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Years Ago Mikhail Gorbachev Became the First and the Last USSR President

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Years Ago Mikhail Gorbachev Became the First and the Last USSR President


15.03.2010

March 15 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev became the first President of the USSR.

In the article Perestroika Lost published in The New York Times, the last leader of the Soviet Union analyzed the results of own reign.

“Our main mistake was acting too late to reform the Communist Party. The party had initiated perestroika, but it soon became a hindrance to our moving forward. The party’s top bureaucracy organized the attempted coup in August 1991, which scuttled the reforms,” he wrote. “We made other mistakes, too. In the heat of political battles we lost sight of the economy, and people never forgave us for the shortages of everyday items and the lines for essential goods”.

Apart from pitfalls and mistakes Gorbachev listed the key achievements: “It was the breakthrough to freedom and democracy. Opinion polls today confirm that even those who criticize perestroika and its leaders appreciate the gains it allowed: the rejection of the totalitarian system; freedom of speech, assembly, religion and movement; and political and economic pluralism”.

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