Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of the Cold War - Lafayette College

Room: Kirby 104

Presented by Prof. Joshua Sanborn

This lecture is intended to acquaint members of the campus and community with the career and importance of Mikhail Gorbachev in advance of Mr. Gorbachev’s lecture on Wednesday, October 19. It will briefly discuss Gorbachev’s personal history and his rise up the ladder of the Communist Party before turning to his actions as the leader of the Soviet Union between 1985-1991. Under his watch, the Communist Party loosened its grip on the Soviet economy, held competitive elections, and significantly reoriented its foreign policy. The early 1980s had been one of the coldest periods of the cold war. Gorbachev dramatically transformed the situation by initiating radically new arms control talks, by ending the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and by releasing Soviet control over communist states in Eastern Europe. These reforms defused an extremely dangerous global conflict, but they also led to a period of economic and political turmoil in the former Soviet Union. The lecture will conclude with an assessment of Gorbachev’s mixed legacy in Russia and the rest of Eastern Europe.