Russia would not have become a Communist state without Lenin or ceased to be one without Mikhail Gorbachev. At either end of the 20th century, each man played a decisive role in pushing history in a radically new direction it would not have taken otherwise. The path chosen by Gorbachev after he became Soviet leader in 1985 was in some respects more surprising than what Lenin had done in 1917. The Bolshevik Revolution was driven by a terrible war, while Gorbachev’s attempt to modernise and re-energise the Soviet Union was a voluntary choice. More 1
The post Why Gorbachev Was One of the Greatest Failures in History 2 appeared first on CounterPunch.org 3 .
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org 4 and was authored by Patrick Cockburn.