Arka Evren

ACTOR

Mikhail Gorbachev

Known for
In weiter Ferne, so nah! (1993)

25 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

Mikhail Gorbachev is an actor best known for In weiter Ferne, so nah!.

22 Interesting Facts About Mikhail Gorbachev

  1. #001

    Mikhail Gorbachev appeared in a Pizza Hut commercial, making him the only Communist Party official to do advertising work.

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  2. #002

    Mikhail Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He resigned from the presidency of the USSR on Christmas Day 1991.

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  3. #003

    Mikhail Gorbachev was the former leader of the USSR.

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  4. #004

    Mikhail Gorbachev was Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (25 May 1989 – 15 March 1990).

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  5. #005

    In August 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev was briefly overthrown by a group of Communist Party supporters angered by his policies, but he returned to power a few days later because of widespread opposition to the coup across the country.

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  6. #006

    Mikhail Gorbachev is the president of Green Cross International, a Switzerland-based environmental organization.

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  7. #007

    Mikhail Gorbachev was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (11 March 1985 – 24 August 1991).

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  8. #008

    Mikhail Gorbachev was President of the USSR (15 March 1990 – 25 December 1991) — and the only person to hold that office.

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  9. #009

    Although Mikhail Gorbachev was seen as a hero in most of the world, he was not much loved in Russia, owing to the perception that his policies brought the country close to Third World status.

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  10. #011

    Mikhail Gorbachev became a full member of the CPSU in 1952.

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  11. #012

    Under Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union dissolved without descending into civil war, as happened during the breakup of Yugoslavia.

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  12. #014

    Mikhail Gorbachev's decision to allow the Eastern Bloc to break apart prevented serious bloodshed in Central and Eastern Europe; as Taubman noted, this meant the "Soviet Empire" ended far more peacefully than the British Empire had a few decades earlier.

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  13. #015

    By 1955 Mikhail Gorbachev's hair was thinning, and by the end of the 1960s he had gone bald, with a distinct port-wine stain appearing on the top of his head.

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  14. #016

    Mikhail Gorbachev drank sparingly because he disliked hard liquor, and he did not smoke.

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  15. #017

    Mikhail Gorbachev spoke with a southern Russian accent and was known to sing both folk and pop songs.

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  16. #018

    In 2000, Mikhail Gorbachev was given the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award at a ceremony held at Hampton Court Palace near London.

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  17. #019

    Throughout the 1960s, Mikhail Gorbachev struggled with obesity and went on diets to keep the problem under control.

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  18. #020

    In 1988, India awarded Mikhail Gorbachev the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development.

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  19. #021

    Gorbachev's negotiations with the United States helped bring the Cold War to an end and reduced the threat of nuclear conflict.

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  20. #022

    According to The New York Times, "In the 20th century, indeed in any century, few leaders have had such a profound effect on their times. In a little more than six tumultuous years, Mr. Gorbachev decisively changed the world's political climate by raising the Iron Curtain."

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  21. #024

    In 1970, he was appointed First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee and oversaw the construction of the Great Stavropol Canal.

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  22. #025

    He was the only Soviet leader born after the country's founding.

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