MIKHAIL GORBACHEV, DEAD AT 91

Mikhail Gorbachev, whose attempt to modernize communist control of the Soviet Union unleashed forces that brought down the superpower, has died, Russian news agencies reported Tuesday.

The Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow said Gorbachev died after "a long and grave illness.'' He was 91.

Leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until its dissolution in 1991, Gorbachev tried to revive the moribund communist state by introducing polices of economic and political openness, known as perestroika and glasnost.

But the reforms quickly overtook him and resulted in the collapse of the authoritarian Soviet state, the freeing of Eastern European nations from Russian control and the end of decades of East-West nuclear confrontation, stopping the Cold War.

Even though Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War, he was widely despised at home as Russians blamed him for the collapse of the once-fearsome Soviet Union.

SAUCE: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mikhail-gorbachev-former-soviet-leader-who-paved-way-for-end-of-cold-war-dead-at-91/ar-AA11iaLL