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Gorbachev dies
Comments
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An impressive politician and leader. RIP4
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RIP. A courageous statesman who defied years of repression in his country.2
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RIP Mister Gorbachev.1
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One of the biggest names in post war history. RIP0
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Maggie, Reagan and Gorbachev, when the world wasn’t upside down. RIP great man.7
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RIP,
I used to work with a Russian guy who said despite most outside of Russia quite liking him, inside Russia he was hated.0 -
RIP. A brave and forward thinking man, who's good work has been totally undone by the current incumbent.3
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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.3
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Had a remarkable effect on the world I grew up in. For that I will forever be grateful.1
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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.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 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.2 -
RIP. Now there was a politician on a world stage!0
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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.0 -
"Scourge" is the word alright.SporadicAddick said: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.
RIP Mikhael Gorbachev0 -
RIP0
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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.
RIP2 -
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.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.The Ukrainian just sits in silence
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Do the Russians keep him occupied?1
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Iconic Spitting Image puppet from the 80s
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RIP.
He helped shift the world but maybe the real hero and spark came from Lech Walesa in Poland.
In 1980, five years before Gorbachev came to power trade unionist Lech Walesa in Gdańsk with quite astonishing courage helped to create the ‘Solidarity’ movement which started the ball rolling.
Walesa took advantage of the election of a Pope of all things, because in 1978 a Polish man was elected head of the Catholic Church, John Paul 2nd, and in a very religious country Walesa utilised morphic consciousness. I remember seeing him signing documents during the ‘delicate’ (aka very dangerous) times with a great big souvenir pen with a picture of the Pope on it.
Walesa was the spark, maybe Gorbachev was the heft.9 - Sponsored links:
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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 Mikhail2 -
RIP Mr Gorbachev.stop_shouting said:Maggie, Reagan and Gorbachev, when the world wasn’t upside down. RIP great man.
(Thatcher and Reagan were dangerous, the former did untold damage to the social fabric of Britain)12 -
Save it for the political area.SporadicAddick said: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.2 -
Gorbachev has died. Someone of whom it can be said he changed the world.
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RIP0
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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.SDAddick said:
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.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 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.4 -
Sadly the vacuum that followed the fall of the Soviet Union was filled with those that were already corrupt under the communist system. Gorbachev wasn’t in any position to smooth the path of Russia to being a true modern democracy. What we see in Russia is as close to a criminally run state as is possible. He tried. RIP5
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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.21 -
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.PragueAddick said: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.2 -
When Polish leader Jaruzelski banned Solidarity, and detained Walesa, but then was obliged to release him into a state in rebellious turmoil against the communist regime, the huge phenomena was the response of Gorbachev, which was no military response.In 1956 in Hungary, in 1968 in ‘Czechoslovakia’ resistance to Communist authority was met by Russian forces entering those countries, like Putin in Ukraine. However Gorbachev decided not to do the same in Poland, which gave confidence to people like Vaclev Havel in Prague to push for change.
In 1977 playwright Tom Stoppard wrote ‘Professional Foul’, a great play exploring football and resistance in Russian dominated Eastern Europe. I think that work of art had some influence. Havel was a playwright.
I find it interesting and inspiring that Zelensky in Ukraine has emerged from the creative world.
It is no surprise that oppressive regimes are afraid of creativity, look at Ai Wei Wei in China, and of course over here the Tories want to excoriate creative subjects from the school curriculum.8
