Does Gorbachev Deserve Platitudes on His 90th?

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, inheritor of Brezhnev, Khrushchev, Stalin and Lenin, and the last ruler of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – the Evil Empire as President Reagan correctly observed – is 90 years old and some are fawning over his achievements as dubious as they were.

So what’s the big deal?

The National Security Archive at nsarchive.gwu.edu/ wrote a happy birthday tribute to him titled “Gorbachev’s Greatest Hits.”

Among other things, the article states: “Gorbachev did not have time to realize many of his ideas, chief among them the creation of a new voluntary and democratic and demilitarized Soviet Union.  But the seven years he spent as leader of the Soviet Union changed the world to an extent nobody imagined before.  Gorbachev, more than any other figure, ended the Cold War, then worked to ensure the story could be told.”

According to Reuters, President Putin hailed his predecessor Gorbachev as an “outstanding statesman” who influenced the course of history.

Gorbachev’s spokesman Vladimir Polyakov said messages of congratulations also came from world leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

However, former captive nation Latvia’s Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics seemingly facetiously tweeted that Latvians were grateful to Gorbachev. “His perestroika and (glasnost reforms) were intended to save the Soviet Union, instead they sped up the collapse of the Communist empire paving the way to freedom for millions,” he wrote.

The article in National Security Archive attempted to white wash the cumulative evils of the USSR just because its last dictator, Gorbachev, involuntarily oversaw its demise on December 26, 1991, several months after a few of the captive nations had already proclaimed their independence. The last paragraph in the article bemoaned that Gorbachev did not have time to realize his plans and end the Cold War and sought to exonerate him for all of Russia’s crimes against humanity. Actually, his “perestroika” and “glasnost” policies did not restructure anything, they did not allow openness, and they really didn’t liberate anyone but rather they continued subjugating the captive nations but now cynically with a “happy face.”

In retirement Gorbachev cautioned against a return to the Cold War and urged Moscow and Washington to keep talking to each other, regardless of their differences. As for ending the Cold War, there was never any intention to do so because Moscow turned dialogue into regional hot wars such as its seven-year aggression in Ukraine.

Including Gorbachev’s reign, Russia – in all of its colorations – has never wavered from its belligerent behavior toward its “near abroad.” Gorbachev, himself, expressed opposition to the wave of independence that swept the Russian prison of nations in the past three decades. Its invasion of Ukraine is an example of the ongoing mission of the Kremlin.

Gorbachev is just like all of his predecessors and successors. He didn’t renounce Russia’s bloody past so he perpetuated centuries of its crimes against humanity.

He does not to deserve these ovations because he merely administered Moscow’s unchangeable malicious empire for a few years and was a segue between a Soviet-Communist Russia and Putin’s federal one. Aggression and oppression continue unabatedly.