Mikhail Gorbachev was born into a mixed Russian-Ukrainian family of migrants from Voronezh and Chernigov Governorates. His father was a combine harvester operator and the World War II veteran Sergey Andreyevich Gorbachev. His mother, Maria Panteleyevna Gorbacheva (nee Gopkalo) was a kolkhoz worker (kolkhoz - collective union) . Before he started school, Mikhail mostly lived with his grandparents Pantelei and Vasilisa Gopkalo who doted on their grandson.
School years
When: from 1937 to 1947
Where: Stavropol, RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Mikhail Gorbachev was doing extremely well at school. In those early school years he developed a passion for knowledge, an interest in everything new, and he kept those makings for the rest of his life. His hobby was a drama studio at school where he performed on the stage. Once the drama studio went on a show tour to the villages within the region. The young performers earned some money from tickets to their performances and with this money they bought 35 pairs of shoes for kids from very poor families who had been barefoot at school.
Wedding
When: 25 September 1953
Where: Moscow, RUSSIAN FEDERATION
When a university student, Gorbachev met his future wife Raisa Titarenko. She was also a student of the Moscow University, philosophy faculty She was one year his junior but joined the university one year before him.
Education
When: 1955
Where: Moscow, RUSSIAN FEDERATION
He graduated from Moscow State University in 1955 with a degree in law
Started carreer in the Communist party
When: from 1955 to 1961
Where: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
In 1955 Gorbachev he was appointed first secretary of the Komsomol Territorial Committee. Gorbachev made rapid progress and by 1960 he was the top Komsomol official in Stavropol. The following year he was a delegate from Stavropol to the 22nd Communist Party Congress in Moscow.
Child birth
When: 06 January 1957
Where: Stavropol, RUSSIAN FEDERATION
On January 6, 1957 his daughter - Irina Gorbacheva was born
Got promoted
When: from 1966 to 1970
Where: Stavropol, RUSSIAN FEDERATION
On September 26, 1966 Gorbachev becomes First Secretary and Bureau member of the Stavropol City Communist Party Committee. On August 5, 1969 –Second Secretary of the Stavropol Territorial Communist Party Committee
On April 10, 1970 Gorbachev was approved as the First Secretary of the Stavropol Territorial Communist Party Committee. A most important element in his program for developing the Stavropol region was the rational placement of agricultural facilities, their specialization, the establishment of advanced poultry farms and agrarian complexes, the introduction of industrial production processes, the construction of the Greater Stavropol Canal and of the irrigation and water supply systems that were vitally important to the region with its risky farming because dry lands accounted for one half of its agricultural area, and the completion of modernization in the light and food industries.
Carreer prior to Perestroyka
When: from 1978 to 1985
Where: Moscow, RUSSIAN FEDERATION
In November 27, 1978 the Plenary Session of the CPSU Central Committee elected Gorbachev Central Committee Secretary. On December 6, 1978 he and his family moved to Moscow.
His first assignment was overseeing the country’s agriculture. He traveled extensively within the USSR and made official visits abroad.
Very soon Mikhail Gorbachev displayed himself as a responsible, efficient and principled political figure. Two years after he moved to Moscow he became member of the CPSU CC Politburo, the supreme body of the Soviet Communist Party.
In March 1985 Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.
Perestroyka and Glasnost
When: from 1985 to 1990
Where: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Gorbachev initiated the process of change in the Soviet Union - what was later called perestroika (1985-1991). Glasnost and openness became perestroika’s driving force. A program of reforms was planned to put the nation’s economy on track to a socially oriented market economy This policy put an end to the totalitarian regime in the USSR: in 1990 state power in the USSR moved from the communist party to the Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR - the first parliament in Soviet history, made on the basis of free, democratic and contested election. the Congress of People’s Deputies elected Gorbachev President of the USSR on March 15, 1990.
Award
When: 15 October 1990
Where: WORLDWIDE
In recognition of his outstanding services as a great reformer and world political leader, who greatly contributed in changing for the better the very nature of world development, Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Demotion from Head of State due to USSR collapse
When: from 1991 to 1992
Where: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Destructive processes which the emerging Soviet democracy was unable to curb, eventually led to the disintegration of the multinational Union of republics that Gorbachev led. In his attempts to prevent such an outcome Mikhail Gorbachev made maximum efforts, save the use of force, which would have been against his inner principles of political vision and morality.
On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev stepped down as Head of State.
Since January 1992, Mikhail Gorbachev has been President of the International Non-Governmental Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (The Gorbachev Foundation). Apart from being a research center and discussion platform, the Gorbachev Foundation also carries out humanitarian charity projects.
Social life and projects
When: from 1993 to 2003
Where: WORLDWIDE
In 1993 at the initiative of representatives of 108 countries Gorbachev established Green Cross International, a non-governmental environmental organization. Its mission is vast education of world public about environmental problems, inculcation of a new environmental consciousness, the overcoming of environmental consequences of the Cold War and the arms race. National organizations of Green Cross International exist in 23 countries of the world.
In 1999 Mikhail Gorbachev was the mastermind of setting up the Nobel Peace Laureates Summits. Annual meetings of the Forum have been discussing global problems of concern for mankind as a whole: violence and wars, problems of poverty, the ecological crisis.
In 2001 – 2003 Gorbachev was the co-chairman of the “St. Petersburg Dialogue†– a series of regular meetings between Russia and Germany – held in turn in both countries. They are attended by the representatives of political structures and the business community as well as by young people.
Death of his wife
When: 20 September 1999
Where: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
July 22, 1999 doctors of the Hematology Institute of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences diagnosed Raisa Gorbachev with lieukemia. She underwent treatment in Munster University clinic, Germany, that was carried out by best European hematologists and oncologists. However, despite tremendous efforts to save her life, Raisa Gorbachev died on September 20, 1999 without gaining conscious.