Mikhail Gorbachev Is Dead

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union before its dissolution, has died in Moscow at the age of 92, CNN reports.

Washington Post: “For the sheer improbability of his actions and their impact on the late 20th century, Mr. Gorbachev ranks as a towering figure. In 1985, he was chosen to lead a country mired in socialism and stultifying ideology. In six years of cajoling, improvised tactics and increasingly bold risks, Mr. Gorbachev unleashed immense changes that eventually demolished the pillars of the state.”

“The Soviet collapse was not Mr. Gorbachev’s goal, but it may be his greatest legacy. It brought to an end a seven-decade experiment born of Utopian idealism that led to some of the bloodiest human suffering of the century.”

New York Times: “Few leaders in the 20th century, indeed in any century, have had such a profound effect on their time.”