Photo/Illutration Mikhail Gorbachev lays paper cranes before the Children’s Peace Monument at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in April 1992. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Mikhail Gorbachev groused in a letter to his girlfriend living far away while he worked as a young intern at a regional procurator’s office.

The fabulousness of her letters made him all the more sensitive to the unpleasantness around him, according to his book “Memoirs.”

He complained that local Communist Party bosses were sticklers for formalities, acted according to the superior-subordinate system, ensured all decisions were made in advance and behaved with bureaucratic impudence and arrogance.

His doubts must have already been budding about the nature of the Communist Party.

About three decades later, Gorbachev became the supreme leader of the Soviet Union.

He championed perestroika (restructuring) to free the economy from bureaucracy. He also embraced glasnost (openness) to expand freedom of speech and the press.

When the socialist system began to disintegrate, Gorbachev deliberately did not try to stop Eastern European countries from throwing off the Soviet yoke.

His policy of allowing each country to go its own way was dubbed the “Sinatra Doctrine,” an allusion to “My Way,” a song popularized by iconic U.S. entertainer Frank Sinatra.

Gorbachev died on Aug. 30. He was 91.

News of his death felt ironic as Russian President Vladimir Putin is right in the middle of invading Ukraine, as if to recover the mentality of being a superpower, which was lost in the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Freedom of speech has been stifled in Russia.

In retrospect, Gorbachev was a leader whose words sometimes even came across as youthfully idealistic.

He preached international cooperation, likening the peoples of the nations around the world to mountain climbers joined by a single rope.

This is just the spirit the world needs now.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 1

* * *

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

Related News