The Rise and Fall of Mikhail Gorbachev
Tom Stoddart / Getty Images
Fresh Face
The first Soviet leader to be born after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Mikhail Gorbachev arose from a humble peasant background in the Stavropol region. After attending law school, he became very active within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, rising to a position in its Politburo in 1979, when he was 48 years old.
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