Dhe leaders of the major Western nations have paid tribute to the late former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as a peacemaker and mediator. “Mikhail Gorbachev was a man of extraordinary foresight,” said US President Joe Biden on Tuesday evening. “After decades of brutal political repression, he embarked on democratic reforms.” French President Emmanuel Macron praised Gorbachev as “a man of peace whose decisions opened the way to freedom for Russians.” His commitment to peace in Europe “changed our common history”. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “I have always admired the courage and integrity he showed in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful end.” led the Soviet Union, contributed to the end of the Cold War and opened up the possibility of a partnership between Russia and NATO”.
However, the time when Russia and NATO appeared to be on a rapprochement course was more than a decade and a half ago. Moscow is waging a war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine. Accordingly, top Ukrainian politicians currently have other priorities than commenting on Gorbachev’s death. Former deputy head of Ukraine’s electoral commission Andriy Magera wrote on Facebook that the name of Gorbachev is associated in Ukraine not only with democratization and free elections, but also with the May Day demonstration in Kiev immediately after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (when the Soviet authorities feigned normalcy). and support for Russian aggression against Ukraine. Magera concluded that Gorbachev played a more negative role than Yeltsin in relation to Ukraine, but a more positive one than all Soviet predecessors combined.
In China, Gorbachev is considered a traitor
The assessment in the Baltic States is much more negative. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said he could not understand Gorbachev’s idealization by representatives of Western states. “He was a prison warden who decided that some reforms were needed in the prison: repainting the facade, giving prisoners the opportunity to read newspapers and leaving the lights on a little longer.” The prisoners, on the other hand, had freedom want to break out, Nauseda told the “Delfi.lt” portal: “They did that too, but against Gorbachev’s will.” The fact that Gorbachev considered the breakup of the Soviet Union to be his biggest mistake put him in a row with Vladimir Putin. Western illusions about the reformer Gorbachev have continued in illusions about Putin’s Russia, he said. While the West only saw the facade, former inmates saw the reality inside. That is why the West “for a long time continued this cooperation and partnership policy towards Russia, which later resulted in Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2,” said Nauseda. In addition, in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Gorbachev’s responsibility for the attempt by the Soviet army in January 1991 to end the independence movements by force was remembered. At that time, 14 unarmed demonstrators were killed in Vilnius and five in Riga.
Statements in East Central European countries that were part of the former Eastern bloc but not the Soviet Union were milder. “Inspired by the Prague Spring, he gave the people of Russia hope for freedom, respect for basic human rights and a better future for Russia,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský wrote about Gorbachev’s death. Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger recalled that Gorbachev contributed to a “peaceful end to the Cold War” and enabled the “captive nations of Central and Eastern Europe” (by the end of communist regimes) to regain their freedom.
In contrast, the Chinese leadership has long considered Gorbachev to be a traitor to his country and a gravedigger for the Soviet Union. The reaction of the Chinese Foreign Ministry to his death was correspondingly tight-lipped. When asked by a journalist, spokesman Zhao Lijian said that Gorbachev had made a positive contribution to the normalization of Sino-Soviet relations. “We mourn his death and extend our condolences to his family.”
Xi Jinping had said in a secret speech shortly after he came to power as General Secretary of the CCP in 2012 that Gorbachev had announced the end of the CPSU in a “cheerful speech” and that “no one was strong enough to stand up and resist”. China must learn from this that the CP must never give control of the military to the government and must never betray its own ideology. A documentary began this year praising President Vladimir Putin for ridding his country of the poison that brought down the Soviet Union. It is a compulsory program for executives and students. On the Chinese Internet, however, many users wrote about Gorbachev on Wednesday: “Respect for a great man”. The German ambassador in Beijing, Patricia Flor, wrote in Chinese on Twitter that Gorbachev paved the way for the end of the Cold War and made possible the peaceful reunification of Germany. “The world is a better place because of him.”
