Talk:Mikhail Gorbachev

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Review: January 7, 2020. (Reviewed version).

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Date	Process	Result
October 13, 2006	Good article nominee	Not listed

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Section sizes

Section size for Mikhail Gorbachev (45 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	13,454	13,454
Early life and education	32	12,408
1931–1950: childhood	6,258	6,258
1950–1955: university	6,118	6,118
Early CPSU career	24	12,291
1955–1969: Stavropol Komsomol	7,197	7,197
1970–1977: heading the Stavropol region	5,070	5,070
Secretary of the Central Committee of CPSU	8,087	8,087
Leader of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)	2,078	48,156
1985–1986: early years	2,641	21,716
Domestic policies	12,676	12,676
Foreign policy	6,399	6,399
1987–1989: further reforms	111	24,362
Domestic reforms	5,834	5,834
Forming the Congress of People's Deputies	3,995	3,995
Relations with China and Western states	7,182	7,182
Nationality question and the Eastern Bloc	7,240	7,240
Unraveling of the USSR	1,519	29,474
1990–1991: presidency of the Soviet Union	4,037	19,502
German reunification and the Gulf War	6,792	6,792
August coup and government crises	8,673	8,673
Final days and collapse	8,453	8,453
Post-USSR life	22	37,511
1991–1999: initial years	7,935	9,471
1996 presidential campaign	1,536	1,536
1999–2008: promoting social democracy in Putin's Russia	6,059	6,059
2008–2022: growing criticism of Putin and foreign policy remarks	21,959	21,959
Political ideology	6,949	6,949
Personal life	3,819	7,742
Personality	3,923	3,923
Death	2,367	19,321
Preceding deterioration of health	6,975	6,975
Funeral and burial	1,714	1,714
Reactions	8,265	8,265
Reception and legacy	7,901	7,901
Awards and honors	5,696	5,696
Bibliography	544	544
In popular culture	2,722	2,722
See also	135	135
Explanatory notes	37	37
References	17	2,621
Citations	34	34
Sources	2,570	2,570
Further reading	2,610	2,610
External links	5,752	5,752
Total	223,411	223,411

Archives

Archive 1

Archive 2

Youngest Secretary of the Central Committee

The article formerly stated that Gorbachev was the youngest man to hold the position of Secretary of the Central Committee and cited p163 of Taubman's biography. I'm unsure whether this accurately reflects what the source says, but regardless it is plainly incorrect; Vyacheslav Molotov was 32 when he held the job after the secretariat was reformed in 1922 and several Stalin-era Secretaries were in their late 30s. --RaiderAspect (talk) 13:00, 4 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Why would someone address everything in past tense in this section: Personal life? The man is still alive so describing attributes of him as if he was not is just stupid.

In the sentence..

He was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Sevastopol Regional Committee in 1970, in which position he oversaw construction of the Great Stavropol Canal.

"Sevastopol Regional Committee" seems to be incorrect. Should it be "Stavropol Regional Committee"? __Chaduvari (talk) 05:52, 3 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Variety of English consistency

The article currently has a mix of American and British/Commonwealth English spelling. According to MOS:ARTCON, it should be consistent one way or another. Since MOS:TIES doesn't seem to apply, according to MOS:RETAIN we use the variety found in the first post-stub revision that introduced an identifiable variety, unless there is a consensus to do otherwise. It appears that American English was established by at least 2002, see: Special:Diff/398181 (traveled, democratization). Unless there is a reason to use something else, I will run the WP:EngvarB script to make that the consistent variety throughout the article. --IamNotU (talk) 00:28, 15 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There are way too many semicolons in this article. The semicolon should be used rarely, not every time one writes two adjoining sentences that relate to each other. NoNonsenseHumJock (talk) 16:33, 2 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Update Works Section please

2019 Meeting Gorbachev https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Meeting_Gorbachev?id=5jN_A_ADCG0.P

Please unblock Gedium account. I do not wish to be a sock puppet! Your admins are idiots and do not follow procedure or protocol as stated by other admins.

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion:

RIAN archive 852682 XXVII Congress of the CPSU.jpg

You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 08:54, 20 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

General Secretary of the CPSU

On 10 March 1985, Chernenko died.[153] Gromyko proposed Gorbachev as the next General Secretary; as a longstanding party member, Gromyko's recommendation carried great weight among the Central Committee.[154] Gorbachev expected much opposition to his nomination as General Secretary, but ultimately the rest of the Politburo supported him.[155] Shortly after Chernenko's death, the Politburo unanimously elected Gorbachev as his successor; they wanted him over another elderly leader.[156]

Reading the book "Why Gorbachev Happened" by Robert Kaiser, a leading U.S expert on the Soviet Union (aka a Kremlinologist.)

There are a couple parts here this book disputes.

It is true that Gorbachev nomination ultimately was by acclimation, but that was De Jure as by this time, all additions to the Politburo and all nominations to General Secretary were officially by acclamation. De Facto, Gorbachev was opposed by Viktor Grishin. It seems to have been a very close vote in the Politburo with Gorbachev making sure at least one and possibly two of Grishin's supporters were away and unable to attend the vote (Vladimir Shcherbitsky and possibly Dinmukhamed Kunayev.) It also wasn't so much of older versus younger as opposed to reformers (Andropov's people on the Politburo) vs status quo (Brezhnev's people.)

In the end however, it was De Jure acclimation with Grishin officially nominating Gorbachev for the post. (Pages 80-82.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.6.140.177 (talk) 06:34, 23 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

To be sure, it is true that those who supported Gorbachev didn't realize the extent of the reforms Gorbachev ultimately pursued or how they would end up destroying the Soviet Communist Party. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.6.140.177 (talk) 06:39, 23 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]