Gorbachev was a leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1985 to 1991. He instituted a range of reforms that led to the end of the Cold War and oversaw the transition of U.S.-Soviet relations from enemies to partners in the international system. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born near Stavropol and earned a degree in law from Moscow State University in 1952. As a youth, he was an active supporter of the Communist Party, and he joined the party after college. His first significant appointment was as the first secretary of the Communist Youth League in Stavropol (1955-1958). Gorbachev went on to serve in a variety of government positions. He became a member of the Central Committee in 1971 and the Politburo in 1979. In the Politburo, he attracted the attention of Soviet leader Yuri Andropov. The premier tasked Gorbachev to help reform the senior ranks of the Soviet administration. One result was that many leadership positions were filled by appointees with ties to Gorbachev. This was especially important following the death of Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko, when Gorbachev was selected to be general secretary of the Communist Party and, consequently, premier of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev launched a series of reforms, popularly known as perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). The Soviet leader sought to improve the superpower's economy by redirecting resources from military spending to the economy. Therefore, he proposed a series of arms control measures to U.S. president Ronald W. Reagan. Gorbachev announced the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1988 and then negotiated a settlement with the United States to end military assistance to the country. He also endeavored to decrease expenditures by ending Soviet subsidies to allies such as Cuba and redeploying forces from countries in the Warsaw Pact. Gorbachev renounced the Brezhnev Doctrine, which had promised Soviet military intervention to forestall revolutions in countries of the Warsaw Pact. Consequently, the Soviet leader accepted growing independence movements in eastern and central Europe. Nationalism also emerged in the republics that comprised the Soviet Union itself. By 1989, the Soviet bloc had collapsed, and most countries in eastern and central Europe had initiated democratic transitions. Gorbachev accepted German reunification in exchange for pledges of economic assistance from German chancellor Helmut Kohl, including the inclusion of the former German Democratic Republic within the territory of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The erosion of Soviet power allowed the United States to reduce defense spending and prompted President George H. W. Bush to assert that international relations would be transformed into a "new world order," based on democracy and free trade. Gorbachev worked with Bush during the Persian Gulf War and in ongoing efforts to counter proliferation through the consolidation of the Soviet Union's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

The Soviet leader was generally popular in the West. For instance, he was named Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1988. In 1990, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. However, there were tensions with Washington over the Bush administration's support for independence movements in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova.

In March 1991, Gorbachev was elected as the first president of the Soviet Union, with a restructured government. However, his tenure was short-lived. Boris Yeltsin emerged as Gorbachev's main political opponent following the former's election as president of the Russian Federation. Yeltsin was a nationalist who advocated that the Soviet Union transition to a Russian-dominated federation. Gorbachev decided to try to reform the relationship between the republics and the central government through a new treaty of union, but before the new agreement was signed, Communist hard-liners launched a coup against Gorbachev on 19 August 1991, while the Soviet leader was on vacation in the Crimea. He was placed under house arrest, and the plotters took control of the government in Moscow. However, Yeltsin rallied the Russian people and gained the support of the army, and the Soviet coup was defeated on 21 August. During the coup, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldavia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan asserted their independence, precipitating the breakup of the Soviet Union. Ukraine also became independent after voters approved a 1 December referendum on leaving the Soviet Union. In addition, Yeltsin forbade the Communist Party from operating on Russian soil. He then met with the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus on 8 December, and the three agreed to form the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Gorbachev was forced to accept the demise of the Soviet Union on 17 December 1991. He resigned on 25 December and the Soviet Union ceased to exist on 1 January 1992. After leaving office, Gorbachev worked with a number of nonprofit organizations in Russia and the West. In 2001, he cofounded the Social Democratic Party, a coalition of several existing groupings (he resigned as party leader in 2004).

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