MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

Born March 2, 1931 in Stavropol, Russia/ Soviet Union

Quotation: “Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.”

He got a law degree from the Moscow State University in 1955. In the 1970s and 80s he led Soviet delegations to several nations including Canada in 1983 at which point he met the then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In 1985 he became the last communist leader of the Soviet Union. He was the first Soviet leader to have been born after the Revolution. He is known for letting the people of the Soviet Union to freely speak their opinions, he also made it easier for the citezens to travel and started to reconstruct the economy. He was responsible for ending the nuclear arms race with the US and making an agreement that not only would both nations stop making more nuclear weaponds they would also reduce the amount they already had. In 1990 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his reforms. In this period he also made a new system of government in which he became the president of the Soviet Union. He resigned as president on December 25, 1991 which was only one day before the Soviet Union officially was gone. After that he continued in politics trying for president of Russia in 1996 but he didn`t win.  He is a Christian.