Mikhail Gorbachev: International press comments on the death of the former Soviet head of state

press reviews

The Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev died on Tuesday evening at the age of 91. Here are international press reviews of his death.

Russia

“Commercial”: “Mikhail Gorbachev, who left the Kremlin 30 years before his death, had to deal with both praise and slurs. Much of the praise went to his foreign policy, which helped bring the then two superpowers together under one doctrine nuclear deterrence did not move further towards the abyss and which led to the collapse of Central and Eastern Europe’s political dependence on the Soviet Union – including the reunification of Germany.This foreign policy was equally accused of accepting the loss of the Soviet sphere of influence and quasi the conditions for the to have created eastward expansion of NATO.”

Great Britain

The people of London “The Times” praises Gorbachev as a statesman “who made peace with the West and paid the price for it. Few statesmen of the 20th century had such an impact at home and abroad, and few left such a legacy. (…) Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, is hailed in the West as the man who brought about the collapse of Soviet Communism and ended the Cold War.”

Poland

The Polish daily newspaper “Rzeczpospolita” writes: “Mikhail Gorbachev was a child of the system. He was a staunch supporter of communism, which he actually only wanted to make more humane. (…) He probably annoyed himself that he had not succeeded in promoting the unity of the USSR Although in hindsight it is clear that he would not have had the opportunity to do so. Perhaps if he had decided to drown all the protests – from Lithuania to Kazakhstan – in a sea of ​​blood. But he could not, because he believed that socialism should have a “human face” and not just military boots.”

Hungary

“Magyar Nemzet” writes: “Gorbachev let the genie out of the bottle, but the forces unleashed in this way swept him away too. (…) In his homeland, a considerable number of people associate his name with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the chaos that followed. Yes because of his life and his deeds, the world respects him as a personality to this day (…).

France

“Le Monde” in Paris comments: “Mikhail Gorbachev, revered in the West, has lived almost anonymously in Russia since leaving politics in 1991. The height of the paradox: the architect of East-West rapprochement delighted the masses in Europe while he was in his homeland caused indifference.”

Spain

“El Mundo”: “Gorbachev was a tragic hero who made wise decisions that at the same time limited his room for maneuver as ruler. He spoke several times about his decision not to order Soviet troops to stop the fall of the Berlin Wall – or to try to stop it.”

Italy

In the “Corriere della Sera” one can read: “He a tragic hero, a giant without peace, a communist who buried communism by trying to save it, a patriot who, despite the best of intentions, prepared the grave for the first socialist state in history. (. ..), the man who, like Icarus, believed he could approach the sun, but in doing so destroyed himself and his work, which he wanted to preserve.”

Of the “La Stampa” It says: “If it’s like the great Israeli author Amos Oz once said, you have to become – or be – a traitor to change the world, then Mikhail Gorbachev was the greatest of them all, at least for the last 80 years.”

Australia

“Sydney Morning Herald” writes: “It is (…) sobering to remember that when Gorbachev ran for the office of Russian president in 1996, he received less than one percent of the votes – his stocks had fallen so much in his own country. Maybe it was his private tragedy to have lived long enough to see his dream of a kinder, more open and more cosmopolitan Russia evaporate.”