Glasnost Gorbachev Quotes

People, human beings with all their creative diversity, are the makers of history. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

I have long ago made a final and irrevocable decision. Nothing and no one, no pressure, cither from the right or from the left, will make me abandon the positions of perestroika and new thinking. I do not intend to change my views or convictions. My choice is a final one. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Both the President and Mr Gorbachev have said that they want to see a world without nuclear weapons. I cannot see a world without nuclear weapons. Let me be practical about it. The knowledge is there to make them. So do not go too hard for that pie in the sky because, while everyone would like to see it, I do not believe it is going to come about. ~ Margaret Thatcher

Strong countries and strong presidents talk to their adversaries. That's what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That's what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That's what Nixon did with Mao. I mean think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying we're going to wipe you off the planet. ~ Barack Obama

We need a new environmental consciousness on a global basis. To do this, we need to educate people. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

In principle as a philosophy, a model of organising society, Communism has to be respected. As regards the use of certain methods to advance social justice and greater regulation by the state, there are certain methods that are useful. What we need is a new society, a new civilization and convergence of all that is best in both [Communism and Capitalism] ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! ~ Ronald Reagan

Kissinger warned about the dangers of dealing with the Soviet Union precisely at the moment that Reagan was able to achieve real accomplishments with Gorbachev. In later years he would move closer to the neocons, ultimately becoming a prominent supporter of the Iraq war - another sign of Kissinger`s almost infallible ability to get it wrong. ~ Jacob Heilbrunn

America has a right to be a leader. This leadership should be realized through partnership, not domination. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

I say again that I am an atheist. I do not believe in God. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Many people who live in big countries like ours thought that we had resources that would work for us for many, many years, but that was a mistake. Our natural wealth corrupted us. In this country, you were among the first to raise environmental issues. In Russia, despite all of its problems today, people are concerned about the environment, and it's become a central issue on the agenda. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

I think we need more young people; we need to elect young people to government. We need to give them a chance, in the media, in politics, in democracy. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Those who remember Washington's cold war culture in the 1980s will recall the shocked reactions to Reagan's intervention. People interested in foreign policy were astonished when in 1985 he met alone at Geneva - alone, not a single strategic thinker at his elbow! - with the Soviet Communist master Gorbachev. ~ Russell Baker

A society should never become like a pond with stagnant water, without movement. That's the most important thing. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

History teaches us, however, that when the times are ripe for change and the government refuses or is unable to change, either society starts to decay or a revolution begins. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

One day we took each other by the hand and went for a walk in the evening. And we walked like that for our whole life. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

The citizen lives in each of us. In the days of Brezhnev, Andropov, Gorbachev and Yeltsin, I was constantly trying to suppress the responsible citizen in me. I told myself that I was, after all, an artist. ~ Vladimir Sorokin

It's Bush's baby, even if he shares its popularization with Gorbachev. Forget the Hitler 'new order' root; F.D.R. used the phrase earlier. ~ William Safire

Kami, do you have a weapon?"
"No, I do not have a fucking weapon!" Kami screamed over her shoulder. "Do you really think I'd risk going to jail for that Mexican whore?"
"Puerto Rican," Hawk muttered,rolling his eyes.
"Shut up, Gorbachev! ~ Madeline Sheehan

The new European Soviet. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

The most important thing is who counts the votes. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

If you are not moving forward, you are moving backward. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Ideological and political intolerance, even with the best and most sincere intentions, produces results that are the direct opposite of those intended. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

The problem the world faces today is that only one-third of the world's population lives in decent circumstances, while half the population of the world lives on one or two dollars a day. And even as we have this poverty and backwardness, we are facing a global environmental crisis. We need developmental models that will take into account the specific and unique position of each country and at the same time will address the environmental crisis. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Water, like religion and ideology, has the power to move millions of people. Since the very birth of human civilization, people have moved to settle close to it. People move when there is too little of it. People move when there is too much of it. People journey down it. People write, sing and dance about it. People fight over it. And all people, everywhere and every day, need it. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

