zaterdag 5 maart 2011

Michail Gorbachev 80th birthday

Former Soviet leader Michail Gorbachev has been given Russia's highest award, the Order of St Andrew, to mark his 80th birthday.

Michail Gorbachev played a key role in dismantling the Iron Curtain, but many Russians revile him for the economic meltdown and conflicts after the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

When I was asking Russians their opinion about the man behind the perestroika, I almost always received a negative response.

In an opinion poll from the magazine Vlast, I read mixed opinions: Yes, he gave us freedom; Yes, he changed the country (in a better way); yet, for a lot of people his name is still associated with a problems and irretrievable losses.

Let's watch an overview of the life of Michail Gorbachev by Leonid Parfyonov:

10 milestones according Rusia Hoy:

1. Acceleration and Cooperation: perestroika, modernization, price liberalization, Law on Cooperatives
2. Anti-alcohol campagne
3. Glasnost: openness, transparency
4. Return of the dissidents
5. Democratization
6. Modernization of the market, economical crisis and monetary reform
7. International détente
8. German reunification
9. End of the war in Afghanistan
10. Ethnic conflicts

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