Gorbachev, in power between 1985 and 1991, played a key role in ending the Cold War but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mikhail Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union before it collapsed in 1991Image: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images
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Mikhail Gorbachev, the final leader of the Soviet Union who helped end the Cold War without bloodshed, has died in hospital on Tuesday. He was 91.
Staff at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow said the statesman died on Tuesday night "after a serious and protracted disease." No other details were given.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed "deep sympathies" over Gorbachev's death, a Kremlin spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that Putin, a former KGB agent who had an ambiguous relationship with Gorbachev, will send a telegram of condolences to the late leader's family and friends on Wednesday morning.
The official news agency TASS reported Gorbachev will be buried at Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife.
The world reacts
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Gorbachev was "a one-of-a kind statesman who changed the course of history."
Guterres said the former Soviet leader did more than any other individual to bring about a peaceful end to the Cold War.
US President Joe Biden hailed Gorbachev as a "rare leader" who made the world safer thanks to his reforms.
"These were the acts of a rare leader — one with the imagination to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it," Biden said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also hailed Gorbachev as a "trusted and respected" leader who helped bring down the Iron Curtain, while French President Emmanuel Macron said "his commitment to peace in Europe changed our common history."
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he admired Gorbachev's "courage and integrity" as the Cold War drew to a close.
"In a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, his tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all," Johnson added.
James Baker III, the US Secretary of State at the time of the Soviet Union's collapse, said on Wednesday that "history will remember Mikhail Gorbachev as a giant who steered his great nation towards democracy."
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A lasting legacy
From 1985 until the collapse of the Soviet union in 1991, Gorbachev oversaw a massive overhaul of the country's economic and political policies.
His policy of glasnost, or openness, allowed previously unthinkable criticism of the Communist Party and the state, but it also emboldened calls for independence in the Soviet Union's constituent republics — first in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and then elsewhere.
As the last Soviet leader, Gorbachev forged arms reduction deals with the United States and partnerships with the West to remove the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since World War II.
In 1990, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "for the leading role he played in the radical changes in East-West relations."
A special friendship: Gorbachev and the Germans
Mikhail Gorbachev was surely the most popular Russian in Germany. With his personable, open style, "Gorbi" won Germans' hearts even before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Image: Holger Hollemann/dpa/picture-alliance
"The fathers of German reunification"
Ever since reunification, Germans lovingly called Mikhail Gorbachev "Gorbi." The monument "Fathers of Unity" in front of the Springer publishing house in Berlin was unveiled on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of German reunification. Aside from Gorbachev it also honors US President George Bush and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Image: Bildagentur-online/Joko/picture alliance
The beginning of a special friendship
In March 1985, then-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl visited Moscow to attend the funeral of Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev soon took over the post. The meeting between Kohl and Gorbachev marked the beginning of the historic friendship between the two politicians that was to determine the fate of all of Europe.
Image: Tass/dpa/picture-alliance
The architect of Germany's "Ostpolitik"
After Gorbachev took over as leader of the Communist Party, former German Chancellor Willy Brandt visited Moscow. During his tenure from 1969 to 1974, the Social Democrat became the architect of a new Ostpolitik designed to normalize relations with the USSR, the GDR and other Eastern European neighbors. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts. Gorbachev won the prize in 1990.
Image: V. Musaelyan/AFP/Getty Images
German favorite
June 13, 1989: Gorbachev visited West Germany's then capital, Bonn. The Berlin Wall still stands, and an end to Germany's division is not in sight. Yet Germans already hailed the Soviet leader as a bringer of peace. Among Christian Democratic (CDU) voters, Gorbachev was much more popular than CDU Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the time.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Kleefeldt
Figurehead for Leipzig
Gorbachev's "perestroika" (restructuring) and "glasnost" (openness) served as a template for Leipzig's Monday demonstrations. East Germany's ruling SED party felt his new teachings were so dangerous that the Stasi secret police withdrew from circulation Soviet magazines with articles on Gorbachev.
Image: picture-alliance/Lehtikuva/M. Ulander
Sweater summit
Working out the modalities of German unity: Outdoors and clad in thick sweaters, Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Mikhail Gorbachev spun the wheel of history on July 15, 1990. Moscow was not going to stand in the way of a united Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Elder statesman and star
Two years later, Gorbachev was no longer Soviet leader, but he and his wife Raissa won people's hearts once again on a visit to Germany on March 6, 1992. Here, the popular couple lifted a stein at Munich's Hofbräuhaus.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Gorbi in Weimar
Thousands of Germans wrote letters to Gorbachev, and felt as if they were writing to a good friend. "[He] was alive compared to other Soviet officials who came across as stiff as mummies," wrote Michael from Lüneburg. On September 5, 1994, Gorbachev visited Goethe's residence in Weimar.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Pop star meets superstar
Both German rock legend Udo Lindenberg (left) and Gorbachev were no longer at the height of their careers as the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall rolled around in 1999. Yet the Russian leader with the human touch was still immensely popular in Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/Berliner_Zeitung
That's entertainment!
The USSR collapsed at the end of 1991 and marked the end of Gorbachev's presidency. As early as 1992, the Gorbachev Foundation began to investigate the history of perestroika. During this new period of his life, Gorbachev regularly traveled to Germany. In 1996, the Gorbachev couple were guests of Thomas Gottschalk on the legendary German television show "Wetten, dass ...."
Image: Holger Hollemann/dpa/picture-alliance
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"The era of Gorbachev is the era of perestroika, the era of hope, the era of our entry into a missile-free world," said Vladimir Shevchenko, who headed Gorbachev's protocol office when he was Soviet leader.
"But there was one miscalculation: we did not know our country well. Our union fell apart, that was a tragedy and his tragedy."
Although he was lionized in the West, many Russians never forgave Gorbachev for the turbulence that his reforms unleashed, considering the subsequent plunge in living standards to be too high a price to pay for democracy.
After visiting Gorbachev in hospital on June 30, liberal economist Ruslan Grinberg told the armed forces news outlet Zvezda: "He gave us all freedom — but we don't know what to do with it."
