This article is reproduced from bullpiano (ID: bullpiano) by Niu tanqin
(I)
No matter the positive or negative evaluation, no one can deny that Gorbachev is an important figure who has rewritten the historical process. On the night of August 30, he reached the end of his life at the age of 91.
The Soviet Union, which he once ruled, fell apart 31 years ago. The two big republics of the Soviet Union, Russia and Ukraine, are fighting fiercely.
Seeing that Putin has made known his position at the first time, he expressed deep condolences on Gorbachev’s death.
According to the Kremlin, Putin will then send messages of condolence to his relatives and friends. With Putin’s political wisdom, the deceased are the greatest, and he should not speak evil again. However, it is certain that the first sentence is shorter than that of many Western leaders. Putin’s mourning is also mixed.
Because of their relationship, they have been ups and downs. Gorbachev once praised Putin as a competent and powerful president; Putin also specially congratulated Gorbachev on his birthday, praising him for his profound knowledge and rich life experience.
Of course, when relations were not harmonious, Putin also harshly criticized Gorbachev as the biggest criminal in Russian history and a coward who threw power on the ground and let some hysterical lunatics pick it up.
For Putin and many Russians, the most painful thing is the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev is undoubtedly the greatest sinner. After his death, he saw the headline of a report by the associated press, that is: Gorbachev, who led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, died at the age of 91
It was he who finally buried the Soviet Union, although this may not have been his intention.
On December 25, 1991, in his last televised speech as the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev tried to defend himself:
The fate has been decided. When I became the head of state, the problems of this country were already obvious. We are rich in everything: land, oil, natural gas and other natural resources. God has also given us wisdom and talents – but our life is much worse than that of people in other industrialized countries, and the gap is still widening
It is true that there are many problems, but leaders are people who solve problems!
But Gorbachev was a complete failure. His reform, which was full of new ideas at the beginning, was defeated in the end.
Interestingly, the West has always been grateful to him for his charisma and passion. After his death, the greatest praise came from the West. It is only in Russia that many people are also full of resentment against him.
The Associated Press reported that “Gorbachev received praise and awards from all over the world in his later years. However, he was widely despised at home.”
Why?
Because “the Russians blamed the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 on him, a once formidable superpower whose territory was divided into 15 different countries. His former allies abandoned him and made him a scapegoat for national troubles…”
As an example, in 1996, Gorbachev tried to make a comeback and run for president of Russia, but eventually this became an international joke. He only got less than 1% of the votes.
You know, just five years ago, he was the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, and Russia was only a member Republic of the Soviet Union.
History has abandoned him, as well as many of his legacies.
In 1986, Gorbachev and then US President Reagan held a summit in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. He put forward an amazing proposal: to eliminate all long-range missiles held by the United States and the Soviet Union.
This was considered to be the beginning of the end of the cold war, from which the United States and the Soviet Union signed the “inf treaty”. Thirty years later, the United States tore up the “inf treaty”. Although Russia was angry, it was unable to return to heaven; The Warsaw Pact was dissolved, and NATO is still pressing step by step. The result is the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine
Gorbachev has long been unable to change, and his old age seems to be lonely.
The Soviet Union was gone, and the Russians resented him. He was inseparable only from his beloved wife Raisa. He once said of his wife: “one day, we took each other’s hands and went for a walk in the evening. This is how we walk all our lives.”
But eight years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Raisa died. Daughter Irina found that as soon as her father returned to the room where her mother lived, he could not help but fall into meditation and sadness
Not to mention Gorbachev, history will come to the final conclusion, not necessarily our generation.
(II)
But at least one thing, Gorbachev was successful. He lived longer than many of his rivals; Even though I am lonely in my old age, I seem to be much more natural and unrestrained than my rivals.
For example, Mrs. Thatcher – at that time, Mrs. Thatcher first realized that Gorbachev was “a person who can do business with him”, thus starting the honeymoon between the West and Gorbachev.
However, although the “Iron Lady of Britain” won the cold war, she was also betrayed. In 1990, she was forced to withdraw from politics.
Subsequently, the scandal of her son and the death of her husband made Mrs Thatcher in her later years extremely helpless and old. The disease came immediately, and the stroke made her look dull.
