The Latest Breaking News from Ronald Reagan

The lifelong communist took the reins at a tense time in the Cold War but eventually presided over the demise of the Soviet Union.

Few world leaders have cut a more consequential but ultimately tragic figure than Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, whose death at the age of 91 has been announced by Russian state media.

The former president of the Soviet Union has died, aged 91. As was the case throughout his life, his legacy leaves many divided.

Before Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union seemed an immovable superpower in perpetual antagonism to the United States

MOSCOW (AFP) - Mikhail Gorbachev changed the course of modern history by triggering the demise of the USSR and allowing Eastern Europe to free itself from Soviet rule, earning him accolades in the West but the scorn of many Russians.

In power less than seven years, Gorbachev unleashed breathtaking changes that overtook him and resulted in the collapse of the authoritarian Soviet state, the freeing of Eastern European nations from Russian domination and the end of decades of East-West nuclear confrontation.

‘An epoch in world history came to an end directly as a result of his actions’

Here is a timeline of some key events over the nearly seven years that Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at age 91, held power in the Soviet Union.

Lauded in the West as the man who helped bring down the Berlin Wall and end the Cold War without bloodshed, Mikhail Gorbachev was widely despised at home as the gravedigger of the communist Soviet Union.