Mikhail Gorbachev was born in 1931 in what was then the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union. He graduated from the law school of the Moscow State University in 1955. In 1961, Gorbachev pursued a second degree in agricultural production which he received from the Stavropol Agricultural Institute in 1967.
Gorbachev was appointed a full member of the Communist Party in 1952. He held various posts in the Young Communist League in Stavropol, rising to become first secretary of the regional party committee in 1970. He was named a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1971, and appointed a party secretary of agriculture in 1978. He became a candidate member of the Politburo in 1979, a full member in 1980 and then general secretary of the CPSU in 1985.
Starting in 1987, Gorbachev initiated reforms of the Soviet economic and political system under his new policy of glasnost (鈥渙penness鈥�) and perestroika ("restructuring"). In 1987 he signed an agreement with U.S. President Ronald Reagan for their two countries to destroy all existing stocks of intermediate-range nuclear-tipped missiles. In 1988, he oversaw the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan after their nine-year occupation of that country.
In May 1989, Gorbachev was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet and thereby retained the national presidency. In 1990, he agreed to the reunification of East with West Germany. That year the Congress of People鈥檚 Deputies elected him to the newly created post of president of the U.S.S.R., with extensive executive powers.
In 1990, Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. As the Prize committee stated: "During the last few years, dramatic changes have taken place in the relationship between East and West. Confrontation has been replaced by negotiations. Old European nation states have regained their freedom. The arms race is slowing down and we see a definite and active process in the direction of arms control and disarmament." The following year he resigned from the presidency of the Soviet Union, which ceased to exist that same year. In 1996, Gorbachev ran for president of Russia but garnered less than 1 percent of the vote.
Gorbachev delivered the Beatty Lecture on March 23, 1993, titled 鈥淭he New World Order鈥�. His lecture took the form of a roundtable discussion with former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, and 平特五不中 professors Charles Taylor, Reuven Brenner and Valentin Boss. The event took place in a private room on campus, but was broadcast live to listeners and the media seated in two of 平特五不中's largest lecture halls, with both French and English translation provided.
Click here to watch the translation and click here to watch the original version, both on YouTube.
Gorbachev prepares to deliver his lecture.
Gorbachev attends a press conference prior to his lecture.
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