66. Remembering Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev was one of the most important and the most tragic figures of 20th century history. He has largely been presented in media obituaries as helping end the Cold War. In truth, he sued for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons, while liberating his society to pursue its own forms of democracy. But he was betrayed abroad by the USA, whose leaders were convinced they had ended history, and who engineered the collapse and looting of the Soviet world. That betrayal remains at the heart of the conflict in Ukraine and the difficult birth of a New Russia and the multipolar world. How does the tragedy of Mikhail Gorbachev - a man of peace - help us understand the world crisis today? Listen to the end of the show and hear Gorbachev in his own voice, giving his resignation speech on 25 December 1991 (with English translation voiceover).