Mikhail Gorbachev: A Life In Pictures

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on August 30 at age 91, speaks during a news conference marking the 20th anniversary of perestroika at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., on October 21, 2005.

Gorbachev said: "The more I think about my life, the more I see that the biggest and most important events took place unexpectedly."

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931. Misha, as he was known, is seen with his grandparents at age 3.

A young Gorbachev at the age of 19, wearing the Red Banner of Labor medal he received for driving a harvest combine on the plains of southern Russia.

A portrait of Raisa Gorbacheva and Mikhail Gorbachev, who were married in September 1953. They were married for 46 years before Raisa died of leukemia in 1999.

A young Gorbachev leads a Communist Party delegation in Stavropol in 1966. It was in Stavropol that he began his career in the party that he would eventually come to lead.

Gorbachev (third from right) at a celebration in Stavropol in the 1960s of the October Revolution. The young communist rose quickly through the ranks of the party.

With his wife, Raisa, and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984.  

His first meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in Geneva in November 1985. Gorbachev had been elected general secretary of the Communist Party in March 1985.

With Cuban President Fidel Castro at the Kremlin in March 1986. It was the same year Gorbachev began his initiative of perestroika (restructuring), which he hoped would encourage "initiative and creative endeavor" and help kick-start the stagnant Soviet economy.

Gorbachev and U.S. Vice President George H.W. Bush wave to city residents in Washington, D.C., during an official visit on December 10, 1987.

Reagan and Gorbachev sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at the White House in December 1987. In 1988, further reforms arrived with Gorbachev's policy of glasnost (openness), which allowed for greater freedoms of expression for Soviet citizens. 

Gorbachev embraces East German leader Erich Honecker after arriving in East Berlin for ceremonies on October 6, 1989, marking the 40th anniversary of the founding of the German Democratic Republic. A month later, the Berlin Wall collapsed and East Germans flooded to the West.

Gorbachev shakes hands with Pope John Paul II in the first-ever meeting between a Kremlin chief and a pontiff, in the Vatican on December 1, 1989.

Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel shakes hands with Gorbachev as they exchange documents on the withdrawal of Soviet troops in Moscow on February 26, 1990.

Gorbachev and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze meet West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher in July 1990 to discuss the terms of German reunification.

Gorbachev shakes hands with onlookers during an official visit to Vilnus, Lithuania, on January 30, 1991.

Gorbachev casts his ballot in Moscow on March 17, 1991, in a referendum to decide whether the Soviet Union would remain a unified state or not.

U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Gorbachev exchange pens after signing the historic Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which cut the superpowers' nuclear arsenals by up to one-third, in Moscow on July 31, 1991.

A moment of humiliation: Following a failed coup, Gorbachev is forced by Russian President Boris Yeltsin to read out a list of alleged plotters at an extraordinary session of the Russian Supreme Soviet in Moscow on August 23, 1991.

Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan don cowboy hats while enjoying a moment at Reagan's Rancho del Cielo in California on May 2, 1992. The two men forged a relationship not only based on mutual respect but friendship that helped end the Cold War.

Gorbachev bids a last farewell to his wife, Raisa Gorbacheva, during her funeral in Moscow on September 23, 1999. They were married for 46 years.

U.S. President Bill Clinton (center) shares a laugh with Gorbachev and U2 singer Bono before a dinner at the Russian Embassy in New York on March 10, 2002.

Gorbachev speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a news conference in Schleswig, Germany, in December 2004.

Gorbachev would share criticism of Vladimir Putin, but he commended Russia's occupation and annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, reportedly saying, "I would have done the same." However, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Gorbachev's assessment of his successor reportedly took a sharp turn downward.

With German Chancellor Angela Merkel at an exhibition in Berlin on February 24, 2011, marking Gorbachev's 80th birthday.

Nobel Peace laureates (left to right) Lech Walesa, Mikhail Gorbachev, Frederik Willem de Klerk, and Jimmy Carter at a panel discussion in Chicago in April 2012.