Michael Gorbachev, brief biography
Mikhail Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931 in the village of Privolnoye, Stavropol Terrritory, in the south of the Russian republic into a peasant family. In 1950 was graduated from high school with a silver medal and was admitted to Moscow State University. He studied at the law faculty, graduating in 1955. Later, he took correspondence courses from Stavropol Agricultural Institute, and in 1967 added a degree in agricultural economics to his Moscow law degree. Having received his degree, Gorbachev was ready to work as a lawyer. Soon upon his return to the home city of Stavropol, however, he was offered a position in the local Komsomol youth league. Thus his political career started. In 1970 he was elected member of the CPSU Central Committee. In November 1978 he became a Central Committee Secretary and moved to Moscow. Gorbachev initiated the process of change in the Soviet Union -what was later called perestroika, the fundamental transformation of the nation and society. Glasnost became perestroika’s driving force. A sweeping process of the nation’s democratization was launched and reforms were planned to put the nation’s ineffective economy back on track to market economics. TIn recognition of his outstanding services as a great reformer and world political leader, who greatly contributed in changing for the better the very nature of world development, Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 15, 1990. Destructive social and ethnic developments, which the emerging Soviet democracy was unable to curb, eventually led to the disintegration of the multinational Union of republics that Gorbachev led. In his attempts to prevent such an outcome Mikhail Gorbachev made maximum efforts, save the use of force, which would have been against his inner principles of political vision and morality. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev stepped down as Head of State. Since January 1992, he has been President of the International Nongovernmental Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (The Gorbachev Foundation). Since March 1993, he has also been President of Green Cross International-an international independent environmental organization with branches in more than twenty countries. Mikhail Gorbachev also chairs the United Russian Social Democratic Party, established in March 2000.
The faces of the shift
