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Born March 2, 1931
Privolnoye, Stavropol province, Russia

General secretary and president of Soviet Union

Mikhail Gorbachev spoke the following words in a televised address to the Soviet people on December 25, 1991, when he resigned as president of the Soviet Union, "Fate had decided that, when I became head of state, it was already obvious that there was something wrong in this country. We had plenty of everything: land, oil, gas and other natural resources, and God has also endowed us with intellect and talent—yet we lived much worse than people in other industrialized countries and the gap was constantly widening."

Gorbachev rose within the Communist Party the only way possible, by holding to the strict party line. But once he reached its highest office, he began to reform the system with an intensity and boldness that amazed all around him. Two words will be...