Nikolai Svanidze

Historian, journalist and public figure

Mikhail Gorbachev left the last of the major politicians of the twentieth century. And he took this century with him. Now this page is finally inverted. You can argue about the scale of Gorbachev’s personality, but how to measure this scale? There is no such compass. The only objective criterion is the deed.

The deed is huge. He stopped, ended the Cold War, to which everyone was accustomed, but from this it did not become less dangerous. At any moment, by chance or by someone’s criminal and crazy will (and we see now that this is not fantasy), threatening to turn into real, monstrous and unpredictable in its fatal consequences.

He destroyed the Berlin Wall, and with it the iron curtain, connecting not just two halves of Germany, but two halves of the world. And they merged again, these halves, as they should. The evil witchcraft Morok was scattered, the sleeping princess woke up from a kiss with a dangerous sleep. The world with all the variety has become one. The countries of the so -called “socialist camp” freed themselves from the Moscow dictatorship and got the opportunity to dispose of their fate.

This would be impossible if the Soviet Empire had not broken up. And it broke up, and by historical standards instantly. Under the load of internal problems that were built into the Soviet system were its flesh and blood, and therefore it would not be possible to solve them in principle. But they could be hidden for the time being, using the enormous capabilities of totalitarian propaganda. Deadly problems, economic and social, grew like a cancer tumor inside the body, but have not been discussed publicly and have not yet created political threats.

Gorbachev, then the faithful communist, believed in the basic potential of the system, believing that it was reformal restructuring. And he began it with publicity, i.e. With the permission of the media, telling the truth. The injection of truth was fatal for a rotten organism. The problems were publicly indicated, their scale is obvious, and the system swayed and soon collapsed. And with her the empire collapsed.

The injection of truth was fatal for the rotten organism

Few people regretted the system, and then many of the empire, when the direct threat of hunger disappeared, many were noted by many. And those who came to power in the late 90s made for themselves the conclusion: the main harm is from freedom of speech, and in general from all kinds of freedoms. Freedom and their carriers are harmful to our state and the root of all troubles. There are freedom - there are problems, no freedoms - no problems.

Gorbachev in all these world-historical events did not play the role of a demiurge, who knows in advance what his actions will lead to. Rather, he was a finger of fate, but it was his fate that chose his finger.

The main thing is that he gave humanity the world, and half of this humanity, including his homeland, is freedom. Humanity with gratitude took Gorbachev’s gifts. The homeland slightly used them and rejected indifferently. The homeland turned out to be neither freedom nor peace. In particular, freedom.

Gorbachev’s homeland was not needed neither freedom nor peace

Maximilian Voloshin in 1918 brilliantly felt for the mental basis of the Bolshevik coup: "Yesterday's slave, tired of freedom, will grow up, demanding chains." For a hundred years, nothing has changed.

Russia was increased, demanding chains, and this was not refused. We are characterized by numerous very definite phobias. We hate what we saw briefly or did not see at all: justice, humanism, dignity, and especially the idea that a person is higher than the state, that he is not a means, but a goal.

All these phobias are based on a slave centuries -old and very comfortable habit of irresponsibility. Gorbachev, having given us freedom, presented responsibility. We flatly refused. Now we put and put him every bast in the line. Especially human manifestations are thrown to us, such as love for his wife. "I exchanged us for a woman." A real Russian king should be married to Russia, like Stalin, like Putin. But Gorbachev was not the king, he was a man. And he left the man.