[Epoch Times, September 5, 2022]Mr. Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, the main driver of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain, who sent himself out of the Kremlin, died last week at the age of 92. This brings back memories of the 40-year Cold War that pitted Eastern Europe against the United States in Western Europe. At that time, the Soviet Union, a powerful socialist country on the surface, controlled Eastern Europe and was in an arms race with the United States and Western Europe, posing a huge threat to world nuclear war. US President Ronald Reagan has been working tirelessly to dismantle the nuclear threat. After Gorbachev became the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in the mid-1980s, the general secretary was seen to work with President Reagan to reduce and destroy nuclear weapons, but he was sincere Whether it’s a show or a show, no one has a bottom line in their hearts.
I remember the seasoned President Reagan expressing this concern with a sense of humor in a speech at the White House in December 1987 before the signing of the destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles. He said, “I want to speak a Russian sentence, but it may not be pronounced correctly, you don’t understand. It is: ‘Trust, but check'”, then smiled at Gorbachev. In front of the cameras of the whole world, facing President Reagan’s words hidden in cotton, Gorbachev laughed and said, “You repeat this sentence every time you have a meeting.” That means, you repeat it again and again, I How could it not understand what you are implying. Everyone at the scene was amused by his words. His punchline pushed back the ball that President Reagan hit, and he was a master!
It is understandable to say that President Reagan used his wisdom and courage to defuse the Cold War, because he is the President of the United States, and he wants to protect the interests of the United States and its allies. But it is incredible that Gorbachev, a young and energetic man at the peak of the power of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, voluntarily relinquished his power and disintegrated the Soviet Communist Party, the socialist Soviet Union. In a BBC interview after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he talked about why he did it. “When I was the general secretary of the CPSU, I visited the big cities and small towns across the country to see the masses, and everyone said one thing. They said to me: ‘Mikhail Sergeyevich, no matter what difficulties we have , If there is any food shortage, don’t worry, we will have enough to eat, we will grow our own food, and we can handle it. Just make sure that there will be no wars.” When he said this, Gorbachev had tears in his eyes.
“I’m shocked. That’s what our people are like. They suffered a lot in the last war.”
Yes, there is no need for complicated theories. Just think about it for the common people and you will know that eliminating the threat of war is the most basic desire of the people. Of course, under the system of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the life of the common people in the Soviet Union was hard and poor, which was another reason why he wanted to reform and hope that the people would have more freedom and a better life.
After the former Soviet Communist Party general secretary left the political arena, he chose an unexpected path—making commercials and making movies. Some say it’s because his pension cannot make ends meet after thousands of times inflation, and some say it’s because he has to raise money for his new foundation. No matter what the reason is, he often plays a supporting role himself in movies, or endorses advertisements for various commercial brands, such as famous brand LV, Japanese Qing Cup noodles, etc. The most famous is his ad for Pizza Hut. In the ad, Gorbachev took his young granddaughter to a Pizza Hut, and when the family recognized him, the young cheered him for bringing freedom and hope to the Russians; the old complained that he took a lot of things mess up, make life turbulent. And Gorbachev just smiled and sat in the corner eating pizza with his granddaughter. Finally, the young people persuaded the old people, and everyone stood up to toast Gorbachev.
In fact, this advertisement also highly summarizes Gorbachev’s life. He has brought peace to the world and new hope to the Russian people, but from the old system to the new system, turmoil is inevitable, but it did not cause war, and it is already lucky. The peaceful disintegration of the CPSU was Gorbachev’s greatest contribution to mankind. ◇
Responsible editor: Wen Fang