A well researched, well written and fairly conventional chronological biography of the life and work of Raisa og Michail Gorbachev, written five years before his death. Emphasis on explaining his success as a foreign politician (from a peace and democracy maximising perspective), while being an utter failure in his domestic policy.

Why was Gorbachev elevated to the top office of the Soviet union when secretly wanted to reform it?
— "Gorbachev made it to the top by seeming to be an ideal product of the Soviet system. Powerful figures like Andropov, Kulakov, Suslov, Kosygin, even Brezhnev (to the extent he was still compos mentis), aware of the cynicism and corruption all around them, were thrilled to discover an idealistic, energetic, educated young party leader who still sincerely believed in Communism. What Gorbachev concealed was that the Communism he believed in wasn’t the carcass of Stalinism over which they presided."


Why did the breakup between Yeltsin and Gorbachev lead to the breakup of the Soviet union?
— "By now Gorbachev hated Yeltsin. Yeltsin had tried to steal Gorbachev’s banner by presenting himself as the real champion of change. Yeltsin dared to point out Gorbachev’s shortcomings: the failure to develop a clear strategy and explain things clearly, the tendency to talk too long and to promise too much. Yeltsin reminded Gorbachev of the crude colleagues in Stavropol he despised. Moreover, Gorbachev shared some of the very failings he condemned in Yeltsin. Arrogance, vanity, pride—to the extent he was aware of these shortcomings in himself, Gorbachev tried to contain them. So when Yeltsin flaunted them all, in what Gorbachev regarded as a wild, erratic attempt to damage the great cause of perestroika, Gorbachev’s anger may have been aimed at least partly at himself."

Why was Gorbachev such an important leader?
— "...he was “the only politician in Russian history who, having full power in his hands, voluntarily opted to limit it and even risk losing it, in the name of principled moral values.”