Mikhail Gorbachev has died at 91. He talked to Rolling Stone in 1994 about why the Soviet Union fell apart, and what he wasn't willing to do to hold it together.
Nor, when he became general secretary of the Communist Party in 1985, was there anything to prevent him from simply living a life of luxury and power. He didn’t need to take on the bureaucracy, the“Well, no,” he says, “this I think would be someone other than Gorbachev if I did not take them on. Over the years, I became angry! I became unhappy about what was happening in the country.”
“In this country, the process of change could only begin as a revolution from above,” says Gorbachev. “There was a machine. I needed to get into that machine in order to take the controls. There was no other way. If I tried to do it from the outside, the machine would have run over any opponent. It was a long road.”
Gorbachev just came back a few days ago from Washington, where he had a bad bout with the flu. On the way, he’d also stopped in Germany, Scotland and England, where he met with Prime Minister John Major and Margaret Thatcher, a partner in ending the Cold War. The foundation’s reduced office space is space that Yeltsin could still take away, along with Gorbachev’s state-owned dacha in the country, where he lives, and a state-owned three-room apartment in Moscow he’s allowed to use.
“It’s tough now,” says Gorbachev, “and I think that throughout the nation the people have a lot of hardships, even many of those who used to live well. But still, I would say that among all generations, there are very few people who would like just a return to the past.” “But I still think this is a time that will pass. And if only we’re able to preserve the democratic atmosphere,and we’re able to protect human freedoms and rights, I believe that this environment will be conducive for the young people to really show what they can do.”orbachev grows more relaxed and expansive as the luncheon progresses. “My schedule is an extremely full one,” he says. But he does find time for exercise and leisure to balance his workaholism.
I ask him if he ever sees any American movies. “I would guess that perhaps I’ve seen more American movies than you have!” Gorbachev says.
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