Looking at how Mikhail Gorbachevs policies changed the Soviet Union would you consider him a patriot or in a sense a subversive Explain your answer?

Answer 1

I'll do my best : Gorbachev comes across, in retrospect, as a realist. He did what he did, as he saw it for the benefit of Russia. I don't think he gave up the Soviet control of eastern Europe for the benefit of thre peoples therein, I think he did this because he saw that that was in the interests of Russia. Maintaining forces in the occupied states was a luxury Russia could no longer afford. If Russia was to free its post war image of the USSR as a totalitarian state then something had to give. No, I don't see him as subversive, it is difficult to separate what he did from the subsequent Yeltsyn regime, but it was Gorbachev who broke the mould. If you look now at the state that Putin has dominated over recent years it is obviously different from what Gorbachev inherited. As I say relinquishing powers the Soviets had in eastern Europe was a good thing from the point of view of the Poles, Czechs, Germans & so on, but I am sure it was not done for their benefit, it was done, as Gorbachev saw it, for the benefit of Russia. Therefore Patriot it is from me.