Mikhail Gorbachev. The first and last Republican

The last leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev turned 90 years old. The observer of Taiga.info Ilya Kabanov explains why the image of the first and last Soviet president is more difficult than being believed.

Mikhail Gorbachev can be presented with a million fair complaints or declare about the same number of well -deserved thanks - tonality depends exclusively on your ideological addictions. “He gave the people freedom,” but “ruined the union.” He released Sakharov from exile, but introduced a dry law. He received the Nobel Prize of the world, but life in the country did not become more peaceful from this.

Having managed to bury most of the former opponents and supporters, Gorbachev in 2021 remains the last fragment of the USSR. Thirty years later, he stubbornly continues to annoy everyone with the fact that the union died, and Gorbachev is still alive.

At the same time, Mikhail Gorbachev will enter the textbooks of the future with a plus sign - I am absolutely sure of that. The fact is that neither before nor after it a figure of this scale rose to the top of the political Olympus of Russia.

For example, he was and remains the most educated leader of Russia. Judge for yourself: the kings received only a home education, Lenin was expelled from one university, and he graduated from the other extermin, the Soviet Secretary Generals in this regard were not grabbed from the sky, like Yeltsin, who received a modest diploma of the Ural Polytechnic. Only Mikhail Gorbachev and Dmitry Medvedev received a really serious higher education - while the first became a doctor of sciences, and the second remains a candidate. At some point, working in the Stavropol Komsomol, Gorbachev even thought of throwing politics and going into science.

But we will not overestimate the meaning of formal education. In my opinion, a wide horizons - and Gorbachev has always been in abundance much more important. Few Soviet officials were so interested in European orders, and Gorbachev “became away” very early , back in the mid -sixties. He was friends with foreigners, studied experience, read books that were inaccessible to ordinary Soviet citizens. That is, he was chosen by the Secretary General after he looked at the world - comparing what he saw with Soviet realities, Gorbachev could not help but realize the need for cardinal reforms.

Although Gorbachev clearly considered himself an intellectual, he did not hesitate to consult with more intelligent people. Even before the election of the Secretary General, he gathered a group of experts-economists, including the sociologist Tatyana Zaslavskaya and economist Abel Abelbugan-both from the Siberian branch of the Academy of Sciences. We can say that the economic program of perestroika was invented in the Novosibirsk Akademgorodok . (It's funny that even the American jazzmen who visited Novosibirsk in the late eighties wrote about this - obviously, the locals of all visitors met with boastful stories about who actually controls everyone).

Finally, with all the obvious love of Gorbachev for publicity, he was perhaps the most far from the desire to form a cult of his own personality by the Russian leader. Yeltsin replaced him was often called Tsar Boris, but in Gorbachev there was nothing monarchist. Pluralism for him has always been not just a figure of speech - he became the first true Republican at the head of the country. Imperiality was healed, therefore, say, he stubbornly ignored the leaders of the socialist countries-it was not interesting with them, in the picture of the Gorbachev world, numerous satellites-lunits of the Soviet Union only interfered.

Even the missing reforms can be explained by the desire of Gorbachev to negotiate. Other in his place would have broken the stubborn members of the Politburo through the knee, but it was important for Mikhail Sergeyevich to convince opponents using all his oratory gift. Probably, in another life, he would become a good president of the debate club, but in our reality he remained the last Republican - a man who believed in the people more than he believed in himself.

Three quotes from an interview with Mikhail Gorbachev, which sound especially relevant in 2021:

Spiegel, 2015 : “I really see all the signs of a new Cold War. The situation may explode at any time if we do not act. Loss of trust will lead to catastrophic consequences. Moscow no longer believes in the West, and the West does not believe in Moscow. It's horrible".

“Big City”, 2009 : “I have serious comments regarding Partystroke. The party is the same basis of democracy. And what is this party "United Russia"? Bureau of bureaucrats. The fact that she, the authorities, did with the electoral system is also very bad. One person or group of people does not make modernization. So far, Putin is believed, but you know ... In early 1990, Gorbachev had 60–70, or even 80 percent, and Yeltsin was in second place with 12 percent. But in the fall it began: the stores are empty, the whole country in lines, and so on. Everything can be lost very quickly. ”

“Hour of the peak” Vlad Listiev, 1994 : “We are losing a democratic development vector. We lose the real parliament, it turns out to be not needed, they try to leave it to a utilitarian role. We have lost publicity. How can we make decisions and feel like people if we do not get the necessary information? "

Ilya Kabanov, scientific observer Taiga.info (@ metkere )