Mikhail Gorbachev
Born March 2, 1931 in Privolnoye, Russia. In 1961 he became a delegate to the Communist Party of Congress. He was elected general secetary in 1985. He became the first president of the Soviet Union in 1990 and won the Nobel Prize for Peace the same year. He resigned in 1991 and since founded the Gorbachev Foundation and was still active in social and political causes. They remembered him from his involvement in the Young Communist League during
high school. Because Gorbachev had shown himself to be dedicated and organized, they asked him to be the assistant director of propaganda for the
territorial committee of the local Communist youth league.
Ronald Reagan was initially distrustful, but when he met with Gorbachev at the first Geneva arms summit in November 1983, Reagan was surprised to find that “there was warmth in Gorbachev’s face and style.” Reagan recognized “a moral dimension in Gorbachev.” Over the next three years, Reagan and Gorbachev met at four additional summits, during which their relationship further warmed as they collaborated on bringing the Cold War to a close.