On April 8, 2013, “Iron Lady” completed her life journey and was 87 years old.
Britain held a rather grand funeral for her, but many Western leaders refused to attend. She was accompanied by the protesters along the way and the song “Ding Dong, the old witch died” that cursed her.
And Cole. The night of October 2, 1990 was the most brilliant moment in Cole’s life. He tried to restrain his excitement on TV and told the Germans: “in a few hours, a dream will come true. After 40 years of painful division, Germany and our motherland will be reunified. For me, this is one of the happiest moments in my life.”
The next day, after the merger of East and West Germany and the collapse of the third Nazi empire for 45 years, a unified Germany rose again in the heart of Europe.
Of course, Gorbachev’s help was indispensable. He ordered the Soviet troops to withdraw, watched the fall of the Berlin Wall, and then merged East Germany into West Germany. To put it bluntly, Gorbachev probably did not know Putin at that time, much less did he know how this incident stimulated Putin.
But the Germans are also tired of Cole. In 1998, the “father of reunification” was unexpectedly defeated by the Social Democratic Party, and he left the political arena in a desolate way. In 2001, Cole’s first wife, Hannah Lorraine, committed suicide due to depression, and the father and son turned against each other.
After a serious fall in 2008, Cole spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He almost lost his ability to speak. He lived alone under his once famous reputation, unable to break away but helpless. In 2017, Cole died at the age of 87.
On the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Honecker was the supreme leader and the last supreme leader of East Germany. The founder of the Berlin Wall, the East German leader who once kissed Brezhnev warmly, once vowed that the Berlin Wall would stand for 50 or even 100 years.
But the Berlin Wall soon collapsed, and Honecker was arrested. He then went into exile in the Soviet Union. After the August 19 incident, Gorbachev stepped down, and Yeltsin became the new master of Moscow. He did not want to take in the East German sinner, and Honecker had to flee to the Chilean embassy to seek asylum.
In 1994, onak died of liver cancer in Chile at the age of 81.
Yeltsin, who expelled Gorbachev, became the terminator of the Soviet Union. He is regarded as the father of modern Russia, but his “shock therapy” also brought the Russian economy to the brink of collapse. After Putin was finally determined to be the successor, he resigned as president on December 31, 1999.
The next few years were the free and easy years of Yeltsin’s “old age is dedicated to drunkenness”. However, his heart disease was aggravated by years of alcoholism. On April 23, 2007, Yeltsin died in Moscow at the age of 76.
A little better is Bush Sr. He watched the disintegration of the Soviet Union and then launched the Gulf War. However, when he tried to seek re-election as president, he unexpectedly lost to the very young Clinton.
Eight years later, his eldest son, George W. Bush, won the presidential election, which was regarded as revenge. In his later years, the elder Bush seemed to have a lot of tears. He would cry when he defended his eldest son’s bad policies; When he campaigned for his youngest son, he choked up several times and burst into tears.
In April 2018, Barbara, who had been with George H. W. Bush all her life, died. At his wife’s funeral, sitting in a wheelchair, Bush Sr. was reluctant to leave and quietly stared at the coffin for 15 minutes. Half a year later, he finally died with Barbara at the age of 94.
Now, Gorbachev, who lived almost as long as he did, finally went to find his Raisa.
They were all powerful figures, attracting the attention of the world.
Their lives are full of legends and are part of the destiny of the country.
History cannot be assumed, but sometimes we can not help but assume.
If Gorbachev’s reforms were as successful as China’s, would the Soviet Union still disintegrate?
If he beat Yeltsin in the game after the August 19 incident, would it still be the current situation?
If Gorbachev holds his ground, and if the Soviet Union does not disintegrate, will there be the Kosovo war, the Chechen War, the Nagorno Karabakh dispute, and the current Russia Ukraine conflict?
Then there would certainly not be today’s Putin, there might not be today’s Russia Ukraine conflict, and there would not be Putin and the Russians’ mixed feelings about Gorbachev.
History is history. History cannot be assumed. But no matter how powerful a person is, he will eventually return to the dust.
Success or failure turns to empty, the green mountains are still there, and the sunset is red for several times.