Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931, in the agricultural region of Stavropol. He attended Moscow University, were he studied law. In 1953 he married Raisa Titorenko, who was another University student. Then he returned to Stavropol, and began to move gradually upward in the Communist Party. Following the death of then communist leader Konstantin Chernenko in 1985, Gorbachev was elected General Secretary. As General Secretary, 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 in reforming it politically, economically, and socially under the slogans of "Glasnost" which means "openness", and "Perestroika", meaning "restructuring". He was "relieved" of office in 1991 after successfully bringing down 74 years of feared communist rule.