December 25, 1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev Resigns

Soviet Union’s leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, resigns. Mikhail Gorbachev rose through the ranks of the communist Soviet Union to become its leader in March of 1985, following the death of Konstantin Chernenko. At 54, he was the youngest person to become the general secretary of the Communist Party, which also made him the head of the superpower. However, faced with a crumbling infrastructure and corrupt state, he wanted to bring radical change to the dictatorial regime. He worked at bringing democratic reforms to the Soviet republic with policies such as perestroika, or restructuring, and glasnost, or openness; none of the Soviet countries had even the basics of these at the time. Observers expected human rights, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, free enterprise and a multi-party political system to follow. But too much upheaval ensued. After seven challenging years at the helm, Gorbachev announced his resignation on December 25, 1991. Soon after that, the Soviet Union disintegrated amid much turbulence, and most of the countries threw off Moscow’s control to become true independent states. Although Gorbachev changed the world, the former Soviet Union’s transition to a state with full freedoms and basic human rights remains elusive.

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