The last leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, died

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the only President of the USSR, died at the age of 91.

The media reported that Gorbachev died “after a serious and long illness.” According to them, Gorbachev came to the hospital for hemodialysis shortly before his death.

In recent years, Gorbachev was suffering from kidney disease. In particular, there is information that the politician underwent hemodialysis for several years.

The politician is buried next to his wife Raisa Gorbachev at the Novodevichiye Cemetery in Moscow. The date of the funeral has not yet been set.

Mikhail Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931 on the territory of the current Stavropol Territory. He graduated from the Law Faculty of Moscow State University with a red diploma.

Gorbachev was the last head of the Soviet state and the last general secretary of the CPSU Central Committee — he held this position in 1985. Soon, at the initiative of the politician, it was announced the beginning of restructuring reforms related to the political and economic structure of the state.

Restructuring required significant democratization of Soviet society, including reform of the electoral system. In the spring of 1989, elections for people's Deputies of the USSR took place, which in fact became the first free elections in 1917 after the Bolsheviks came to power.

Under Gorbachev, a ten-year military company in Afghanistan was completed, from where Soviet troops were withdrawn. In 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev went down in history as the first president of the USSR, the only politician who held this position. In the same year, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.