On this day 19 years ago, Mikhail Gorbachev became the first and last president of the Soviet Union. He had become the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, after the death of Konstantin Chernenko, and soon thereafter announced that the Soviet economy was stalled and needed reform. The reforms came to be known as “glasnost” (liberalisation, opening up) and “perestroika” (reconstruction).
The Soviet Union made many steps forward under Gorbachev with regard to freedom, democracy and international relations. In 1990 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. However, he was better at diagnosing the economic malaise than prescribing a cure for it. His government’s economic policies were unsuccessful and led to severe food shortages and substantial deficits.
The member states of the Soviet Union started agitating for independence, while at the same time conservatives were manoeuvring for the removal of Gorbachev. In the end, on 17 December 1991, Gorbachev was forced to agree to dissolve the Soviet Union. He resigned on Christmas Day, and Boris Yeltsin moved into his old office on 27 December 1991.