Mikhail Gorbachev: architect of reform and glasnost

Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, initiating sweeping domestic reforms known as perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). By abandoning the Brezhnev Doctrine and refusing to use military force to prop up Eastern European communist regimes, he played a pivotal role in ending the Cold War, earning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Although his policies inadvertently catalyzed the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, his visionary approach fundamentally transformed global geopolitics and ushered in a new era of international relations.

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