Mikhail Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931, in the agricultural region of Starvropol. He attended Moscow University, were he studied law. In 1953 he married Raisa Titorenko, who was another University student. Then he returned to Starvropol, and began to move gradually upward in the Communist Party. Following the death of then communist leader Konstatin Chernenko in 1985, Gorbachev was elected General Secratary. As General Secratary, Gorbachev improved relations with the United States's president, Ronald Reagan. He embarked on an extensive mission of reforming the communist Soviet Union. He succeeded reforming it politicaly, economicly, and social liberalization under the slogans of "Glasnost" which means "openness", and "Perestroika", meaning "restructuring". He was "relieved" of office in 1991 after succesivly brining down 74 years of feared communist rule.
