Editing Mikhail Gorbachev (section)

== Early life and education ==

=== 1931–1950: childhood ===
[[File:Миша Горбачёв с дедом Пантелеем и бабушкой Василисой.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|Gorbachev and his [[Ukrainians in Russia|Ukrainian]] maternal grandparents, late 1930s]]
{{Mikhail Gorbachev series}}
Gorbachev was born on 2 March 1931 in the village of [[Privolnoye, Stavropol Krai|Privolnoye]], then in the [[North Caucasus Krai]] of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]], [[Soviet Union]].{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1p=22 |2a1=Doder|2a2=Branson|2y=1990|2p=1 |3a1=McCauley|3y=1998|3p=15 |4a1=Taubman|4y=2017|4p=7}} At the time, Privolnoye was divided between ethnic Russians and Ukrainians.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=10}} Gorbachev's paternal family were [[Russians]] and had moved from [[Voronezh]] several generations before; his maternal family were of ethnic [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] heritage and had migrated from [[Chernihiv]].{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1p=15 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=10}} His parents named him Viktor at birth, but at his mother's insistence he had a secret [[baptism]], where his grandfather christened him Mikhail.{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1p=4 |2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=15 |3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3p=7}} His relationship with his father, Sergey Andreyevich Gorbachev, was close; his mother, Maria Panteleyevna Gorbacheva (née Gopkalo), was colder and punitive.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=8–9}} His parents were poor,{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=9}} and lived as peasants.{{sfn|Medvedev|1986|p=22}} They had married as teenagers in 1928,{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=16}} and in keeping with local tradition had initially resided in Sergey's father's house, an [[adobe]]-walled hut, before a hut of their own could be built.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=16, 17}}

The Soviet Union was a [[one-party state]] governed by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]], led by [[Joseph Stalin]]. Stalin had initiated a project of [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|mass rural collectivization]] meant to help convert the country into a [[Socialist mode of production|socialist society]].{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1p=1 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=7}} Gorbachev's maternal grandfather joined the Communist Party and helped form the village's first [[kolkhoz]] (collective farm) in 1929, becoming its chair.{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1p=15 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2pp=12–13}} It was {{convert|12|mi|km|order=flip}} outside Privolnoye, and when he was three years old, Gorbachev left his parental home and moved into the kolkhoz with his maternal grandparents.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=14}}

The country was experiencing the [[Soviet famine of 1932–1933|famine of 1930–1933]], in which two of Gorbachev's paternal uncles and an aunt died.{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1p=16|2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=7}} This was followed by the [[Great Purge]], in which individuals accused of being "[[enemies of the people]]" were interned in labor camps or executed. Both of Gorbachev's grandfathers served time in labor camps.{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1pp=15–16|2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2pp=7, 8}} After his December 1938 release, Gorbachev's maternal grandfather discussed having been tortured by [[Joint State Political Directorate|the secret police]], an account that influenced the young boy.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=18–19}}

During the [[Second World War]], in June 1941 the [[Wehrmacht|German Army]] invaded the Soviet Union. German forces occupied Privolnoye for four and a half months in 1942.{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1pp=5–6 |2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=17 |3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3pp=7, 20–22}} Gorbachev's father fought on the frontlines; he was wrongly declared dead during the conflict and fought in the [[Battle of Kursk]] before returning to his family, injured.{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1p=5|2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=17|3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3pp=8, 26–27}} After Germany was defeated, Gorbachev's parents had their second son, Aleksandr, in 1947; he and Mikhail were their only children.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=16}}

The village school was closed during much of the war, re-opening in autumn 1944.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=27}} Gorbachev did not want to return but excelled academically when he did.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=9, 27–28}} He read voraciously, moving from the Western novels of [[Thomas Mayne Reid]] to the works of [[Vissarion Belinsky]], [[Alexander Pushkin]], [[Nikolai Gogol]], and [[Mikhail Lermontov]].{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=29–30}} In 1946, he joined the [[Komsomol]], the Soviet political youth organization, becoming leader of his local group, and was then elected to the Komsomol committee for the district.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=8, 28–29}} From primary school he moved to the high school in [[Krasnogvardeyskoye, Stavropol Krai|Molotovskoye]]; he stayed there during the week and walked the {{convert|12|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=on}} home during weekends.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=30}} As well as being a member of the school's drama society,{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1p=7 |2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=18 |3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3p=32}} he organized sporting and social activities and led the school's morning exercise class.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=32}} Over the course of five consecutive summers starting with 1946, he returned home to assist his father in operating a combine harvester; during those summers, they sometimes worked 20-hour days.{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1p=18 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=34}} In 1948, they harvested over 8,000 [[Quintal|centners]] of grain, a feat for which Sergey was awarded the [[Order of Lenin]] and his son the [[Order of the Red Banner of Labour]].{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1p=6 |2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=18 |3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3pp=8, 34}}

