Photos that capture the Soviet leader who helped end the Cold War and changed the world
Mikhail Gorbachev during a visit to London. 1984. Tom Stoddart / Getty Images
Mikhail Gorbachev — the former General Secretary of the CPSU, the first and only president of the Soviet Union, and the person who brought the Cold War to an end — died on August 30, 2022. In 1991, when Gorbachev resigned as president of the USSR, it was clear the world had changed forever. It was a time of limitless freedom and even more hope. A look back at the life of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Laski Diffusion / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev (center, wearing a hat) with his classmates. USSR, 1940s. Gorbachev Foundation Mikhail Gorbachev. 1950s.Gorbachev Foundation Gorbachev, then-secretary of the regional Komsomol, with pioneers. Stavropol, 1960s.Gorbachev Foundation Mikhail Gorbachev, his wife Raisa Gorbacheva, and their daughter Irina. Stavropol, 1970s. Georges De Keerle / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev celebrates the anniversary of the October Revolution. Moscow, November 7, 1984.Vladimir Musaelyan, Eduard Pesov / TASS Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party Viktor Grishin (far left) visiting the home of a Moscow family. April 18, 1985. Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. New York, 1985.Dirck Halstead / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan at the Geneva Summit. November 1985.Nick Didlick / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa Gorbacheva, in Reykjavík, where he met with Ronald Reagan. October 13, 1986.Boris Yurchenko / AP / Scanpix / LETA Mikhail Gorbachev on the platform above Lenin’s mausoleum on the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution. November 7, 1987.Wojtek Laski / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa Gorbacheva, meet with residents of Spitak, Armenia, after the town was destroyed by an earthquake. December 1988.Ronald Reagan Library / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev at a meeting with Ronald Reagan in Reykjavík. October 11, 1986.Georges De Keerle / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa Gorbacheva, at the Bolshoi Theater with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. April 1989.Igor Zotin, Valery Khristoforov / TASS Mikhail Gorbachev (back left) during a speech by physicist Andrey Sakharov at the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. Sakharov called for the abolition of the Communist Party’s monopoly on power in the Soviet Union. June 9, 1989.Vladimir Bogdanov / FotoSoyuz / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Askar Akayev (the future president of Kyrgyzstan) at a session of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. December 17, 1990.Sven Simon / United Archives / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in Speyer, Germany. 1990.Dmitry Sokolov / TASS Mikhail Gorbachev at a session of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian SFSR dedicated to the inauguration of RSFSR President Boris Yeltsin. Moscow, 1991.Valery Zavyalov, Yuri Lizunov / TASS Mikhail Gorbachev delivers his Nobel Lecture in Oslo. June 5, 1991.Stephane Bentura / AFP / Scanpix / LETA Mikhail Gorbachev after the August Putsch. August 21, 1991.Yuri Lizunov / ТАСС Mikhail Gorbachev returns to Moscow from the Foros resort in Crimea, where he was held during the August 1991 coup attempt.Dmitry Sokolov / ТАСС Mikhail Gorbachev at a rally in memory of those who died during the August 1991 coup attempt.Vitaly Armand / AFP / Scanpix / LETA Mikhail Gorbachev addresses a session of the USSR Supreme Council. August 27, 1991.Liu Heung Shing / AP / Scanpix / LETA Mikhail Gorbachev announces his resignation as president of the USSR. December 25, 1991.Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP / Scanpix / LETA Mikhail Gorbachev at Moscow’s Oktyabrskaya Hotel after his resignation as president of the USSR. December 26, 1991.Maksim Marmur Mikhail Gorbachev at the funeral of his wife, Raisa Gorbacheva. September 23, 1999.Tom Stoddart / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavík — 20 years after his summit meeting there with Ronald Reagan. October 2006.Ian Gavan / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev, Kevin Spacey, and Sharon Stone at a concert marking Gorbachev’s 80th birthday. London, March 30, 2011.Franco Origlia / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev and the Dalai Lama. Rome, December 15, 2007.Evgeny Feldman Mikhail Gorbachev and Dmitry Muratov at the Novaya Gazeta editorial office. Gorbachev was one of the outlet’s co-founders.Adam Berry / Getty Images Mikhail Gorbachev at the ceremony marking the 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Berlin, November 9, 2014
