How Gorbachev Changed the World

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Few leaders have had as profound an effect on their time as Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, who died this week at 91. It was not Mr. Gorbachev’s intention to liquidate the Soviet empire when he came to power in 1985. But after little more than six tumultuous years, he had lifted the Iron Curtain and presided over the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, ending the Cold War. Guest: Serge Schmemann, a member of The New York Times’s editorial board.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavarnese, and this is The Daily.
0:07.0	Mikhail Gorbachev set out to reform the Soviet Union, but the social and economic forces
0:19.0	he unleashed ended up destroying it.
0:22.9	I spoke to New York Times editorial board member Serge Shmemman about how Gorbachev changed
0:28.5	the world and how Russia's current leader, Vladimir Putin, is trying to change it back.
0:37.8	It's Thursday, September 1st.
0:44.1	Serge nice to see you.
0:45.6	Good to see you.
0:46.9	The last time I saw you in person, I think was in Moscow in a New York Times apartment
0:53.8	in 2000.
0:58.1	I was a recently hired New York Times freelance reporter and you were this reporter
1:06.5	extraordinaire who knew Russia so deeply and I admired so deeply and you had been covering
1:12.7	the place for years.
1:15.2	That's probably it.
1:16.2	Yeah, it's been a long time and a lot has happened back in Mother Russia since not
1:21.2	all of it good.
1:23.2	Yes.
1:24.2	So, Serge, I'm going to start with the current moment, the war in Ukraine.
1:30.1	I was in Kiev during the invasion in February and it really struck me that Putin in this
1:38.4	violent takeover was essentially trying to put the Soviet Union back together again,
1:44.6	you know, effectively undo what Gorbachev did.
1:49.9	So on Tuesday, one Gorbachev died, I thought, you know, there's a strange symmetry here.
	...

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