Life. Mikhail gorbachev left office in 1991 recent survivor of an attempted hard line, communist qu, but victim nonetheless, of unstoppable change. The vast soviet empire had suddenly ceased to exist. Gorbachev left behind a moscow reduced in stature. The capital now of a newly independent russia. Of course, he was very, very disciplined in man because he was at his house. He had not only by the russian state of soviet state, but by the russians. I mean, he used to not for a popular hell be remembered more warmly abroad than at home. Go b as he came to be known, one the confidence of World Leaders by dismantling the structures of the cold war. He played a crucial role in the reunification of germany. Joining east with west as the berlin wall fell last last and perestroika formed the new, more attractive face of an old phone. He became secretary general at the time when the soviet economy was beginning to collapse. He realized that he had to make a very serious choice in open up to the