Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, on Wednesday, commented on the death of the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, on social media. Gorbachev passed away on Tuesday at the age of 91.
“Mikhail Gorbachev has died. He increased the scope of freedom of the enslaved peoples of the Soviet Union in an unprecedented way, giving them hope for a more dignified life,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs wrote on Twitter.
Mikhail Gorbachev has died. He increased the scope of freedom of the enslaved peoples of the Soviet Union in an unprecedented way, giving them hope for a more dignified life.
— Zbigniew Rau (@RauZbigniew) August 31, 2022
In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became the secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He was also the first and only president of the USSR. On his initiative, an attempt at multilateral reforms in the country, known as “perestroika” – reconstruction, lasted from 1985 to 1991.
In 1990, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and was valued in the West for his contribution to the ending of the Cold War.
According to Russian media, Gorbachev will be buried in the Moscow Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife Raisa, who died in 1999.