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  • An impressive politician and leader. RIP
  • RIP. A courageous statesman who defied years of repression in his country.
  • RIP Mister Gorbachev.
  • One of the biggest names in post war history. RIP
  • RIP,

    I used to work with a Russian guy who said despite most outside of Russia quite liking him, inside Russia he was hated.
  • RIP. A brave and forward thinking man, who's good work has been totally undone by the current incumbent.
  • RIP. I’m actually a bit gutted by this. Big figure in my younger years and I really believe he was a force for good. Watch ‘The wall came tumbling down’ episode of the BBC Cold War series if you want to understand his influence. 
  • Had a remarkable effect on the world I grew up in.  For that I will forever be grateful. 
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  • Rob7Lee said:
    RIP,

    I used to work with a Russian guy who said despite most outside of Russia quite liking him, inside Russia he was hated.
    Because he oversaw the biggest decline in standard of living in the post-war era, worse than the Great Depression in some places. He also oversaw an end to Russian/Soviet expansion and imperialism, and their (arguably inflated) role as a world political leader. 

    I think he did what he tried to do what he thought was right and noble, and his passing is sad. I think the consequences of what he did are far more complex than what is sometimes presented. 
  • RIP. Now there was a politician on a world stage!
  • edited August 2022
    Spookily I was in Reykjavik today looking at the building where he and Reagan met in 1986. Until recently we could have traced the end of the Cold War back to that meeting. Recent events have reversed that.

    He inadvertently oversaw the end of the USSR - it wasn’t his goal or ambition. Despite  the rewriting of history he was a Marxist-Leninist to the core, albeit with a broader perspective on international engagement. 

    We should be grateful that he f*cked up the scourge of communism for a short period at least.

    RIP.


  • Every now and then you get a politician who goes against the populist narrative to improve things. Whatever the motive, Gorbachev tried to do this. I remember how things changed at the tail end of the eighties when it actually seemed as if Russia would join th rest of the world working together rather than against. The contrast with today could barely be more stark.
    RIP
  • Rob7Lee said:
    RIP,

    I used to work with a Russian guy who said despite most outside of Russia quite liking him, inside Russia he was hated.
    I work with 4 russsians, well, worked with, as of today and they regularly argue about this topic, it’s interesting that those for and against come from very differing financial backgrounds. 

    The Ukrainian just sits in silence :( 
  • edited August 2022
    Do the Russians keep him occupied?
  • Iconic Spitting Image puppet from the 80s


  • went a long way in attempting to bring a measure of democracy to the Russian people and to free up the occupied states of east Europe and the Baltic .. alas the Russian people had no idea how to implement democracy and Russia has reverted to a Stalinist type regime policed by the FSB, same as the KGB but in better suits and shoes and much better surveillance technology 

    I m o Mikhail Gorbachev was one of the most important politicians of the post WW2 20th century, although strangely he was not popular in Russia. Seems the Russian people prefer autocratic and brutal leaders like the Romanovs, Bolsheviks and Putinists

    R I P Mikhail
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  • Spookily I was in Reykjavik today looking at the building where he and Reagan met in 1986. Until recently we could have traced the end of the Cold War back to that meeting. Recent events have reversed that.

    He inadvertently oversaw the end of the USSR - it wasn’t his goal or ambition. Despite  the rewriting of history he was a Marxist-Leninist to the core, albeit with a broader perspective on international engagement. 

    We should be grateful that he f*cked up the scourge of communism for a short period at least.

    RIP.


    Save it for the political area. 
  • Gorbachev has died. Someone of whom it can be said he changed the world.
  • SDAddick said:
    Rob7Lee said:
    RIP,

    I used to work with a Russian guy who said despite most outside of Russia quite liking him, inside Russia he was hated.
    Because he oversaw the biggest decline in standard of living in the post-war era, worse than the Great Depression in some places. He also oversaw an end to Russian/Soviet expansion and imperialism, and their (arguably inflated) role as a world political leader. 

    I think he did what he tried to do what he thought was right and noble, and his passing is sad. I think the consequences of what he did are far more complex than what is sometimes presented. 
    because it was. Russian Communism and imperialism (that's reared its ugly head in the last few years) destroyed many communities and murdered millions and destroyed their economy (Gorbachev was attempting to reverse this). The cold war meant the world was a button push away from oblivion. The only people who think what he did was bad are those brainwashed by modern russian revisionism and/or tankies. 
  • well, my Twitter is full of the most amazing dissonance of views from intelligent coherent people, depending largely on how far East of London they are from. And I can see where they are coming from.

    Nevertheless as I replied to one of the strongest critics, I am writing this in a cool little Prague cafe, surrounded mainly by young people, talking about the same things, making the same plans,  as their counterparts in London, Amsterdam, or Stockholm. And all of that, including my own presence, is thanks to Mikhail Gorbachev. Absolutely no question. 

    RIP a true global statesman. Probably the most significant of my lifetime.
    Absolutely. His true legacy lays outside of his own country rather than within. What an enormous shame that Russia is now not as free, modern and forward thinking as the other countries that escaped from the USSR. 
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