1996 Mikhail Gorbachev presidential campaign 1996 Mikhail Gorbachev presidential campaign The Mikhail Gorbachev presidential campaign, 1996 was an electoral campaign effort by former President of the Soviet Union and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1996 Russian presidential election. Gorbachev's candidacy was beset by the obstacles of both minimal media coverage and a high level of distain towards him amongst the Russian populace. Gorbachev's candidacy ended in defeat during the first round of the election. The effort was the first, and only, electoral campaign of Gorbachev's post-Soviet political career. Gorbachev had led the Soviet Union from 1985
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