Former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, passes away

Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president of the Soviet Union, has passed away.

He was 91 years of age, Russian news agency TASS reported. “Tonight, after a serious and prolonged illness, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev has died,” the Central Clinical Hospital said on Tuesday.

Mikhail Gorbachev dies:https://t.co/IW1ry9ZsoJ pic.twitter.com/bA9tcRMFVK

— TASS (@tassagency_en) August 30, 2022

Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931, and graduated from the Department of Law of the Moscow State University in 1955. He later received a second education in 1967 from Stavropol Agricultural Institute. Gorbachev joined the Communist Party in 1952 and became a member of its Central Committee in 1971.

He was then elected to the post of the committee’s secretary general in 1985 following the death of his predecessor Konstantin Chernenko.

Gorbachev was the first and the last president of the Soviet Union, winning elections for the post in March 1990 and resigning on December 25, 1991. After stepping down as Soviet president, he was engaged in social and literary activities. Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

Russian President Vladimir Putin offers his deepest condolences over the death of Gorbachev, a Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS. 

“Vladimir Putin expresses his deepest condolences over the death of Mikhail Gorbachev. In the morning he will send a telegram with condolences to the relatives and friends,” Peskov said.