Mikhail Gorbachev erode Gromyko's dominance of Soviet foreign policy while at the same time sending a signal to the U.S. government that he wanted to improve Soviet-U.S. relations. On 11 March 1985, Chernenko died. Gromyko proposed Gorbachev as the next General-Secretary; as a longstanding party member, Gromyko's recommendation carried great weight among the Central Committee. Gorbachev expected much opposition to his nomination as Chernenko's successor, but ultimately the rest of the Politburo supported him. Shortly after Chernenko's death, the Politburo unanimously elected Gorbachev as his successor; they wanted him over another elderly leader. Although not a well-known figure to the Soviet public,
1996 Mikhail Gorbachev presidential campaign During the course of his candidacy, Gorbachev, accompanied by his wife Raisa, traveled the country to deliver stump speeches. Gorbachev regularly encountered hecklers. Gorbachev once responded to hecklers by exclaiming, On the stump, Gorbachev defended his record, claiming that he had tried to save the Soviet Union, but that he had been betrayed by both communist hard-liners and an ambitious Yeltsin. He additionally placed blame on the 1991 coup attempt for undermining his efforts to preserve the Soviet Union. In his speeches Gorbachev would often refer to himself in third-person. He spent most of his time on the campaign trail