In Pictures: Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who ended the Cold War

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, played a major role in ending the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union. He died on Tuesday at the age of 91.

Updated

Published

Aug 31, 2022, 03:25 PM

In this file photo from November 1985, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meets with US president Ronald Reagan in Geneva. The Geneva Summit was the first meeting between the two leaders. PHOTO: NYTIMES

In this file photo taken on March 30, 1987, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (left) poses with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the start of talks at the Kremlin in Moscow. “I like Mr. Gorbachev,” Mrs Thatcher said in 1984, when the Soviet leader visited Britain. “We can do business together.” PHOTO: AFP

In this file photo taken on Dec 1, 1989, Pope John Paul II (right) greets Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as Monsignore Manuzzi looks on in Roma, during an historic meeting at the Vatican. It was the first ever meeting between a leader of the Soviet Union and the head of the Roman Catholic Church. PHOTO: AFP

In this file photo taken on March 15, 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the Communist Party, poses solemnly as he takes the oath as the first executive president of the Soviet Union at the Congress of Deputies in Moscow. PHOTO: AFP

In this file photo taken on Jan 11, 1990, Mr Gorbachev (centre) addresses local residents in Siauliai during his three-day visit to the Soviet Republic of Lithuania. His policy of "glasnost" allowed previously unthinkable criticism of the Communist Party and the state, but also emboldened nationalists who began to press for independence in the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and elsewhere. PHOTO: AFP

In this file photo taken on June 1, 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (left) applauds US President George H.W. Bush after they signed an agreement at the White House to halt the production of chemical weapons. PHOTO: NYTIMES

In this file photo taken on Jan 14, 1992 Mr Gorbachev (centre) enters the institute which carries his name, the Gorbachev Foundation, in Moscow. On Feb 26, 2022, two days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the research institute called for a "speedy cessation of hostilities". PHOTO: AFP

In this file photo taken on April 12, 1992, Mr Gorbachev (right) and his wife Raisa shake hands with Mickey and Minnie Mouse at the entrance of Tokyo Disneyland. Mr Gorbachev will be buried in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife, who died in 1999. PHOTO: AFP

Former US President Ronald Reagan takes Mr Gorbachev for a drive in his jeep around the Reagan ranch in the Santa Ynez mountains near Santa Barbara, on May 3, 1992. Their meeting in Geneva in 1985 marked the first encounter between US and Soviet leaders in six years. PHOTO: REUTERS

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and Mr Gorbachev (left) talk during a press conference at Gottorf palace in the northern village of Schleswig, Germany, on Dec 21, 2004. Putin famously called the collapse of the Soviet Union the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gobachev (left) visit a photo exhibition marking Gorbachev's 80th birthday at the Kennedy museum in Berlin, Feb 24, 2011. PHOTO: REUTERS

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.