I give him 5 stars for the map of Estonia on his head.

Oh, come on. . .

This is not some flag-waving, Top-Gun-esque nationalism-flavored review. . .just a little splash of cold water. . .

Give this tough old bird some (some) credit for glasnost but really. . .'world history'? C'mon. . .

His reforms could have transformed the Soviet Union; instead he ran it into the ground. Shame. Glasnost was great in principle but the problems in the country, and with perestoika, were so rife that a central government couldn't function. Russia is a mess today though. He should have transformed communism - instead he brought about unregulated capitalism. In terms of being influential, I'd rate him pretty high, hence the rating.

Actually, Gorbachev did in fact bring down the system, and faced a coup attempt almost losing his life in the process. If Breschnev had lived, or Andropov lasted the decade, the system probably would not have changed for many more years, if then. Gorbachev was not merely a visionary, he was a pragmatist, playing off all sides. Glasnost and Prerestroika were very real. We owe him a great deal.

He is a figure who will be remembered as the last of an era. I believe that he was reactor and not a driver or actor on the historical stage. He was of the younger generation and since he was at the top, he could see the rot. The Soviet system took a long time to die and really it was not anything that Gorby did or did not do. It is ironic that the Marxists were a victim of history in the same fashion that they taught would be the fate of capitalism.

What ought to be clear about Mikhail Gorbachev is that he wasn't interested in ending Communism. Rather, he merely sought to make it more efficient in a world where it was not convenient, nor was it practical. And anyone who is stupid enough to say he saved the world from Ronald Reagan is either brainless or lacking in any common sense. Communism was evil. Given these, Gorbachev's contribution to the world was that he presided over the end of a failed system that served only to exploit a vast population, as well as to deny the individuality that is inherent in ALL human beings.