Painting by Paul Gauguin

After the Russian revolution, the Russian people were living behind an ‘iron curtain’ as Stalin and his successors ruled that country in an autocratic manner. It was Khrushchev and Bulganin who initiated a policy of liberalization. With the emergence of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, this policy of liberalization found full play. Gorbachev will find a distinctive position in history for introducing the policy of ‘Glasnost’and ‘Perestroika’ into the regimentalised society of the Soviet Union. This wave of liberalization and freedom swept the other communist countries of Europe.

Gorbachev was born in a farmer’s family on 2 March, 1931,He started life as a mechanic and joined the Communist Party in 1952. He graduated in Law from Moscow university in 1953 and became an agricultural scientist in 1967. He was taken into the Central Committee of Communist Party in 1971 and became its General Secretary in 1985. We must remember that the holder of this office is the de facto ruler of the Soviet Union. In 1987, he became President of the Soviet Union.

Mikhail Gorbachev who is known for his polite behaviour and attractive personality visited India twice in 1986 and 1988. He has admiration for the policies of India as he regards it as the leader of the third world. Gorbachev believes in peace and initiated steps to dismantle the wall of distrust between the Soviet bloc and the US bloc. In his quest for peace and nuclear-free world, he entered into an agreement to destroy nuclear weapons and their removal from Europe. It is because of him that anti-establishment writers like Boris Pasternak were rehabilitated in Soviet Union and Sakharov could return to his mother country. Freedom of worship was also allowed and the Soviet people could live without the fear of KGB, the Soviet Secret Service.