Answers: Mikhail Gorbachev and his Legacy
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader and the first and only President of the Soviet Union died in August at the age of 91. He lasted only six years in power from 1985 to 1991 but pushed the USSR towards change at a dizzying pace, armed with the buzzwords ‘perestroika’ (restructuring) and ‘glasnost’ (openness). The Berlin Wall crumbled, Germany was reunited, Eastern Europe abandoned Communism, Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan and the Cold War came to an end. A series of nuclear and other arms control agreements including the INF treaty in 1987 and START I in 1991 were signed with the U.S., with contemporary implications.
While mostly hailed in the West and honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, Gorbachev is widely blamed in Russia for the breakup of the Soviet Union and the ensuing economic chaos. His reforms unleashed forces that slipped out of his control, devouring him politically. He secured less than one percent of the vote in his sole electoral bid for the Russian presidency in the post-Soviet era in 1996. Under President Putin most of Gorbachev's reforms have been rolled back. There was no state funeral and Putin was conspicuous by his absence.
Answers
1) Before perestroika and glasnost, the first reform measure launched by Gorbachev in May 1985 just two months into office was a crackdown on a particular product. The minimum age was raised, limits were imposed on how much and when it could be bought. It was also banned at the workplace. The crackdown was abandoned in 1988 amid public anger and revenue losses. What was this measure all about?
Reducing alcohol consumption. More here, here, here, here and here.
2) What happened in the early morning hours of April 26, 1986 about 130 kilometers north of Kyiv, and about 20 km south of the border with Belarus?
Chernobyl nuclear disaster. More here and here. More on Gorbachev’s response here and here.
3) He was a KGB agent in East Germany and had to return after the fall of the Berlin Wall. His former university professor who had become mayor of St. Petersburg appointed him to head the city's External Relations Committee in June 1991. Who?
Vladimir Putin. More here and here.
4) He was the Communist Party chief for the Sverdlovsk region near the Ural Mountains and was brought to Moscow by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. Soon he was named party chief for Moscow and became known as an enthusiastic supporter of perestroika and glasnost. But at a closed party meeting in October 1987, he criticised Gorbachev arguing that reforms were proceeding too slowly. Juts three weeks later he was removed as the Moscow party chief. Who?
Boris Yeltsin. More here and here.
5) This regional party chief was a surprise appointment as Foreign Minister in 1985. He was a crucial Gorbachev ally, navigating improved relations with the West and the military withdrawal from Afghanistan. He resigned in December 1990, warning Gorbachev that hardliners were gaining influence. He did return as Foreign Minister in November 1991 but it was too late for the Soviet Union. He became president of his newly-independent country only to be toppled by mass protests in 2003. Who and which country?
Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgia. More here, here, here and here.
6) The person in the previous question replaced a veteran who had helped shape Soviet diplomatic strategy for decades as Foreign Minister. He was the decisive voice in the Politburo behind Gorbachev’s selection as leader in 1985. He proposed Gorbachev’s name, crediting his younger colleague for having “iron teeth”. After being replaced as foreign minister, he was made head of state, a ceremonial position. Who?
Andrei Gromyko. More here, here and here.
7) He and his wife had been forced to live in internal exile in Gorky, a city closed to foreigners. In December 1986 Gorbachev allowed him to return to Moscow and political life. In 1989, he was elected to the new Congress of People’s Deputies (for the first time, some members were directly elected). He pushed for radical constitutional reform and an angry Gorbachev turned off his microphone during his speech. He died a few days later in December 1989. Who? (Hint: Nobel laureate)
Andrei Sakharov. Soviet nuclear physicist who turned into a peace activist and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. More here, here, here and here.
The European Parliament established the Sakharov Prize in 1988 to honour individuals or groups who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. The award went to the people of Ukraine this year. You can read the answers to my earlier quiz on Ukraine here.
8) This Russia-born author wrote in both Russian and English. He lived in Germany and France after the 1917 October Revolution before emigrating to the U.S. in 1940. It was only in 1986 that a work of his was openly published in the land of his birth. Chess magazine ‘64’ included an excerpt from his autobiography that dealt with his passion for composing chess problems. Name the author.
Vladimir Nabokov. More here and here. More about the intersection of chess and geopolitics in my quiz here.
9)) While Lithuania was the first of the Soviet Republics to declare its independence from the Soviet Union in March 1990, an Autonomous Republic preceded it by two months. Name the region and the country it is now part of.
Nakhchivan, an Autonomous Republic that’s part of Azerbaijan, but surrounded by Armenia, Turkey and Iran.
