(Undated) — Reports say former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev [[ mik-HI-al GOR-ba-choff ]] is dead at the age of 91. It’s unclear what the cause of death was. He grew up under Stalin’s regime and experienced German occupation in World War Two. During his tenure as General Secretary in the late 1980s, Gorbachev restructured the Soviet government to include a bicameral parliament. He became the first president of the Soviet Union and was elected without opposition.
Gorbachev helped take down the long-standing “Iron Curtain” separating Eastern communist states and Western noncommunist states. The Berlin Wall was part of the physical barrier that separated the east and the west. Gorbachev’s efforts to democratize his country’s political system led to the downfall of communism in Europe and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Gorbachev worked with U.S. President Ronald Reagan to lessen the political and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. The eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for bringing the Cold War to a peaceful end.