=== 1950–1955: university ===

{{Quote box
| quote = I would consider it a high honour to be a member of the highly advanced, genuinely revolutionary Communist Party of Bolsheviks. I promise to be faithful to the great cause of Lenin and Stalin, to devote my entire life to the party's struggle for Communism.
| source=—&thinsp;Gorbachev's letter requesting membership of the Communist Party, 1950{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=42}}
| align = right
| width = 25em
}}

In June 1950, Gorbachev became a candidate member of the Communist Party.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=42}} He applied to study at the law school of [[Moscow State University]] (MSU), then the most prestigious university in the country. They accepted him without asking for an exam, likely because of his worker-peasant origins and his possession of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1p=6, 8 |2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=18 |3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3pp=40–41}} His choice of law was unusual; it was not a well-regarded subject in Soviet society at that time.{{sfn|Medvedev|1986|p=35}} At age 19, he traveled by train to Moscow, the first time he had left his home region.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=43}}

In Moscow, Gorbachev resided with fellow MSU students at a dormitory in the [[Sokolniki District]].{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=50}} He  felt at odds with his urban counterparts, but soon came to fit in.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=44}} Fellow students recall his working especially hard, often late into the night.{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1p=14 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=48}} He gained a reputation as a mediator during disputes{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=53}} and was outspoken in class, but was private about his views; for instance, he confided in some students his opposition to the Soviet jurisprudential norm that a confession proved guilt, noting that confessions could have been forced.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=52}} During his studies, an [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] campaign spread through the Soviet Union, culminating in the [[Doctors' plot]]; Gorbachev publicly defended Volodya Liberman, a Jewish student accused of disloyalty.{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1p=19|2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2pp=45, 52}}

At MSU, Gorbachev became the Komsomol head of his entering class, and then Komsomol's deputy secretary for agitation and propaganda at the law school.{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1p=10|2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=19|3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3p=46}} One of his first Komsomol assignments in Moscow was to monitor the election polling in [[Presnensky District]] to ensure near-total turnout; Gorbachev found that most people voted "out of fear".{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=46}} In 1952, he was appointed a full member of the Communist Party.{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1p=19|2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=46}} He was tasked with monitoring fellow students for subversion; some of his fellow students said he did so only minimally and that they trusted him to keep confidential information secret from the authorities.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=47}} Gorbachev became close friends with [[Zdeněk Mlynář]], a [[Demographics of Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovak]] student who later became a primary ideologist of the 1968 [[Prague Spring]]. Mlynář recalled that the duo remained committed Marxist–Leninists despite their growing concerns about the [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] system.{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1pp=36–37 |2a1=Doder|2a2=Branson|2y=1990|2p=11 |3a1=McCauley|3y=1998|3p=19|4a1=Taubman|4y=2017|4pp=45, 53, 56–57}} After Stalin died in March 1953, Gorbachev and Mlynář joined the crowds massing to see Stalin's body lying in state.{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1p=20 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2pp=57–58}}

At MSU, Gorbachev met [[Raisa Gorbacheva|Raisa Titarenko]], who was studying in the university's philosophy department.{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1p=1 5 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2pp=59, 63}} She was engaged to another man, but after that engagement fell apart, she began a relationship with Gorbachev;{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=59–63}} together they went to bookstores, museums, and art exhibits.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=66}} In early 1953, he took an internship at the procurator's office in Molotovskoye district, but he was angered by the incompetence and arrogance of those working there.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=72–73}} That summer, he returned to Privolnoye to work with his father on the harvest; the money earned allowed him to pay for his wedding.{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1p=20 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=68}} On 25 September 1953 he and Raisa registered their marriage at Sokolniki Registry Office{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1p=20 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=68}} and in October moved in together at the [[Sparrow Hills|Lenin Hills]] dormitory.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|p=70}} Raisa discovered that she was pregnant and although the couple wanted to keep the child she fell ill and required an abortion.{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=70–71}}

In June 1955, Gorbachev graduated with a distinction;{{sfnm|1a1=Medvedev|1y=1986|1p=42 |2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=20}} his final paper had been on the advantages of "socialist democracy" over "bourgeois democracy" ([[liberal democracy]]).{{sfn|McCauley|1998|p=20}} He was subsequently assigned to the [[Procurator General of the Soviet Union|Soviet Procurator]]'s office, which was focusing on the rehabilitation of the innocent victims of Stalin's purges, but found that they had no work for him.{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1pp=20–21 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2pp=73–74}} He was then offered a place on an MSU graduate course specializing in kolkhoz law, but declined.{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1p=20 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=74}} He had wanted to remain in Moscow, where Raisa was enrolled in a PhD program, but instead gained employment in [[Stavropol]]; Raisa abandoned her studies to join him there.{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=1998|1pp=20–21 |2a1=Taubman|2y=2017|2p=75}}