1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee
30 years ago, on March 11, 1985, at an extraordinary plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was unanimously elected General Secretary of the Central Committee. He held this post until August 24, 1991. In his speech after his election, Gorbachev did not yet use such important words for him later as "perestroika" and "glasnost".