In 1985, after three elderly leaders died in quick succession, Gorbachev, a protégé of former Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, was appointed General Secretary and head of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev was a hero in Israel, where a potato was named for him and where he said he regretted the antisemitism that led to an exodus of Soviet Jews. (JTA) — Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet ...

Gorbachev died at the Central Clinical Hospital on August 30 MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/. Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and the last Soviet president, will be buried at Moscow’s Novo-Dyevitchiye ...