He is widely disliked by Russians. Say what you want about the USSR's political system, but at least there was stability and economic security for its people before it collapsed under the pressure of nationalist movements and capitalist restoration.

He is a fooooool. He knew nothing of economy, international relationships and his country. He started his raw and unprepared programs and never finished them and brought country to crisis. B*tchass dude.

One of the smarter guys to hold his post. A shame that Putin is trying to undo his legacy...

One often forgets that men should be measured against their contemporaries, and on that scale, I easily rate Mikhail Gorbachev at five stars. This Soviet leader was faced with epic challenges, both domestically and internationally, namely the increasing burden on the Soviets in the face of Reagan's military build-up and the failing internal economy and infrastructure. As information technology improved and the global economy expanded, it became obvious to Gorbachev that neither people nor ideas could be kept out of any nominally closed society. The decision was whether to go down hard or soft, and Gorby (to his credit) took the latter and much better route. The fact that things changed so rapidly evidences that these forces were inevitable (even if accelerated by Reagan's policies). Admittedly, Russians are experiencing major transitional problems; however, mindsets will alter and internal controls will eventually and adequately regulate the political and economic situation. The bottom line is that Mikhail Gorbachev ultimately chose what was in the best interests of the Soviets rather than what might keep him and the Communists in power as long as possible.

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Remember how the Chattering Class used to get the vapors whenever his name was mentioned? He was Man of the Year, no, Man of the Decade, no, Man of the Century, ad infinitum.

Now he's just a colorless reject.

Actually, quite tragic. Events caught up with him and then surpassed him. Now he is an historical footnote and in modern Russia may even be considered a non-person.

Gorby must love Russia, he has the map of it on his head!, terrible..

i fought him one time; he's not so tough

Highly overrated in the West. His economic policies did the unimaginable, they weakened a weak economy. He also tried to brutally suppress independence protests.

Bald capitalist with a birthmark shaped like either Croatia or the United States (depending on how you look at it). Glass his nost and pere his stroika; down with Gorby!

Severly underrated. He put a human face on the Soviet Empire, and showed that decent, intelligent people do come from Russia. And let's face facts, all you Reagan-worshipers. If Misha hadn't been on the other side of the table willing to negotiate, none of the cold war 'victories' achieved by Reagan would have happened. He didn't do it alone, and I hope that history treats him better than his own people have.

Mikhail Gorbachev was an honest leader who understood that the Soviet system was hollow and backward. The biggest failure of the Soviet system was its failure to invest in information technology in the 1960's. The government was afraid that this economic change from an industrial base to a services based technological society would open up the system. The fall of Russian communism was inevitable, the world economy was changing and the Soviet Union wasn't changing with it. Gorbachev became the leader of the USSR in a time when it was falling seriously behind the Americans in many regards. The Soviet model was doomed to failure because it relied excessively on a bloated, corrupt bureaucracy that squandered profits. People didn't have any incentive to work; the economy was in the doldrums. Perestroika and glastnost were necessary reforms. Gorbachev realized that the Soviet Union needed to catch up technologically if it expected to maintain parity with the US. They literally missed the boat in this respect. When you put it in this light, the fall of the USSR was inevitable. Gorbachev was just there when it started coming apart. It helped that he, to put it succintly, wasn't some close minded thug like Stalin or Brezhenev. He acknowledged that massive reform was needed to keep the Soviet Union affloat. However once Gorbachev revealed the truth about the sordid state of governance in Russia in the late 1980's, the inevitable happened, they began questioning the very legitimacy of the communist regime. Gorbachev was able to do little to stop the tide of reform. From Latvia to Uzbekistan, the Soviet Republics began asserting their independence. Russians began demanding greater representation. Soviet society was very hollow and unproductive. They simply couldn't compete with other world economies. Some credit must be given to President Reagan's defense buildup during the 1980's, particularly his advocacy of the missile defense shield, which was largely a bluff Reagan used to get Gorbachev to agree to a reduction in arms production. The Soviets could no keep up with US arms production; while we only spent approximately 8% of GDP in defense during the early 1980's, the Soviets were spending at times up to 40%. There was no way they could expect to bear this burden and expect that people's standards of living would continue to go up. Gorbachev had no choice, he had to sign an Arms Reduction Agreement with Reagan. The other choice would be to bankrupt his country. But making this choice significantly weakened Gorbachev in the eyes of the hardliners in the Politburo. His fall was imminent at this point. The Soviet Union was held together only by the threat of force. By 1990, it was impossible to hold back. Gorbachev's economic and social openness policies lead to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It's intention was to shore it up but instead the deck of cards fell. The Soviets could no longer afford to hold together a massive empire by force. Gorbachev's biggest accomplishment was holding off and isolating the hardliners. When they attempted to overthrow Gorbachev in 1991, it was too late. Popular will would not permit such an action. He sowed the seeds for greater openness in Russia.

Russia often produces great people who are subsequently despised by their own people, because they are too intelligent, too sophisticated, too clean. Read Russian history. Russians would rather have Stalin than Trotsky, Yeltsin than Gorbachev. Both Stalin and Yeltsin were corrupt, ignorant, drunken brutes. If Russia had stayed with Gorbachev, they would not be in the mess they are today. Putin is nothing more than a weasely ex-KGB thug.

WHAT??? HOW DOES THIS GUY GET 3 STARS???? HES A FRIKKIN COMMIE IN CASE ALL YOU IDIOTS FORGOT!!!!!

Probably the most successful Russian leader. Opened the policy of glasnost.

A leader who risked everything to move his country out of the dark ages of Stalinist communism.

