. You brought along connections to not only how he effected the Russian people, but the American-Soviet relationship that connections to U.S. history. Another thing you did well was pointing out the event of the planes landing at the kremlin and how in the past things were much aggressive or hostile.
ReplyDeleteYou're article about the Gorbachev is a very strong one, as it highlights all the things he did that was very different from previous Soviet leaders. You did very well to capture why this time period was so successful for him and his people, and in the end gave us something of his to think about.
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