Mikhail Gorbachev for his role in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing economic collapse. During his career, Gorbachev attracted the admiration of some colleagues, but others came to hate him. Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (born 2 March 1931) is a Russian and formerly Soviet politician. He was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, having been General Secretary of the governing Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. He was the country's head of state from 1988 until 1991, serving as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989,
1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt case a state of emergency was declared in the USSR. Later, Kryuchkov brought Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, Internal Affairs Minister Boris Pugo, Premier Valentin Pavlov, Vice-President Gennady Yanayev, Soviet Defense Council deputy chief Oleg Baklanov, Gorbachev secretariat head , and CPSU Central Committee Secretary Oleg Shenin into the conspiracy. The members of the GKChP hoped that Gorbachev could be persuaded to declare the state of emergency and to "restore order". On 23 July 1991, a number of party functionaries and literati published in the hardline newspaper "Sovetskaya Rossiya" as a prime factor to an anti-Perestroika manifesto entitled A Word