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Mikhail Gorbachev Quotes
1931–2022 Russia
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: Михаи́л Серге́евич Горбачёв, IPA: [gərbəˈtɕof], commonly anglicized as Gorbachev; 2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was General Secretary of the Communist Party and served as leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. His attempts at reform helped to end the Cold War, but also ended the political supremacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and dissolved the Soviet Union.
Russia Academics Nobel laureates Politicians Also known as: Gorbachev, Mikhail Gorbachov
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64 quotes
If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today.
I agree with John Paul II's thesis that a new world order must be more just and humane than the current one, otherwise it will not be a new world order.
I express the very deepest condolences to the family of the deceased on whose shoulders rest major events for the good of the country and serious mistakes.
A period of transition to a new quality in all spheres of society's life is accompanied by painful phenomena.
Nobel Address (1991)
Certain people in the United States are driving nails into this structure of our relationship, then cutting off the heads. So the Soviets must use their teeth to pull them out.
I began to feel the desire for something more; I wanted to do something to make things better.
No one is in a position to describe in detail what perestroika will finally produce. But it would certainly be a self-delusion to expect that perestroika will produce "a copy" of anything.
Nobel Address (1991)
If the Russian word "perestroika" has easily entered the international lexicon, this is due to more than just interest in what is going on in the Soviet Union. Now the whole world needs restructuring, i.e. progressive development, a fundamental change.
Perestroika: New Thinking For Our Country and the World (1987)
United States "grew arrogant and self-confident" after the collapse of the Soviet Union, resulting in "a new empire. Hence the idea of NATO expansion".
The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries. It is an invention of civilization.
There is a growing will to achieve consensus, and a growing understanding that we have a State, a country, a common life. This is what must be preserved first of all.
Nobel Address (1991)
Life is much richer and more complex than even the most perfect plans to make it better. It ultimately takes vengeance for attempts to impose abstract schemes, even with the best of intentions.
Nobel Address (1991)
Today, peace means the ascent from simple coexistence to cooperation and common creativity among countries and nations.
Nobel Address (1991)
During the last six years we have discarded and destroyed much that stood in the way of a renewal and transformation of our society.
Nobel Address (1991)
My life’s work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.
We have retreated from the perennial values. I don't think that we need any new values. The most important thing is to try to revive the universally known values from which we have retreated.
I was probably too liberal and democratic as regards Yeltsin. I should have sent him as ambassador to Great Britain or maybe a former British colony.
In 1954 transfer of Crimea, when Crimea were part of the Soviet Union, the Crimean people had not been asked at the time, whereas in the 2014 referendum they had.
I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the cosmos. Look at the sun. If there is no sun, then we cannot exist. So nature is my god. To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.
Preparing for my address I found in an old Russian encyclopedia a definition of "peace" as a "commune" — the traditional cell of Russian peasant life.
Nobel Address (1991)
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