Does anyone read history any more or are we just following the rough draft in the New York Times? Gorbachev is recognized in his homeland as an ineffectual, corrupt tyrant who didn't have the iron to crush the popular risings in Russia or Eastern Europe or the moral courage and desire to lead in real democratic reform. He was constantly appealing to the communist sympathetic left in the west to save him and apparently they did their job too well because the only people who still appreciate him are western democrats. Ironic and very stupid.

Poor chap...thought capitalism as the elixir for everything....but didn't realise comes with a host of problems.

He was a Communist tyrant who played with and was bested by better men and Woman: Reagan, John Paul II and Margaret Thatcher. I am always amazed that people who have very poor or little understanding of the operation of the former Soviet Union contiue to have such misguided appreciation for this man to the detriment of the leaders of the west. He was a close protégé of Yuri Andropov (KGB General/Secretary General) who was deeply involved throughout his career which the oppression of his people (68 Million murdered.). He is now hated and loathed by his fellow countryman and is unable to live there. If he were a National Socialist instead of an International Socialist and was involved in the extermination of Jewish people instead of Ukrainians, Uzbeks and Russians, he would have ended up at the end of a rope. He believed the division of public opinion in Europe in favor of the USSR and the creation the KGB funded Green Party was enough for him to attract foreign investment in the collapsing economy of the USSR to maintain his power. He was wrong and so is anyone who believes him to be a decent honorable man. He is a wretched thug overpowered by his betters.

communist...

Good guy if you look at it from the western point of view, probably because he was open to the western point of view. I wonder what they think of him in Russia...(if you are from Russia please do comment!)...Was he really the guy who made it possible to get rid of the Soviet Union and open the borders for the people in Eastern Europe to the freedom of the West? Or was it something else, perhaps a combination of events and circumstances? Did Gorby play into these events and circumstances? Was he (un)lucky to have Ronnie Reagan at 'the other side'? Can we also blame him for the miserable state Russia is in now? Or is this something which comes with change (possibly towards free market society?)? Is it once again a revolution (started by Gorby) which marks the history of cold and isolated Russia?

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a realist who sought true peace with a nation that, for better or for worse, was economically stronger than the Soviet Union, all military weapons and assorted examples of destruction notwithstanding. He angered the con-stupor-tives in Moscow with his embracement of openness and accountability in the military (throughout Russian history, this has traditionally been a no-no) and realized that the greatest danger was facing him within his own cabinet (Yigor Ligachev comes to mind). I doubt he was a true communist at heart, because during the Soviets' tenure (1917-1990) the average Russian, Kazakh, Georgian, Azeri, Uzbeki, etc. would call themselves communist because it meant survival in a state where terror reigned supreme. Gorby was a practical man who saw the Party as a stepping-stone to greater positions of power. In this case any ambitious person in any society will do whatever it takes to consolidate power regardless of ideology or nationality (Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Machiavelli, the de Medicis, Amin, McCarthy, Dornan, Metzger, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Cromwell, etc.). While I would never equate Gorby with a Hitler or any of his Soviet predecessors, we need to look beyond glasnost and perestroika and realize that a Western-style democracy will not work very well in a nation that was historically isolated from the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, representative and parliamentary democracy (exception: Peter the Great in the late 1600s), in no small part due to repeated Mongol and Tartar invasions and an historic lack of a warm-water port which only added to Russia's sense of isolation and feelings of inferiority. Gorbachev's rule meant a greater degree of personal and religious freedom for the average Soviet person, but, in turn, also led to the geopolitical disintegration of the world's largest communist monolith, upheaval in a society that has always valued structure, love of the "wodka" and being told what to do (the Soviets were not exactly entrepreneurs in the American style), and a breakdown of family---the same consequences that us Westerners have had five centuries to adjust to (and we are still doing so). Sorry, but "liberte, equalite et fraternite" ain't cutting it for all of Gorby's good intentions. People value what is familiar and beneficial to them, and it would be horribly arrogant and jingoistic of us to think that democracy will always work wherever we "ugly Americans" (for that is how most of the world sees us) see fit to impose it. Gorby tried this, and it hasn't really worked at this point. Vladimir Putin's got a real mess on his hands. Yet we in the West think Gorby is a "good guy" for opening his country up to our values. Shouldn't we be questioning our own value system, democracy, that we love so much, and realize that it isn't meant for everybody? Gorby obviously realized this once he opened up the eternal Pandora's Box that was the fragmented, disjointed Soviet Union. He was a smoothie, just like Reagan was. But Gorby was a good man who truly wanted what he felt was best for his country. Dos svidanya, gospodin!

He was the man (or at least one of them) who made it possible to get rid of the Soviet Union and open the borders for the people in the Eastern Europe to the freedom of the West!

The most rational Russian politician of the 20th Century. Ronald Reagan would not nearly have accomplished as much during his presidency were it not for the part played by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Funny how the liberal media always credits Gorbachev with ending the Cold War, neglecting to notice how Reagan checkmated them into desperate reform. Now, I understand that Gorby is trying to build stepping stones for a world government that he can run into the ground like he did the Soviet system he inherited...

He let the people go. Blessed are the peace makers.

He meant so well... yet his Perestrojka never really became what he thought it would...

Glastnost, people should have listened to him and go eazy on things

He had the good sense, compassion, and courage to push aside Soviet tyranny and let a foul, corrupt, and evil system parish. He ended the job that had been initiated by Reagan era foreign and defense policy.

Despite him being around the communist era of Russia, he had the sensibility to introduce and break away from it. It has lost him and the country a lot, yet nobody else would have had the bravery and the insight to bring about such a change. He is truly revolutionist.

Knowing what we know now, I think it would be irresponsible to rate Gorbachev anything higher than a 2. Let's face it, in the history of Russia, nobody's administration has had more disastrous social and economical effects than this guy. This country is a basket case.

He single handedly toppled the Soviet regime and ended the Cold War causing a world of opportunities for the former U.S.S.R.