Happy birthday, Mr Gorbachev

[mendeleyev]

From the Mendeleyev Journal:

It was Mikhail Gorbachev's birthday March 2nd.

Mr Gorbachev turned 80 years old and was the private guest of current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the Presidential residence in Gorki. President Medvedev announced that by executive executive order Mr Gorbachev is to be awarded the Order of St Andrew the Apostle, the highest honour in Russia.

President Medvedev presented Mr Gorbachev with a book for his 80th birthday.The President presented a book of essays, On the Immutable Laws of State Life, by Count Sergei Witte a historic figure in Russia who had served as chairman of State Council under Tsar Nicholas II.

Due to the symbolism of the award, Mr Medvedev will present the state decoration to Mr Gorbachev in the Saint George Hall of the Kremlin Grand Palace as soon as protocol dictates. Awards and Knights of the Order of St. Andrew are engraved on marble plaques which cover the walls and pillars of the Kremlin Grand Palace.

Commenting on Mr Gorbachev's tenure as leader of the Soviet Union, President Medvedev said, I think this is a fitting assessment of the immense work that you did as head of state. You led our country through a very difficult and dramatic time in its history. We all remember this, all of us who had more or less reached adulthood, anyway. This was an immense labour. People may hold differing views on its results, as you know very well, but whatever one thinks, this truly was a great and difficult labour.

Second, I see in this decoration a symbol of respect for the country that you headed, and that was our common home: the Soviet Union.

More photos of the story can be seen at the Mendeleyev Journal.

(photo: Presidential Press Service / The Mendeleyev Journal)

[Vaughn]

If there's one RWD member here who has filled me and fulfilled me culturally, it's you,
Mendeleyev. And I thank you deeply for that.

and Happy Belated Birthday to Mikhail ~ I recall when he was in power I couldn't seem
to get my eyes and ears away from all the news. For someone like me who longed for
The Curtain to fall, those were exciting years.

[Blues Fairy]

Gorby takes an awful lot of credit for things he wasn't really responsible for, like the breakdown of communism; he just went with the flow and was mostly taken by complete surprise by the events happening in the country. 

[Vaughn]

... he just went with the flow...

I give him more credit than that. Other leaders may have been inclined to attempt to suppress
the inevitable. I shudder to think what may have happened in the streets had Yuri Andropov
still been around. Glasnost' would have been unthinkable.

[BillyB]

Gorby takes an awful lot of credit for things he wasn't really responsible for, like the breakdown of communism; he just went with the flow and was mostly taken by complete surprise by the events happening in the country. 

He was taken by surprise? I'm surprised! What happened to Gorbachev and Communism? I just Googled a map. Where did the USSR go?

[erudite]

Gorby takes an awful lot of credit for things he wasn't really responsible for, like the breakdown of communism; he just went with the flow and was mostly taken by complete surprise by the events happening in the country. 

That makes him a true politician. Taking credit from everything good and laying blame for everything bad. I still think he is a great man and a great Russian

[Blues Fairy]

I give him more credit than that. Other leaders may have been inclined to attempt to suppress the inevitable. I shudder to think what may have happened in the streets had Yuri Andropov still been around. Glasnost' would have been unthinkable.

You give the man credit for not being a bloody dictator suppressing the inevitable?   

And the Nobel peace prize for not pushing the nuclear button?  That beats even BO's "deserved" Nobel.

[mendeleyev]

Thank you for your kind comments, Vaughn. I can only humbly admit that Mr Gorbachev played a key part of history and remarkably, doesn't toot his own horn that often. As the years have progressed he has slowly and steadily emerged from the clouds over his final years at the helm into the role of an experienced and respected statesman.

His time, his role, and his position at the time of the breakup of the CCCP will always leave room for questions and discontent by many of his contemporaries. His enduring friendship with Ronald Reagan, who had uncommonly accurate instincts about the character of others, was testimony to the kind of person that he is. That President Medvedev would invite him to Gorki on his birthday and announce the pending award of the Order of Saint Andrew represents a shift in how Mr Gorbachev is viewed across Russia today.

It also signals a further widening in the paths of President Medvedev and PM Vladimir Putin. Although Mr Gorbachev was gracious to Mr Putin at his inauguration as Russia's 2nd president and was on hand to wish him well among those dignitaries gathered at the Kremlin's Grand Palace for that event some years ago, Mr Putin and Mr Gorbachev have never been close and each has at times spoken out against each other. Most certainly President Medvedev went "independent" in a very public way on this birthday invitation and award.

[Muzh]

I read this on the NYTimes a couple of days ago and found it to be a good perspective.

How to Lose a Country Gracefully

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/magazine/06lede-t.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=gorbachev%20de%20klerk%20lose%20a%20country%20with%20grace&st=cse