In our discussions here at the forum there was no trace of the futile debate about what is better, capitalism or socialism ... We should seek a synthesis of ideas and values that have proven their viability ... ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Everything did change, faster than his fingers could type. What he had been too cautious to hope for was pulled from his dreams and made real on the television screen. At that momentous hour on December 26, 1991, as he watched the red flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - the empire "empire extending eleven times zones, from the Sea of Japan to the Baltic coast, encompassing more than a hundred ethnicities and two hundred languages; the collective whose security demanded the sacrifice of millions, whose Slavic stupidity had demanded the deportation of Khassan's entire homeland; that utopian mirage cooked up by cruel young men who gave their mustaches more care than their morality; that whole horrid system that told him what he could be and do and think and say and believe and love and desire and hate, the system captained by Lenin and Zinoviev and Stalin and Malenkov and Beria and Molotov and Khrushchev and Kosygin and Mikoyan and Podgorny and Brezhnev and Andropov and Chernenko and Gorbachev, all of whom but Gorbachev he hated with a scorn no author should have for his subject, a scorn genetically encoded in his blood, inherited from his ancestors with their black hair and dark skin - as he watched that flag slink down the Kremlin flagpole for the final time, left limp by the windless sky, as if even the weather wanted to impart on communism this final disgrace, he looped his arms around his wife and son and he held them as the state that had denied him his life ~ Anthony Marra

If you want Russia to be a real fully developed partner, then America should invest in Russia and activate Russia as a strong nation. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Democratization is not democracy; it is a slogan for the temporary liberalization handed down from an autocrat. Glasnost is not free speech; only free speech, constitutionally guaranteed, is free speech. ~ Gail Sheehy

Our rockets can find Halley's comet, and fly to Venus with amazing accuracy, but side by side with these scientific and technical triumphs is an obvious lack of efficiency in using scientific achievements for economic needs ... many Soviet household appliances are of poor quality. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

The market came with the dawn of civilization and it is not an invention of capitalism ... If it leads to improving the well-being of the people there is no contradiction with socialism. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

God has given us enough wisdom to make improvements in our relations. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

We are all passengers aboard one ship, the Earth, and we must not allow it to be wrecked. There will be no second Noah's Ark. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Samuel Marshak was one of the founders of modern Russian children's literature. Soviet children used to know his poems by heart, but only since glasnost have American editors shown any interest in issuing his poems here. ~ Michael Patrick Hearn

When [Vladimir] Putin, a former lieutenant-colonel in the KGB, became Russia's president on December 31, 1999 - eight years after the failed coup attempt against (then Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev, and eight years after the people had torn down the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the hated founder of the KGB, in Moscow - it was admittedly a shock. Nevertheless, I decided to give Putin a chance. He seemed dynamic and capable of learning. But I had to bury my hopes after just a few months. He proved to be an autocrat - and, because the West let him do as he pleased, he became a dictator. ~ Garry Kasparov

The role of Ronald Reagan had been deliberately diminished; the role of the Europeans, who, with the exception of Helmet Kohl, were often keen to undermine America when it mattered, had been sanitized; and the role of Mr. Gorbachev, who had failed spectacularly in his declared objective of saving communism and the Soviet Union, had been absurdly misunderstood. ~ Margaret Thatcher

I think the environmental problem will be the number one item on the agenda of the 21st century ... This is a problem that cannot be postponed. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Montreal, this wonderful town ... Pearl of Canada, Pearl of the world. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

The phenomenon of UFOs does exist, and it must be treated seriously. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

There should be competition and exchanges between different countries, but there are certainly certain universal values, and that is freedom and democracy. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

We are beginning to see practical support. And this is a very significant sign of the movement towards a new era, a new age ... We see both in our country and elsewhere ... ghosts of the old thinking ... When we rid ourselves of their presence, we will be better able to move toward a new world order ... relying on the relevent mechanisms of the United Nations. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the cosmos. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

I remember Secretary of State [George] Shultz one day saying that America is an economic model for the world. I replied to him that America represents 5 percent of the world's population and consumes 30 percent of the world's energy. What if everyone in the world lives like Americans? Where do we get the energy for this standard of living? ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Every part of our program of perestroika - and the program as a whole, for that matter - is fully based on the principle of more socialism and more democracy. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Gorbachev's stance contrasts admirably with the policy of the sainted Abraham Lincoln, who used massive force and mass murder to force the seceding Southern states to remain in the Union. ~ Murray Rothbard

New approaches are needed, new orientations in both thought and action. We must make the transition to a new civilization ... We are talking of a transition toward a new civilization. No one knows what it will be like. What is important is to orient in that direction ... I am convinced that a new civilization will inevitably take on certain features that are characteristic of, or inherent in, the socialist ideal. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Despite his deeply-held ideology, Reagan was willing to talk to Gorbachev. He willing to do business with him. We should realize that engaging with adversaries is often one of our great strengths. As long as we use the engagement to stand up for the things we care about, there is no harm in talking. ~ David Hoffman