When East Germans defied Soviet domination with the Leipzig march in 1989, they were chanting an unlikely slogan. “Gorbi, Gorbi!” they shouted in a celebratory tone, referring to then-Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev.
The brave demonstrators were hungry for democracy and freedom. Yet they chose to voice their ideals using the name of the very person leading the Soviet Union. Even more profoundly, East Germans’ fervent wishes could be aptly conveyed with two other words — perestroika (reform) and glasnost (openness). These were Gorbachev’s two iconic political reform projects. The former leader died recently at the age of 91.
Throughout his tenure as the only president of the Soviet Union, the personable Gorbachev enabled a generation of young people across the globe to dare to aspire to a different world. He set an example that a more democratic social condition, despite entrenched institutional obstacles, was achievable. Gorbachev’s use of the power of possibility to set people free, physically and intellectually, should be his most enduring legacy.
