Editing Mikhail Gorbachev (section)

== Leader of the Soviet Union (1985-1991) ==

{{Main|General Secretaryship of Mikhail Gorbachev}}

[[File:Mikhail Gorbachev 1985 Geneva Summit.jpg|thumb|upright|Gorbachev in 1985 at a summit in [[Geneva]], Switzerland]]

On 11 March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected the eighth [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] by the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo of the CPSU]] after the death of [[Konstantin Chernenko]].{{sfn|Medvedev|1986|p=22}} <!--He was the last general secretary before the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].-->

While Gorbachev wanted to preserve the Soviet Union and [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist-Leninist]] ideals, he recognised the need for significant reforms. He decided to withdraw troops from the [[Soviet–Afghan War]]{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=272–273}} and met with [[United States]] president [[Ronald Reagan]] at the [[Reykjavík Summit|Reykjavik Summit]] to discuss the limitation of [[nuclear weapon]]s production and ending the [[Cold War]]. He also proposed a three-stage programme for [[Nuclear disarmament|abolishing]] the [[List of states with nuclear weapons|world's nuclear weapons]] by the end of the 20th century.{{sfnm|1a1=Doder|1a2=Branson|1y=1990|1pp=159–162 |2a1=McCauley|2y=1998|2p=81 |3a1=Taubman|3y=2017|3p=294}}

Domestically, his policy of ''[[glasnost]]'' ("openness") allowed for the improvement of [[freedom of speech]] and [[Freedom of the press|free press]],{{sfn|Doder|Branson|1990|pp=75, 140, 142}} while his ''[[perestroika]]'' ("restructuring") sought to decentralize economic decision-making to improve its efficiency.{{sfn|McCauley|1998|pp=50, 55}} Ultimately, Gorbachev's [[Democratization (Soviet Union)|democratization]] efforts and formation of the elected [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union|Congress of People's Deputies]] undermined the supremacy the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] had in Soviet governance.<ref name=loc>{{Country study}} - [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/rutoc.html Russia] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120711211231/lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/rutoc.html |date=11 July 2012 }},<!-- DO NOT link to section itself; it is NOT a permanent link--> section ''Demokratizatsiya''. Data as of July 1996 (retrieved December 25, 2014)</ref>{{sfn|Taubman|2017|pp=431–434}} When various [[Warsaw Pact]] countries [[Revolutions of 1989|abandoned Marxist–Leninist governance in 1989]], he declined to intervene militarily. Growing [[nationalist]] sentiment within [[Republics of the Soviet Union|constituent republics]] threatened to break up the Soviet Union, leading the hardliners within the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] to launch [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|an unsuccessful coup]] against Gorbachev in August 1991.<ref name=loc/>