# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/mikhail-gorbachev
# Generated: 2026-09-01T16:09:51.876Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/mikhail-gorbachev"
name: "Mikhail Gorbachev"
slug: "mikhail-gorbachev"
description: "The man who tried to save the Soviet Union by opening it up — and watched it dissolve instead. Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika unshackled speech, ended the Cold War, and set off forces that tore apart the state he meant to preserve."
tagline: "Leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 (1931–2022)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/GorbachevMS.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
category:
  name: "Politicians"
  slug: "politicians"
profileType:
  name: "Politician"
  slug: "politician"
birthDate: "1931-03-02"
deathDate: "2022-08-30"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           85.79
  momentum:             2.437205853200097
  historical:           36.196332
  currentAttention:     6.833333333333335
  sourceConfidence:     75
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   186
  country:  null
  category: 43
tags:
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    slug: "politicians"
  - name: "Politician"
    slug: "politician"
  - name: "Politics"
    slug: "politics"
  - name: "Law"
    slug: "law"
  - name: "Economics"
    slug: "economics"
  - name: "Movies"
    slug: "movies"
  - name: "20th Century"
    slug: "20th-century"
platforms:
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    url:       "https://x.com/mgorbachev"
    handle:    "mgorbachev"
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0329784/"
    handle:    "nm0329784"
  - platform:  "WEBSITE"
    url:       "http://www.gorby.ru"
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    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIDATA"
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    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://als.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michail_Gorbatschow"
    title: "Michail Gorbatschow"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "ምኻይል ጎርባቾቭ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Mikhail Gorbachev"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "ميخائيل غورباتشوف"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "ميخايل ڭورباتشوڤ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84_%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%B4%D9%88%D9%81"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Mikhaíl Gorbachov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "میخائیل قورباچوف"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Mixail Qorbaçov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Mikhail Gorbachev"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Горбачёв Михаил Сергеевич"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Міхаіл Гарбачоў"
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    title: "Михаил Горбачов"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "মিখাইল গর্বাচেভ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Mikhail Gorbatchev"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihail_Gorba%C4%8Dov"
    title: "Mihail Gorbačov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikha%C3%AFl_Gorbatxov"
    title: "Mikhaïl Gorbatxov"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://cs.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michail_Sergejevi%C4%8D_Gorba%C4%8Dov"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born in 1931 to peasants in the North Caucasus, Gorbachev grew up under Stalin, drove combine harvesters on a collective farm, then climbed the Party ladder through law school at Moscow State and posts in Stavropol, where he oversaw canal construction and became first party secretary in 1970. By 1985, after three Soviet leaders died in quick succession, the Politburo made him general secretary. Convinced reform was the only way to preserve the system, he withdrew from Afghanistan, held summits with Reagan to wind down the nuclear standoff, and launched glasnost and perestroika to decentralize the economy and open the press. His democratization fractured the one-party state; when Warsaw Pact nations broke away in 1989, he let them go. Nationalist republics threatened secession, hardliners tried a coup in August 1991, and in the rubble the Soviet Union dissolved against his will. He resigned, founded the Gorbachev Foundation, and spent three decades criticizing Yeltsin and Putin while the world debated whether he had freed a region or merely presided over collapse.