Mikhail Gorbachev

Where they went

2 related events

1. 1
   1979 – 1989Soviet–Afghan Warrelated figure

   The Soviet Union sent troops to prop up Afghanistan’s communist regime and fought for nearly ten years against mujahideen backed by the US and others before withdrawing in 1989. Détente was over.

2. 2
   1985 – 1991Gorbachev’s Perestroika and Glasnostleader

   Soviet leader Gorbachev introduced restructuring (perestroika) and openness (glasnost) and pursued arms control with the US through his “new thinking”. Communist regimes in Eastern Europe fell one after another and the Cold War ended.

People who appear alongside

• Leonid Brezhnev1906 – 1982

  Soviet leader (1964–1982) who crushed the Prague Spring (the Brezhnev Doctrine) and presided over both détente and the invasion of Afghanistan

Themes this person appears in

• The Cold War1945 – 1991

  From Yalta to the dissolution of the Soviet Union — half a century in which two blocs led by the US and the USSR divided the world