Trivia

Appeared in a commercial for Pizza Hut, making him the only Communist Party official to do advertising work. (1998)

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He resigned as USSR President on Christmas Day, 1991.

Former leader of USSR.

Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (May 25, 1989 to March 15, 1990).

Just before Gorbachev's death, economist Ruslan Grinberg visited him in hospital and commented afterwards about his Glasnost (free speech) policy "He gave us all freedom - but we don't know what to do with it".

Merited a place in Time magazine's Special Issue "Heroes of the Environment" (Leaders & Visionaries section) with a tribute penned by Alexei Yablokov, Chairman of the Green Russia political caucus (Issue October 29, 2007).

Was briefly overthrown in August 1991 by a group of Communist Party hard-liners angered by his policies but returned to power a couple of days later due to widespread opposition to the coup throughout the country.

President of Green Cross International, a Swiss-based environmentalist organization. (2003)

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (March 11, 1985 to August 24, 1991).

President of the USSR (March 15, 1990 to December 25,1991) - and the only person to occupy this office.

Although viewed as a hero throughout most of the world, he was widely disliked in Russia due to the perception that his policies reduced it to near-Third World status.

Passed away just 9 days before Britain's monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, whom he had personally known.

CPSU official.

Became full member of CPSU in 1952.

Under Gorbachev, the Soviet Union broke apart without falling into civil war, as happened during the breakup of Yugoslavia at the same time.

Gorbachev, together with Bill Clinton and Sophia Loren, were awarded the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for their recording of Sergei Prokofiev's 1936 Peter and the Wolf for Pentatone.

He was the first recipient of the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award, and in 1994 was given the Grawemeyer Award by the University of Louisville, Kentucky.

His decision to allow the Eastern Bloc to break apart prevented significant bloodshed in Central and Eastern Europe; as Taubman noted, this meant that the "Soviet Empire" ended in a far more peaceful manner than the British Empire several decades before.

By 1955, Gorbachev's hair was thinning, and by the late 1960s he was bald, revealing a distinctive port-wine stain on the top of his head.

Having an aversion to hard liquor,[562] he drank sparingly and did not smoke.

He spoke in a southern Russian accent,[559] and was known to sing both folk and pop songs.

In 2000, he was presented with the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement at an awards ceremony at Hampton Court Palace near London.

Throughout the 1960s, he struggled against obesity and dieted to control the problem.

In 1988, India awarded Gorbachev the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development.

Gorbachev's negotiations with the US helped bring an end to the Cold War and reduced the threat of nuclear conflict.

According to The New York Times, "Few leaders in the 20th century, indeed in any century, have had such a profound effect on their time. In little more than six tumultuous years, Mr. Gorbachev lifted the Iron Curtain, decisively altering the political climate of the world.".

Russian president Vladimir Putin bid an official farewell to Gorbachev on 1 September 2022 during a visit to the Central Clinical Hospital, where he laid flowers at his coffin. His press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the "tight schedule of the president" would not allow him to be present at the funeral, as he was scheduled to visit Kaliningrad.

Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Charles V Prize in 2002 by the European Academy of Yuste Foundation.

He was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee in 1970, overseeing the construction of the Great Stavropol Canal.

He was the only Soviet leader born after the country's foundation.