Who Is Mikhail Gorbachev?

            Mikhail Gorbachev is the former president of the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). Gorbachev was the Soviet leader when President Ronald Reagan made his famous speech in Germany on June 12, 1987. He stood in front of the West Berlin crowd and called for change. “Secretary General Gorbachev, if you seek peace – if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe – if you seek liberalization: come here, to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Reagan continued by asking Gorbachev to join him in some serious arms reduction talks. 

            I admired Gorbachev at the time because he recognized the truth of President Reagan’s words. His country was struggling, and his people were suffering. He understood the necessity of removing the wall. The Berlin Wall was the symbol of the Iron Curtain of the Cold War years. It is often called the “Wall of Shame.” It was torn down on November 9, 1989, more than two years after President Reagan’s call to “tear down this wall.” 

            Today I read some news that continued my admiration for Gorbachev. The former Soviet President said that “he knows who planned the attack on the U.S Capitol.” He also indicated that “the incident bodes ill for America’s future.

“The storming of the Capitol was clearly designed in advance, and it is clear by whom,” Gorbachev last week told an interviewer for Russian media. And, while he didn’t identify the plotters, the renowned statesman said that he senses machinations at work.

“It will take a little time, and we will figure it out, why it was really done,” Gorbachev said.

            Even though the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol ended quickly and did not look like the usual coup attempt with tanks in the streets, Gorbachev said that “the episode would reverberate through the United States. The incident ‘called into question the future fate of the United States as a state,” he said.”

            Gorbachev discussed the Russia-United States relationships in the interview with the Russian media interview. He indicated that a “revived arms race between the two nations is unlikely.”

“People who do not want war will unite, and their leaders will have to find a way out,” said Gorbachev, who is the central figure in a Moscow think tank named in his honor. “They will find new forms of treaties which take into account new types of weapons. We must not lose hope. I don’t lose hope in young people.”

            Gorbachev was a favorite to many Americans because he is a pleasant man. In a 1990 official visit to Washington, D.C., he thrilled the crowds “when he stepped out of his limousine and greeted crowds during rush hour.” He will be a hero to millions of Americans again if he will help solve the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.