The passing of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union and for many the man who restored democracy to many European countries under communist rule, was mourned as a rare world leader. Ripon College political scientist Marty Farrell says on one hand Gorbachev brought global change and at the time a hope for peace among the superpowers. But Farrell says the man who died in Moscow Tuesday at the age of 91, was also reviled by many in his own country who blamed him for the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union and its diminution as a superpower. “Certainly he was one of the most important figures of the last half of the 20th century,” Farrell told WFDL news. “Part of what he accomplished is what he intended, but the unintended consequences were also huge. His success was incomplete at best.” The loss of pride and power also led to the eventual rise of Vladimir Putin, who has spent the past quarter-century trying to restore Russia to its former glory and beyond.
