Last General Secretary and first President of the USSR, initiator of perestroika and glasnost, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Without glasnost, nothing would have happened. Transparency is the foundation of reform.
I made a final and irrevocable decision. No pressure from left or right will make me abandon perestroika.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was my tragedy. But I believed it was necessary for the people's good.
History demands change. This is not my choice—it is the law of social development.
People must know the truth about their history. Without this, there is no future.
We proposed new thinking in foreign policy. This was not a compromise but a necessity.
Perestroika is an urgent necessity arising from the profound processes of our socialist society.