He assisted Sir Geoffrey Howe in persuading Mrs Thatcher to change the Government's policy on the Soviet Union, attended the Chequers meeting which decided to invite Soviet leaders to the United Kingdom, and was present at Chequers when Mrs Thatcher had her first meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev and decided that he was a Soviet leader with whom " she could do business ".

The ducks were replaced in September 2000 at a rededication ceremony attended by former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev.

This objective became particularly important after 1990, when it was learned that Gorbachev had negotiated an agreement with Chevron, an American oil company, to develop Kazakhstan's Tengiz oil fields.

" In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev became the first Soviet leader to visit Washington, D. C. since Nikita Khrushchev in 1959, and Nancy Reagan was in charge of planning and hosting the important and highly anticipated state dinner.

After the 1986 Reykjavik summit between U. S. President Ronald Reagan and the new Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, the United States and the Soviet Union concluded two important nuclear arms reduction treaties: the INF Treaty ( 1987 ) and START I ( 1991 ).

This heightened media environment was important in preparing Estonians for their vanguard role in extending perestroika during the Gorbachev era.

The arrival of Mikhail Gorbachev on the scene in 1985 and his ' new thinking ' on foreign and domestic policy was probably the most important factor in the Soviets ' decision to leave.

Nonetheless, he developed some important contacts with the Soviet Union, including eventual Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Two of Gordievsky's most important contributions were averting a potential nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union when NATO exercise Able Archer 83 was mis-interpreted by the Soviets as a potential first strike, and identifying Mikhail Gorbachev as the Soviet heir apparent long before he came to prominence.

As the founder of GCI, Mikhail Gorbachev was an active and important guiding force for the organisation.

* 1991 – Collapse of the Soviet Union – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

The Brezhnev Doctrine stayed in effect until it was finally ended with the Soviet non-invasion of Poland during the 1980-1981 crisis and later refusal of Mikhail Gorbachev to use military force when Poland held free elections in 1989 and Solidarity defeated the Communist Party.

In 1989 Gorbachev allowed other political associations ( de facto political parties ) to coexist with the Communist Party and in 1990 obtained the repeal of Article Six of the USSR constitution which gave the party supremacy over all institutions in society, thus ending its vanguard status.

The Communist Party's power over the state formally ended that same year with the newly created Soviet Presidency, whose first and only President was Party General Secretary Gorbachev.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russian adherents to the CPSU tradition, particularly as it existed before Gorbachev, reorganised themselves as the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

Following the death of terminally ill Konstantin Chernenko, the Politburo elected Mikhail Gorbachev to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( CPSU ) in March 1985, marking the rise of a new generation of leadership.

In June 1988, at the CPSU's Nineteenth Party Conference, Gorbachev launched radical reforms meant to reduce party control of the government apparatus.

Gorbachev, as General Secretary of the Communist Party, could be forced to resign at any moment if the communist elite became dissatisfied with him.

The word was frequently used by Gorbachev to specify the policies he believed might help reduce the corruption at the top of the Communist Party and the Soviet government, and moderate the abuse of administrative power in the Central Committee.

On 11 March 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev was chosen by the Politburo as the new General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

On 2 November 1985 Gorbachev replaced Turdakun Usubaliyev the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kirghizia, who had been in power for 24 years, with Absamat Masaliyev.

* 1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, or Gorbachov ( more accurately reflecting the pronunciation of his name ) (; born 2 March 1931 ), is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the Soviet Union, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991.

In September 2008, Gorbachev and billionaire Alexander Lebedev announced they would form the Independent Democratic Party of Russia, and in May 2009 Gorbachev announced that the launch was imminent.

Perestroika () was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s, widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost ( meaning " openness ") policy reform.

After Mikhail Gorbachev took the office of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1985, he began a series of political reforms that were resisted by many established members of the Communist Party.

For Gorbachev, demokratizatsiya originally meant the introduction of multi-candidate ( but not multiparty ) elections for local Communist Party ( CPSU ) positions and Soviets.

In June 1988, at the CPSU's Nineteenth Party Conference, the first held since 1941, Gorbachev and his supporters launched radical reforms meant to reduce party control of the government apparatus.

At the June 1987 plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( CPSU ), Gorbachev presented his " basic theses ," which laid the political foundation of economic reform for the remainder of the existence of the Soviet Union.

In August 1991, a coup d ' état attempt by members of Gorbachev's government, directed against Gorbachev and aimed at preserving the Soviet Union, instead led to the end of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

** Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and de facto leader of the Soviet Union.

Years later, when Karmal's inability to consolidate his government had become obvious, Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, said:

Gorbachev was elected without opposition to the chairmanship of the new Supreme Soviet ; then the Congress of People's Deputies elected a large majority of old-style party apparatchiks to fill the membership of its new legislative body.

The first Congress of People's Deputies was the last moment of real control for Gorbachev over the political life of the Soviet Union.

At the 27th CPSU Party Congress in 1986, presided over by Mikhail Gorbachev, the 4th Party Program reiterated the formulas of the previous program:

During the Party Congress, Ligachev challenged Gorbachev for the office of General Secretary, standing as the " Leninist " candidate.

On July 1, 1988, the fourth and last day of the bruising 19th Party Conference, Gorbachev won the backing of the tired delegates for his last minute proposal to create a new supreme legislative body called the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union.

In December 1989, the Congress of People's Deputies accepted, and Mikhail Gorbachev signed, the report by Yakovlev's commission condemning the secret protocols of the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact.

Alexander Sukharev ( left ) at the 1st convocation of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union with investigator Telman Gdlyan ( right ) and Mikhail Gorbachev ( center )

Mikhail Gorbachev discussed this report within the higher echelons of the Soviet Communist Party, and it is believed that this report was the basis of Gorbachev's criticism of " administrative methods " in the economic management at the 27th Party Congress, which initiated perestroika.

At the first Congress of People's Deputies ( May – June 1989 ) Mikhail Gorbachev disclaimed all responsibility, shifting blame onto the army.

Through a constitutional amendment made by Mikhail Gorbachev, the Supreme Soviet became a permanent parliament which was elected by the Congress of the People's Deputies.

On 22 December 1990 the president Mikhail Gorbachev signed a decree that declared void the decisions of the Second Congress of People Deputies of Transnistria from 2 September.