Former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022) has died at the age of 91. Several Russian agencies, such as Interfax and Ria Novosti, report this in unison. The Central Clinical Hospital (ZKB) announced that Gorbachev had died in a Moscow clinic after a long and serious illness.

The Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner is considered an important pioneer for the end of the Cold War. Under his leadership, important nuclear disarmament treaties were signed with the United States in the 1980s. In 1989, the politician encouraged Germans to reunify. In 1990 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his reforms. A year later he resigned as President of the Soviet Union, and the state dissolved shortly thereafter. Gorbachev then wrote numerous books and, with his foundation, campaigned for democratic values ​​in Russia, among other things. In his homeland, however, he was also controversial, many saw him as the gravedigger of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev was born in 1931 in the Russian North Caucasus and studied law in Moscow. From 1971 he was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, became General Secretary in 1985 and from March 1990 he held the office of President of the Soviet Union. His wife Raissa died on September 20, 1999 at the age of 67. He leaves his daughter Irina (65) behind.