Mikhail Gorbachev dead at 91

Ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has died, Russian media reported Tuesday. He was 91.

"Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev died this evening after a severe and prolonged illness," Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital said in a statement, according to RIA Novosti and CNN.

Gorbachev, who served as the last leader of the former Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, is credited with bringing an end to the Cold War, as well as lifting the Iron Curtain that divided Europe after World War II. He is also known for introducing a number of radical political and economic reforms (see: "glasnost" and "perestroika") that ending up unintentionally pushing the USSR closer to collapse, The Washington Post reports.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

He will be buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, next to his wife, who died in 1999, Reuters reports.