Gorbachev would be judged in many ways but his single most important contribution remains ending the Cold War
Mikhail Gorbachev, 91, credited with the end of the Cold War and giving right to self-determination to Eastern Europe, is no more. Gorbachev, the last Soviet Union President, removed the ‘iron curtain’ from Eastern Europe. His initiatives glasnost and perestroika ushered in a new era of openness and reforms which changed the course of events of the Soviet Union and for that matter entire world. His reforms were so overwhelming that the Soviet empire could not survive them and fell like a house of cards. Indeed, different people would judge him differently. Yuval Noah Harare, the well-known contemporary historian, holds him as an outstanding leader who risked everything to bring about a better and safer world free of nuclear danger. On the other end of the spectrum, President Vladimir Putin though expressed “his deepest condolences” on his demise has called the dismantling of the Soviet Union as “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the twentieth century and blamed Gorbachev for it.
He went on to say that he would reverse the Soviet Union's disintegration if he could. While the Western leaders all praise him, including Joe Biden and Boris Johnson, the reactions back home have been mixed and some even outright slander.The reforms brought about by Gorbachev meant a lot of misery for the common people as the transition from a closed economy to an open one was not a happy experience. Besides, the people who cherished Russian nationalism saw him as a person who deliberately dismantled the Union. For them, he remains a fall guy.In fact, the last days of Gorbachev must have been rather painful as he saw his ideals thrown to the winds by the incumbent Russian President. The attack on Ukraine would have been a nightmare for him. The peace he stood for was being blown to pieces in his last days. And he could not do anything about it.As people judge him by their own standards, the Nobel Peace Prize winner would quietly rest till eternity. Gorbachev will be buried in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife Raisa, who died in 1999. The world would ever be indebted to him for giving peace a chance and standing for humanity risking everything! Perhaps, Ruslan Grinberg, a liberal economist summed it up best, “He gave us all freedom — but we don’t know what to do with it!”