Nakhchivan had a minority Armenian population and Armenian and Azeri forces fought for control after the First World War. The Soviet Union attached it to Azerbaijan and this was cemented by the Treaty of Kars in 1921 which defined the border between the USSR and Turkey. That treaty also granted Turkey the status of guarantor of Nakhchivan’s territorial integrity.
10) He rose from KGB general to Communist Party boss of a Soviet Republic and made it to the Politburo. But he was removed from the Politburo and lost his regional party chief spot as Gorbachev took aim at the old guard under perestroika. He reinvented himself as a nationalist and returned to the limelight in his home turf, the Autonomous Republic in the previous question. He led that exclave from 1991 to 1993, making it effectively independent from the country it was now part of. Following a spell of political instability and conflict, he took power in the main capital in 1993. Who?
Heydar Aliyev, a native of Nakhchivan, who was President of Azerbaijan from 1993 to 2003. His son Ilham Aliyev is currently in power. More here.
11) A civil lawsuit was filed against Gorbachev in this country in March 2022 by relatives of victims of a Soviet crackdown in January 1991 (the suit was withdrawn after Gorbachev’s death). Gorbachev had declined to testify. Dozens of former Soviet officials and military figures including the then defence minister have been convicted in absentia of war crimes. Which country?
Lithuania. More here and here. Under Gorbachev’s watch, Soviet forces also cracked down heavily on protests in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. More here.
12) What notorious act was acknowledged and condemned by Alexander Yakovlev, a Politburo member and Gorbachev confidant in remarks published by party mouthpiece Pravda on August 19, 1989? This was just days before the 50th anniversary of this step.
The 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (Nazi-Soviet non-aggression agreement) that effectively divided Eastern Europe between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, then seized by the Nazis and again taken over by the Soviets after the Nazi retreat. A week after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 starting the Second World War. More on the official Soviet acknowledgement in 1989 here and here.
August 23, 1989, the 50th anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact saw the formation of a human chain involving about two million people that stretched from Estonia’s capital Tallinn to Lithuania’s capital Vilnius (via Latvia’s capital Riga) covering about 600 km. The protesters demanded independence from the Soviet Union. On March 11, 1990 Lithuania became the first Soviet Republic to declare its independence from the USSR.
13) Alexander Yakovlev in October 1991 read out a statement unprecedented for a Soviet leader. Mikhail Gorbachev admitted that Soviet Jews had been widely persecuted and discriminated against and regretted the huge exodus of Jews. Yakovlev was representing Gorbachev at commemorations of a notorious massacre 50 years earlier. Where?
Babyn Yar in Ukraine, the site of one of the worst Nazi massacres of the Second World War. More here, here and here
More about Alexander Yakovlev, a key intellectual force behind Gorbachev’s reforms here, here, here and here.
14) In May 1987 how did Mathias Rust, a West German teenager, embarrass the Kremlin and the Soviet military?
Mathias Rust evaded Soviet air defences to land a plane in Red Square just outside the Kremlin. More here and here.
15) What was announced by Soviet Vice-President Gennady Yanayev at a televised news conference in Moscow in August 1991? The event was notable for his trembling hands.
The brief coup by Communist hardliners while Gorbachev was vacationing in Crimea. More here, here and here. More about Gennady Yanayev, who was pardoned later here and here.
General Sergey Surovikin, who was appointed commander of Russia’s war effort in Ukraine this month first made headlines during the 1991 coup, when three protesters were killed by soldiers under his command. He was jailed for six months only to be released without trial. More here, here and here.
16) Mikhail Gorbachev appeared in a television advertisement for which product in 1998 to raise money for his foundation?
Pizza Hut. More here and here. More about Gorbachev’s Louis Vuitton ad in 2007 here, here and here.
17) In 1993, this new entity bought its first computers with funds from Gorbachev, who provided it part of his Nobel peace prize money. It was forced to suspend operations in March this year, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Which entity? (Hint: it has a Nobel prize connection separate from Gorbachev)
Novaya Gazeta newspaper. Its editor Dmitry Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 along with Maria Ressa of the Philippines. In September, a court in Moscow revoked Novaya Gazeta’s licence to publish inside Russia. Muratov has been critical of Russia’s war on Ukraine. More here.
18) ) This Western rock band held ten hugely successful concerts in Leningrad in 1988. The next year it was among the hard rock groups that performed at the Moscow Music Peace Festival, the first time heavy metal acts made it to the Soviet Union. This trip inspired the rock band to come up with its most iconic song. The band members met Gorbachev at the Kremlin during the final days of the Soviet Union. Later they performed at a concert in London celebrating Gorbachev’s 80th birthday. Name the band and the song