Mikhail Gorbachev is the most important political figure living today. Interview with Vladimir Ryzhkov

Valdaiclub.com interview with Vladimir Ryzhkov, professor at the Moscow Higher School of Economics

How do you see Mikhail Gorbachev’s role in history and what he did for the world?

There is no doubt that Mikhail Gorbachev is the most important political figure living today. In the history of the 20th century, he stands alongside Vladimir Lenin, who set the entire course of the 20th century in motion, and Joseph Stalin, who was largely responsible for the Cold War. Lenin brought communists to power in Russia, something that changed world history. Gorbachev put an end to the Cold War and to the dominance of communism both in the Soviet Union and throughout the world. Gorbachev almost entirely eliminated the threat of nuclear war that had been hovering over the world for half a century and allowed the self-determination of dozens of nations in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Baltics. This is why he is a larger-than-life figure in history, who is revered all around the world. Dozens of nations owe him a debt of gratitude. Germans are thankful for the opportunity to reunite as a single nation and state. All the countries of Central and Eastern Europe are thankful for the opportunity to choose their own course. The Baltic countries are also grateful to him. They were annexed by the USSR in 1940 and were not free to choose their own destinies until 1991. The whole world is thankful to him for helping end the Cold War, the confrontation, and for eliminating the threat of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. For all these reasons, Gorbachev changed the world, and changed it for the better.

Why do opinions vary in Russia and the West on Gorbachev’s accomplishments? Why is he often respected more in the West than in Russia?

This has to do, first and foremost, with Gorbachev himself. Polls show that he is mostly just blamed for the collapse of the Soviet Union, which technically occurred when he was no longer in power. The fact is it would have been very difficult if not altogether impossible to save the USSR because when Gorbachev came to power in 1985 the country was in a very deep systemic crisis. This is why Gorbachev was elected general secretary. The decrepit Politburo understood the problems facing the country and hoped Gorbachev would find a way out of the crisis. So it is unfair to blame only him for the collapse of the USSR when his predecessors are the ones who brought about this systemic crisis. Second, Gorbachev’s standing among Russians is also undermined by what happened in the 20 years since his resignation – from 1991 to 2011. This year will mark 20 years since Gorbachev left the Kremlin. During these 20 years the country has carried out extremely unsuccessful reforms, and its socio-economic development has been extremely bad. These 20 years – ten years under Boris Yeltsin and ten years under Vladimir Putin – have seen a decline in the population, the rise of social inequality and polarization, a primitive economy, the exodus of capital, deteriorating infrastructure, etc. Gorbachev is not responsible for what happened in the 1990s and 2000s but people still blame him to some extent for the terrible blunders made with respect to Russia’s development, that is, for Russia’s failure to become a prosperous country with strong institutions and effective management in the past 20 years. In effect, Russia has been a failed state to some extent all these years. I think it is unfair to blame Gorbachev for that. His importance today lies in the fact that perestroika is still not complete, as he says himself. The strategic goals he set during perestroika – the formation of an effective democratic state, Russia’s integration into the world, and the development of an efficient, modern economy – were not achieved when he was in power and have not been achieved in the past 20 years. In other words, a new generation has grown up in the last 25 years and we, the Russian people and the elites, are still unable to meet the challenges set during perestroika. Gorbachev’s significance lies in what he started, and we must continue to strive for these goals. Otherwise Russia will not survive.