02-02 Mikhail Gorbachev

He came up through the Communist system, so he was supposed to know what he was doing. Instead, his reforms unleashed rebellion and led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. His name was Mikhail Gorbachev, and he was loved in the West. He was Time Magazine's Man of the Year.
One of his main goals was to establish a better relationship with the United States, and the photo shows Gorbachev with President Bush announcing an end to the cold war.
It is almost impossible for a non-historian to chronicle the unravelling of the Communist system correctly. It certainly started with Gorbachev’s initiatives to provide more political freedoms which he called “glasnost” and more economic freedoms which he called “perestroika”.
The only bit of humour at that time was Gorbachev’s efforts to reduce the drinking of vodka. His efforts were effective, and the USSR lost about 100 billion rubles in tax revenues and, not surprisingly, the affection of its people.
But what really happened is that the old system collapsed before the new reforms could take effect.
It is a bit of history that reminds me of President Trump trying to turn the US into a more isolationist state operating without alliances and partners. A formula for chaos. It would take 20 years of radical change in everything the US does before it would ever take effect.
Back to the Soviet Union, where the structure of the satellite nations was collapsing. It was East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and more.
This was followed by the Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
I took a particular interest in events in Estonia having read the book Graves Without Crosses written by Arved Viirlaid. The book was a personal gift from the author in 1974, who felt my work at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business was a fight on behalf of “free men”.
The story he told is about the hardship the people of Estonia had to bear fighting the invasion of their county by Soviet armed forces. Of course, all three of the Baltic nations were conscripted into the Soviet system in 1945.
The day of history is December 25th, 1991 when the Supreme Soviet granted self-governance to all the republics of the USSR. Of course, I can remember stories linked to Ukraine, the Russian Federation and Moldova. But there were about 12 states altogether.
Boris Yeltsin was the hero of the day and stood on top of a tank to stop a military coup of the Russian Federation. With the collapse of the USSR, Yeltsin of Russian took control of the nuclear arsenal. Unfortunately, he had a drinking problem.